"Recovery time 120 Hours"

I woke up just before the sun.  Today I’m having a large calorie dense breakfast, because I suspect I will be grinding myself down to nothing.  I set up the kitchen and cubed my potato, then got it into the cast iron. I then started some water heating for my fresh ground pacific pipeline.  There's another photographer who is far more famous and far skinnier than I am that swears by the stuff, and you know, I may be swearing by it too.  It really gives you a kick in the pants, without being too acidic.  I was going to try making this cowboy style, but it is a bit too messy, so I packed up the old myleta (sp) one cup filter that was over at the cabin.  It works wonderfully, you just have to be careful not to pour too much water in at once, keep it on the grounds and not touching the paper.  It takes a while, but the result is pretty amazing.  I have a double walled vacuum mug my dad bought me once Christmas,  I think it was supposed to be a beer stein, but it works for everything pretty well, and keeps the heat for lots longer.  It is hellish hot if you drink immediately.  Best to let it sit, which is perfect while I finish the other components of breakfast.  Since my second burner was free, I put the old 4" cast iron pan that I somehow thought was a good idea, it isn't seasoned well, and it is so thin it is difficult to manage.  However, it seems perfect sized to brown a piece of Lou's peameal bacon - this time I got one of their other products, the smoked back bacon.  It doesn't have much fat, so about a pinkie sized bit of butter is in there as well.  I tried to put a second piece in there, but it didn’t work that well.  I babysat those for about 15 minutes while gingerly sipping my coffee, testing the potatoes from time to time to check for doneness.  Once they were done, I unloaded both pans into the lid of my pot set, which serves as a bowl, and placed them at the back of the stove to keep warm.  The bacon stuck badly to the little pan so I’ll need to go back and scrape it after.  Unfortunately, this will wreck most of the already wrecked seasoning.  We'll hopefully fix that this trip as well, but it might need a trip back to the sander.  In my bigger pan, which is still only 10" I cracked two eggs and fried them up.  They slide around like they have the leidenfrost effect; perfect.  I broke one of the yolks though.  Over-easy it is.  Once done that goes on top of the other two, and I sit down to eat.  Complimented with a juice box, some Metamucil, and a preparatory scoop of LBCAA powder, that is breakfast.  I also made sure to pre-pack myself with plenty of water, since today doesn't look like it is going to be cold and rainy like the evil AI voice on the weather radio said last night. Seems I’ve been too coddled, being able to use windy.com and some other sites to basically flub my own forecasts for the next day which generally contradict whatever the talking heads say.. the truth usually ends up being somewhere in the middle.  I decided to err on the side of 'I can take it off if it gets too hot' and wore my merino wool t-shirt and light hoodie, with my raincoat stuffed in my camera bag.  I then put in a couple oranges, some cheese sticks, and 4 trail bars.  I fixed one liter of fresh water to my backpack's horizontal rear carrying straps like a bedroll, and then another thinner one liter container in the side pocket - this one has electrolyte mix intended for dealing with heat stroke, I run it a lower concentration for just dealing with 'oh god, my sweat stopped' or 'oh man, I’m getting kind of dizzy'  the second one is pretty scary when you're about to cross a god damned evil suspension bridge, oh and on high rocks too.  After cleaning up the kitchen and putting things away (I found out that the propane hose actually DOES NOT disobey the main valve; it is just that the Coleman stove will quite literally run for about 6 minutes with the contents of the hose.  Talk about efficiency.) I decided to drive up to the front gate and return the 'temporary' laminated thing they gave me by sliding it under the door.  Once done, I just parked at the visitor center, which is basically the trail head for most of the trails (it appears to closed at this time in the season, it is also where the famed 'Wi-Fi' comes from, as I found out on the map - there is no Wi-Fi while it is closed, I scanned for signals, believe me.  I will have to go back during '11am-4pm' which is the park operating hours and see if it is open, because I believe after today's stupidity, they owe me a free badge.)  And you might ask, why not just walk there?  It is only about 500 meters away from your campsite.  and to you I say 'bah humbug' you have no idea how disheartening it is to have to walk 500 more meters after you've already trekked 16.9 kilometers over 8.5 hours up and down rocky hills, scrambling under fallen trees, slipping and falling on your ass.)

