AT14 Day 47: D-Day

6/30 Mon
Lake of the clouds->Imp
1851->1879

Woke up today excited for some more Whites. The first thing we did was descend down the wrong trail. Now I say we, as Pnuemo decided he hadn't had enough and got up to go with me. I love it!  This kids got heart!  Well, if someone told me they started on the wrong foot, I would tell them to try being ambidextrous. But wrong trail descending 3/4 of a mile.  I got nothing for that. So when we got back up to the shelter, I just pretended I had slept in(as I had thought about).  Disappointing to not top out Mt Washingting, but been there done that.  It was also socked in and wouldn't have been a view.  We did have a gorgeous day break sun thru fog ridge descent though (picture in time).  After a bit of non stop rock hop we arrived at Madison hut. We were hungry and looking to stuff our gut.  We were hoping for breakfast leftovers.  I told Pnuemo, i doubt they' ll have pancakes. They are so quick to make there wont be extras.  Well, I ate my words, with syrup and they were delicious!  They also had some baked goods and pulled some leftover pasta from the fridge. I grabbed a Probar and tossed $10 in the basket. I didn't have too, but I also would have paid $50 for that breakfast.  Being full is a great feeling as a starving hiker.  But climbing up a mountaint with a full stomach is plain nauseating.  The ridge in the sun fried me.  All the blood was in my stomach or out at my skin.  There was none left to work the legs or head.  Ugh strugglefest. We reached some creeks.  I dunked in and drank up.  Trying everything.  We kept the train rolling and I finally came around.  Now I was really running on pancake juice.  We hit Pinkham visitor center which was a nice pit stop. Quickly grab food, drinks and unload some waste.  I looked at the guide real quick and thought, lets get it on.  White Mountains Lodge was only 21 miles away.  It was motivation time.  I told Pnuemo, "Lets pace each other there and your rooms on me".  Sounds like a plan.  See, I plan?!   So we took off. Chit chatting like school girls and bounding up mountains.  We are going to do this I thought.  No way. After 38 yesterday another 36 miles and I had an awesome run in the Whites.  Then it began.  No blazes, some blazes and ambiguous signs.  We were turned around and around again. At one point we ran down a side trail (not the AT). Got to a further intersection, ran the AT south. Got back to the same intersect. Spent 10 minutes figuring out where we went wrong then ran the same trail again. Ugh. Is there a flipflop unsupported record?  Getting lost not only wastes time, energy but also zaps your mood. We kept on. But that voice you hear started. The voice when one too many things have gone wrong.  You're not going to make it. Hard to swallow.  But we realized and decided to go up the last mountain and do the downhill in the morning with light.  But then even that seemed like reaching. I told Pnuemo, we made a good effort. But I think the wise thing to do was to call it quits and start fresh on a new day.  It was 7:30 and we were settling on Imp Campsite. An early night, extra sleep I thought.  Lucky me.  I tried to drink that cup of tea. But the reality was today was Disheartening, Discouraging, Deflating, Dreadful, okay I am Done. As I am not Don King and Didn't study the D-section of the Dictionary.  Okay, now I am Done.  

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life-Muhammed Ali

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