Today's miles 10
Total ADK miles = 79.2
I didn't sleep too well last night. It was very hot outside and there was some kind of big animal walking outside my tent for a while. Not to mention the alarm went off at 3:30am. I fell back asleep untill 4:30 and was up and climbing by 5:45. The first 3.5 miles where uphill; pretty much straight up Mt. Whiteface. It took me a while with my shin splint, the snow and ice, the the overall technical nature of the trail to make it up. There were sections of the trail that were completely covered in ice. I had to slide myslef up while grabbing onto surrounding pine trees to push myself forward. The trail had become a stream in some parts from all the previous snow melt. It was a hell of a climb with the conditions. The last .3 up to Whieface was horrendous (in a good way). There was a rock/boulder scramble and tons of snow. But I made it up in surprisingly good spirits. The summit was cloudy with a light drizzel and what appeared to be a storm headed right toward the mountain. I didn't stay up there long and started the decent after a bit of food and water. The decent was ever more difficult that the way up; so much ice, snow, and boulders!!
After I got down the mountain (which took hours) the trail evened out a bit and the sun came out. The rest of the hike was rather pleasant. The trail led out to Route 86 where we got a hitch quickly from a local with a lot of knowledge about the area. He took us to the grocery store and then dropped us off at the motel. I got a frozen meal and ingredients for a HUGE salad for dinner. Shower, trashy TV (although I don't consider Bourdain trashy), relaxation... begin!
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