Once I parked, I unloaded and checked my gear.  Set up my smart watch heart monitor belt - the battery was dead, replaced then set up my backup-gps - the database was corrupt, the memory card had gotten loose, which is behind the battery compartment. and I dropped one battery that rolled under my car, so I had to fish it out on my hands and knees but it working after all that.  Did I mention, I'm wondering if my camp site is haunted? and that thing is following me? and that maybe is why the last people left early?  I found my sleeping pants - that I wore last night waaay on the far side of my camp site after I locked up my trailer to go to the comfort station and brush my teeth this morning... I hadn't been over there at all today.  I took them off before leaving the trailer.. W.T.F?  I digress.  Once everything was set, I locked the car, shouldered the 30 odd lbs. of backpack and gear.. and headed off down the trail.  I spent time lolly-gagging at the beginning of the trail, since there were so many informational posters about operations in the park.  For instance, there was a prescribed burn area in the early 2000's which can't have been all that long after I visited here with my parents (I think it was 1998?  I was still in high school, and I think they took me out to go, but I’m sure mom will correct me.)  The area burned was small.  I think we need to do this on a more regular basis. While the area is clearly damaged, the amount of new life there is immense.  There's even a special stand there set up to orient a camera and take a picture and send to the park so they can see the progress, that way everyone can participate.  Of course I will be too, because as far as I can tell... there's only one or two sets of footprints on the trail so far, though possibly others have been washed away.  There weren't too many photographic opportunities, a few snaps I took with the main camera, but mostly macro with my phone.. I did bring macro tubes this time but getting them to work on the trail is a bit cumbersome.  Unfortunately, I'd hoped that there would be a lot of flowers blooming but there's hardly anything.  There are orchids probably as far as the eye can see over in this part of the trail, but they are just barely starting to bud.  So, Swamp Marigolds, and some other tiny flowers that I can't yet identify are on my phone and camera where appropriate.  as a rough guestimate I reached the floating boardwalk around 30-40 minutes in... and the light was amazing here.  nice yellow side light... it was also bloody hot.  So much for the 'cool and cloudy forecast' once again.  There were a pair of bluebirds flying around from stump to stump, and then one stopped to sun bathe... so you know, I carry that huge 6 lb. 'bigma' lens around and feel like I should just not do that, but it always seems to be needed.  I set up my tripod and... of course it left.  I spent around 20 minutes being quiet, and waiting, and finally a swamp sparrow (I think) took the spot, and stayed nice and still for me to get several relatively close up shots with the big boy.  I waited a bit longer, but the sun was getting around, and there was a grackle swearing at me from the top of the highest dead tree. With him around no one else would show up, so I packed up and headed on.  At this point I was feeling pretty good.  I was about to be un-good.  Somehow in my mind '15 feet' was transposed with '15 meters’ well, 15 meters, isn't quite three times 15 feet, but it is pretty close.  Unfortunately, this being the north country, those meters can't just be spread out over a long distance, they must come and go within a few meters.  So, up and down, and rest.  up and down, and rest.  up and slide on my ass and rest... and this went on for about 3 more kilometers before the trail levels out again.  At this point, I was worried because I'd already wasted about 2.5 hours and hadn't even covered 1/3 of the distance.  but since the trail was level for quite some time, I was able to cover about 2/3 of the distance in around 1.5 more hours.  I was still tired, but I rested and took drinks and snack breaks, and mostly used my freshwater canteen... saving the electrolyte one for the return, when I’d need the extra boost.  I already had salt crystals on my brow and around my eyes.  the heat was according to my watch around 30 degrees Celsius... probably minus 5 for my body heat, still not at all what I expected.  I only had to take a leak once this entire time, every other ounce of liquid was being used for sweat.  I passed by a lovely outhouse close to the first campsite on the trail.  I still felt good enough to go check it out, but I could clearly see there was someone staying there, so I just moved on.  The remainder of the trail was relatively flat, with some more ridge crossings that weren't fun, some rotten old bridges, but mostly new bridges, and a lot of fallen trees that were at the annoying height - too low to really crawl under, and too high to climb over.  The forest was thick in some of these areas, so I was forced to crawl under, my backpack barely making it through, but I did it.  I made it to the bridge.  I set down my gear, pulled out the camera... and... crossed it.  My heart was in my throat.  I didn't look down much.  The bridge swayed wildly with each footstep.  I thought of all of the ways suspension bridges failed that I’ve ever seen, and harmonic swaying was one of them... I decided to not walk so evenly... and the swaying was lessened.  I then thought 'oh yeah, wasn't the environment minister saying about not wanting to invest in infrastructure?  Isn't he in charge of this kind of thing? and then I remembered how the cables at the radio telescope failed.  And then, I was on the other side.  I turned around... and pondered whether I could just stay on that side for the rest of my life, then remembered that White River holds the record for the coldest winter... and came back across.  The second time wasn't as bad as the first.   My heart rate was still peaking at about 150, higher than it had been on the entire hike.  I stopped, got video, and even went about halfway out again and got some freaking dizzying shots with my ultrawide - the one so wide it can get your feet in the picture.  Yes, I did that on purpose.  After the excitement was done, I switched back my lens, and sat down for about 15 minutes to have 'lunch' since it was now 12:00.  I drank water, and I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  It was about fist sized and had the face of a groundhog.  It was watching me.  It wouldn't move while I was looking, so I quietly got the camera out and waited, sort of pretending not to look.  He was brown, with a long tail, but I couldn't manage to get a shot of it.  I took a faraway picture of him, when I moved too much he bolted.  He is brown with dark hair on his back. I wonder what he was?

