May 9th, 2015

Today's miles = 10.5
Total ADK miles = 69.2

I woke up to the wondeful sound of loons across the pond. I rolled over and started my coffee and oatmeal as usual. It was the perfect moment sitting there in the bug net (that we had managed to hang from different parts of the shelter) drinking my coffee watching the lake and all it's surrounding inhabitants rise. The sun rose over the mountain to the right, the waves rippled in, and I sat soaking it all in. That was that last decent moment of my day today. Leaving the shelter around 7:30am I hiked .4 miles to a stream. This stream was the indication that I had to begin bushwacking up the steep, dense, forested, sharp, and rocky slope to my left. This was the official start of the day from hell. The next 2 miles were literally straight up a mountain without any glimpse of a trail with trees and brush so thick you couldn't turn around without getting hit by something. It took about 3 and 1/2 hours to navagate through it and up only 1,600 feet. It was a hell of a morning.  The top of the bushwhack was the summit of Catamont so I took a moment to eat, drink, and look about. If I thought the climb up Catamont was going to be the most tactical part of my day I think, perhaps, I was mistaken. The climb down was in some spots a 90 degree rockface down that I had to drop off of. It was supposedly the most steep decent of the entire ADK. After I reached the bottom of Catamont I walked a road for a short while before taking lunch at a brook and sprawling out on the shoulder of the road. I thought I was about to have another 2 mile uphill bushwhack ahead of me but fortunately there was a snowmobile track I was able to take to meet up with where I needed to be. From there I hiked a few more miles, took dinner at a picnic table on the side of the highway by a pond, and then made it to my camp spot by a dam and at the bottom of Whiteface. I hiked all day long, took normal lenght breaks and only managed to make it 10.5 miles. Something about today really kicked my ass.

Layng in the tent listening to the raging sound of the dam waterfall about 30 feet away and all the forest creatures calling out before bed. Must get up early tomorrow to summit Whiteface and make my way to town.