My White Whale |
Waterlogged and exhausted from close to 25 miles and 8,000
feet of hiking in the rain with a 30 pound pack it was all I could do to put
one blistered foot in front of the other.
Lower back spasms brought me to my knees more than once, but each time I
managed to climb back upright on my cramped legs and push on in the rain.
It was the second day of Gered’s bachelor party weekend. Our motley crew of hikers had set out the previous
day from the Lincoln Woods visitors’ center intent on completing the famed loop
around the Pemigewasset Wilderness. We were supposed to climb up onto the Franconia
ridge, march past Garfield and
eventually descend down off of Bondcliff.
We had failed miserably.
And now the Wilderness Trail was having its way with us.