**Facebook Post 091817 at 2:22PM**
(091717) Stepping Wolf, Fox and me, all southbounders, stayed the night at the Hikers Welcome Hostel. That was pretty much it, just us three. Sort of unusual for it to be so lonesome at a hostel, but the fact we were all southbounders was pretty weird all on its own. I don’t meet too many southbounders in general, especially lately, but both the northbound and southbound bubbles have past, and with each new day, all the thru-hikers seem farther and fewer. In fact, today I only saw two northbounders all day, and my two southbound cohorts started out of the hostel behind me, so I have no idea what happened to them, or even if they left the hostel. Who knows?
I did meet the Trail Magic Omelette Man today though. The guy has a full tarp setup right on trail. I actually was so in the zone, even though one of the two northbounders I saw had warned me I was closing in on his location, I completely forgot and almost ran right into the whole shebang head on.
He offered me candy, cookies, drinks, a host of goodies, but all I really wanted was some juice. He also offered me his special, an omelette, but seriously I was way overloaded with resupply already. I need to be eating more of my own food, not someone else’s. Even still, he convinced me to take a couple bananas and a no bake fudge cookie…God help me.
Today I spent most of my day strategically eating once an hour, in an attempt to lighten the load. By over-resupplying in North Woodstock/Lincoln and then also having a bounce box waiting for me in Glencliff, I managed to bog myself down with so much food I could feel it i my knees today while hiking.
Before I left Hikers Welcome, Stepping Wolf offered to weigh my pack. I really didn’t want to know. I could feel the weight when I put the pack on. I knew I was way overloaded. When I started out, I was carrying under 10 pounds of food. First weigh in was 8 pounds, 11 ounces. My base weight should be somewhere around 10-11. I’m guessing at this number, because I added a couple items of gear to deal with the cold weather, and I also added a new headlamp which had more power than the one I was previously using. When Stepping Wolf weighed my total pack weight today I came in at 30 pounds. That’s about 10 pounds more than I have been carrying. I’ll tell you what. I won’t do that again. It made for a really hard day of hiking with lower than anticipated miles. It felt like even though I was stopping to eat constantly, every hour on the nose actually, even with hiker hunger, I couldn’t eat enough nor did I really want to. The weight never was relieved. My pack is huge. I’m at max capacity for sure. In fact, I’m guessing I could stay out in these woods for two weeks and never resupply. I, of course, say that now. Food goes quick believe it or not. I’m just bitching ‘cuz it’s heavy.
I know better though. I just keep making dumb ass mistakes. The last few times I was coming in for resupply were perfect. I literally was on the last of what I had, and it was all perfectly timed. Although, I’m not going to lie, I always get a bit freaked when I’m that low coming in for resupply, since usually that means at least one day of rationing and pretty much no snacking in between meals. Not fun. You can get pretty drained exerting that much energy and not taking in enough sustenance.
I feel like there is this sweet spot to every decision I have to make out here. When do I resupply? How much do I buy and carry? When do I want to stop next? Will they have all the necessary things I need? Sometimes I’m right on the money, but then I go ahead and think because I feel great now, I can over do it, or underdo it. It’s insane the planning, or guessing rather. At least with me, I think I know what I have to do, but if I did, and I was that good, I wouldn’t be making dumb ass mistakes and carrying 10 pounds more food than I need. When does all the experience come in? When do I finally know what to do without having these hiccups????? Ugh. Is anyone ever really an expert?
11:25AM Start Day 33 (091817)
•11:25AM (Estimate) Lyme-Dorchester Road (Mile 422.6)
•4:00PM (Estimate) Goose Pond Road (Mile 428.2)
•6:30PM Moose Mountain Shelter
(Mile 431.2) sleep (main headlamp batteries have been out, forgot to get new ones at last resupply)
•6:30AM Wake, pack up
•8:00AM on trail
•11:25AM (Estimate) Hanover, NH
(Mile 442.1)
11:25AM End Of Day 33
APPROX 19.5 Miles
