Friday, August 20, 2010

A day full of victories

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth (or thankfully the top of
one of the presidentials). I have, however, spent the last two days at
the Lakes of the Clouds hut, one mile from the summit of Mount
Washington, very sick. Thankfully I can report now, from the other
side of Mount Washington, that I have made a nearly miraculous
recovery and hiked out this morning on one of the most beautiful days
I think that mountain ever sees.
The day before yesterday, I was getting weaker, and slower, and more
ill by the minute. By the time I made it to the hut, I had a stomach
ache, nausea, and a fever. I reluctantly went to the "dungeon" to
sleep. This is an emergency storage shed under the building that looks
like it hosts more mice than people. Creepy as it was, it was the only
option at that moment in time and I slept down there for 12 hours.
When I woke up yesterday morning, I could not see more than ten feet
in front of me let alone any mountain peaks. And, I still felt sick.
Very sick. So we each donated 91 bucks to the AMC and bought bunks as
a guests. (Safari was kind enough to stay the night as well...thank
you Safari!). I went right back to sleep and slept all day long. I am
so grateful to feel well enough to hike up and over not only
Washington, but Madison, and all their friends today. Being sick for a
couple of days has made me very appreciative of the days when I feel
well.

On a brighter note, the hike today will be one I will remember
forever. It was above treeline and it was so crystal clear you could
see for miles. The scenery was truely stunning. It was one of the more
challenging days, complete with a hard fall.

We are camped at a tentsite about 4 miles from Gorham, New Hampshire.
It has platforms that you are supposed to set up your tents on. Well
whoever designed these square sets of wooden planks clearly was not
thinking about non-freestanding tents. It took us, let's just say, a
really long time to figure out how to get our tents up...and not
without much cursing and frustration and a lot of extra rope. It was
dark when we ate dinner. What a day. It certainly was a day full of
victories.

No comments:

Post a Comment