Beautiful day out there today – sunny and clear, no bugs, dry rocks, low humidity. My only major navigational mishap was early on in the game after turning onto the Brookside Trail. I continued down the trail and soon found myself staring befuddled at a fork in the path with a sign for Edmands Col and no more evident signage for Brookside... I picked the incorrect fork and somehow wound up back on Valley Way. Nnnnoooooo! I semi-panicked, backtracked to the beginning of Brookside, spent some time looking at the map, and ultimately managed to correct my mistake (though I wasn't confident about it at the time). Only lost ~5.5 minutes with all of this, but it felt like an eternity as I anxiously consulted the map and made some educated guesses. I pouted and cursed my poor navigational skills, feeling spooked for the next stretch until I successfully hooked the right onto Watson Path. A pair of hikers had paused for a break directly at the trailhead, but I probably would have scooted directly by them and the turn if I hadn't paused for a quick chat and map check. I managed to stay on the right track from Watson-to-Scar (taking care not to hang a wrong turn onto Valley Way again...), and loved my time on the Scar trail segment as I felt some of my earlier route-induced stress recede.
I was happy to make it onto the Airline Trail since I'm familiar with that and the summit trails. Running vs. hiking-wise, I found that Valley Way was joggable, but settled into an aggressive power march most of the hike thereafter. Been working hard to shake a nagging high hamstring injury, and going all out with the uphill running just isn't worth the risk... there is so much agility, fearlessness, focus, and practice involved in moving quickly over this type of terrain (as opposed to simply running on road or soft trail), and I have a long way to go before I reach mountain goat status.
Once I passed the bad weather sign to emerge above treeline, I felt reasonably confident I'd be able to make the 2:10 mark if I didn't lollygag. I moved really well across Gulfside and felt great cranking up Lowe's Path to the summit. Plenty of other hikers at this point and loads of happy people at the top! I was a little bummed when I realized I had just missed the 2:00 barrier, but hey, next time. Mostly, I was thankful to feel healthy and capable the whole hike (aside from a bit of mental sniveling after my Brookside fumble).
I took my sweet time on the way down, wandering over to Madison Hut for a water refill and a delicious $1 slice of bread. Ambled down to Appalachia via Valley Way and hit the parking lot by 12:30. The Tin Mountain Century Ride bike race was well underway at this point, and I had fun cheering on some cyclists before hitting the road myself.
Cathleen Balantic
Burlington VT & Center Conway NH
