“Heat in the Day, Bump in the Night”

AT Day 109

Miles Today: 23.50

AT Mile: 1763.1

(Unnamed Ridge; New Hampshire [tent])

I slept well last night, and would have stayed asleep for longer if it weren’t for the birds at sunrise. Earlier in the trail I would put in earplugs and use a buff as an eye mask. I might have done the same today but for the forecasted high temperatures. I knew that today and tomorrow are both going to be intensely hot, so I wanted to get to trail and start collecting miles as early as was reasonable. The longer I slept in would mean the hotter and more humid I’d have to hike through.

—

Dammit… there might be a bear outside my camp. I’m actually pretty confident that’s what it is.

A ways off but I’ve been listening for ten minutes now. I’m pretty sure it’s a bear tromping around.

That makes me a bit nervous but also I have my food secured in my pack. My pack is beside my tent though.

Wow… as I write there is a cacophony of hounds barking off in the distance, spurring one another on.

If the tromping through the leaves continues I’ll step out of the tent and make some noise. Fuck.

—

The humidity this morning was so thick that you could literally see the air in the low sunlight hours.

I’ve been through enough mornings like this on the Appalacahin Trail already to know it was going to be a lot of miles of misery as the temperatures increased. The one good thing that I can say is that having been through so much of it this summer I at least know what to expect and how to best conduct myself through it.

I was ready for being completely soaked through with sweat and using my camp towel to continually wipe myself down and then wring it out. It still sucks, but I know how to get through these miles now. And even though temps broke 95(F) with a significantly higher heat index, it still wasn’t quite as bad as some of the days in Connecticut.

—

There was also a trail town and resupply at the end of the tunnel. As the AT crosses from Vermont into New Hampshire, it passes though the towns of Hanover and N… n…. I forget the second one’s name. It starts with an N. It’s where Dartmouth college is located, and the trail literally walks right through campus. I was actually so entranced with some of the buildings on campus that I walked right by my turn and continued on the wrong sidewalk for almost a quarter mile before seeing the err of my way and correcting.

Along the sidewalk there was a girl selling lemonade with her mom. I felt obligated to buy…

—

Bear is getting a bit closer.

I really don’t like this part of thru hiking. Just listening to what I’m pretty confident is a bear, tromping through the woods. And of course I’m camped alone tonight for literally the first time in over a thousand miles…

—

I was able to shower in town at the community center and did my laundry in the shower as well. It took all of about ten minutes in the sun for my clothes to dry.

I resupplied and ate a pint of ice cream.

The people on the Vermont side were so incredibly nice, and almost every one of them that walked by engaged. One of them gave me some pretzles. I didn’t need them necessarally, but I accepted mostly to show appreciation for his offer.

—

The hike this afternoon into New Hampshire was like this morning, but the trail did feel somehow different in the way that each state has its peculiarities in how they built their section of the trail.

—

Just shouted at the bear. Stopped for a bit. Now coming towards me.

Fuck.

Definitely a bear tromping through leaves and branches. Fuck.

Finishing my journal.

Will write maybe if this stops.

Wormwood.

Follow-up:

Been out of my tent for ten minutes yelling at bear. Saw eyes. Watched his head bob up and down. Did not like it. He seems to have wandered off in another direction. Either that or is laying low, right where I was catching him in my headlamp a moment ago.

I think we’re good. I’ve secured anything in my camp with a food smell.

I don’t like this part of thru hiking.