around 12:30 I started my trek back.  Happy that I will never have to do that again.  At this point, I was sore, and tired, and just wanted to be done.  The day is way hotter than it was supposed to be, and my black canteen with fresh water is down to one mouthful.  At least I have my ... blue... canteen gone.  I do not have my blue canteen.  What the hell!  I did have a couple sips out of it mid trail, but it is gone. Well, I pray to whatever god will listen it is just at one of the last places I sipped on it, or I'm going to be in trouble.  I didn't hear it fall out, so it must have fallen somewhere soft.  I started the long slog back, taking tiny sips of the water I had remaining, but by the time I'd crossed 1/3 of the way back... the final mouthful was gone.  To deal with this, I decided to go in roughly 500m sections, rest, let my heart rate go down, and continue.  This worked fine, but I was still feeling kind of sick, and a bit dizzy.  Not enough water, lots of heat, and heavy exertion isn't a good mix.  The bars I brought are dry, they need water to go down, so I can't even power through with calories.  The cheese was moist, I had one more tangerine left, which helped quite a lot.  and just about as I was about to lose hope... there was my bottle. It sitting in the middle of the trail, bathed in a patch of sunlight like an idol of health. It was right past the outhouse to that campsite.  The campers were gone, but it was there...  I picked it up, opened it to check the contents, and nothing looked out of place...  and drank.  I was immediately energized. But I had to council myself not to just pour the whole thing down my throat... I still had 3ish kilometers to go, and they were the worst kilometers.  I took it slow, taking breaks, sipping at the water, and ate one bar washing it down.  My feet were sore, it took everything I had to just stand up again, but stand I did.  I crawled under the trees that I'd climbed over earlier, getting my pants and shirt dirty, but I did it.  I can't even relay how relieved I was when I saw the edge of the burn zone, which was only about 300 meters from the parking lot.  It was closing on 4:30pm now.  I tossed my gear into the car, grabbed my last canteen of water, and reclined in the driver’s seat, letting the cool air conditioning wash over me as I drank the whole half liter at once.   I stayed there for about 10 minutes before I drove back to my campsite.  My feet were cold, this is not good.  this is probably some sort of warning sign, so I got back... I wasn't hungry, but forced myself to eat a bit of granola, and drank a serving of that protein powder.  I also drank another two canteens of water, and immediately needed to pee.  What came out was... not natural coloured.  I suddenly was very tired, I stripped off all my clothes... had a quick 'hobo shower' with the body wipes I had, and changed into my bed clothes, with fresh underwear.  My feet were still cold, and were slightly blue.  I massaged them and drank more water. Finally, when they started to return to normalcy, I passed out for two hours.  It is now about 6:50, and I’ve spent about 50 minutes typing this.  My feet are fine now, and I’m cozy and warm.  Still not hungry, but thirsty.  I’m sipping away on some water while I type.  I had a bit of a fever for a while, but it seems fine now, and I’m not dizzy anymore.  Panic averted.   The storm alarm on my watch went off a few minutes ago, and clouds seem to have come in, but the forecast on my trailer weather station is still showing sunny.  I guess we'll see.  I'm going to read for an hour or so and probably go to sleep for real. I still need to brush my teeth... but maybe I’ll just spit into a garbage bag.. not sure I want to walk over to the comfort station right now.  Tomorrow - going to marathon to get gas, visit Mr. Fox and get that jug I mentioned.  Maybe pick up lunch, we'll see how long all that takes.  Marathon is one of the few places left that has A&W Chubby Chicken up here.  I might sit down and steal their internet for a while too, try to answer some of these questions I've come up with.