A different take on the Pemi Loop

I’m not the first, nor the fastest, nor the funniest person to have completed a 30 mile, 18k elevation change, Pemi loop. I don’t want to write up another “first I walked over a bridge, then I went east” etc. douchy report about the hike. If you want to find out details about the hike, you have options! You can:

1. Google “Pemi Hike” and search away for the many other bloggers or AMC workers who have knowledge about the route and elevation.
2. Ask me specific questions, I can chat about the experience in person and will probably give a more animated and, dare I say, entertaining description!
3. I don’t have a three but lists with only 2 items are kind of lame. Either way, I’m sure you can figure out other methods of learning about the Pemi loop.

So, instead of my traditional boring report, I thought I’d do something different this time. I’m going to take slices of my hike, with a timestamp and location, and write to you my internal (and occasional audible) monologue/dialogue that was a running commentary of the whole experience. If you think talking to me is annoying, take pity on me! I talk to myself all the time and can’t get away from me!

So first, I’ll give you the quick and dirty on the trip, so that you have an idea about how far I am and what time it is during different stops on the ever-exciting monologue express (choo choo!)

Friday night I couldn’t sleep. Not totally uncommon, but I typically can’t sleep the night before I am considering a long run or a big hike. Instead of having to wait around until morning like I have to if I’m hiking with others, I decided—hey fuck it! I’ll go hike that sucker now. So at 10pm I drove to Lincoln Woods with my dog and bags in tow and was on the trail at 2am. I also decided on a counter clockwise loop. I chose this route because I have some weird mental block about the Pemi loop going up flume first. I’ll get into more detail about that in a more serious, lame, soul finding bit at the end but for my own mental sanity, I chose CCW this time. I’ve read that the benefit of the CCW loop is that the long flat Lincoln woods trail is done early, which drags on at the end of the hike. The drawback to CCW is that you have a lot of climbing to do late in the day, scaling Lafayette for example at mile 20. It didn’t matter, mentally, CCW was what would keep me going and in the event that I had to bail (or had to help Sky bail), I would at least have seen Bondcliff finally.

Okay so got the details? CCW loop and 2am start. Just my dog and me. All aboard? Let’s start this wild ride.

2:15AM Lincoln Woods Trail, 0:15 into hike

What the hell, Sky? Why are you so slow tonight? Yeah it’s late, yeah it’s dark but you are a dog. You literally just sleep all day. You didn’t have to drive here. Why am I putting such distances between us just by walking. We should be running this section! Sky, c’mon let’s go. She really hates wearing that pack. I don’t get why. She should be more used to it by now. How can a dog who runs runs runs all the time just crawl right now? Are we even going to make it to Bondcliff? Why is she being such a butt? Maybe it’s too heavy. I know, I’ll just dump out her water and make it lighter. Sky, come here, let me… okay there now you have no water. Wait, I’m an idiot. Why even have the pack on her if she isn’t carrying water? Ugh what if it gets hot early? I should just go back and dump the pack but I don’t want to add more miles to this already. I’m so stupid. I just won’t drink any of my water and that way if she needs it, then she can have mine. Wait that is stupid, too.

3:00AM Lincoln Woods Trail 1:00 into hike

Oh my god oh my god oh my god I’m going to die here. I swear to god I am going to die here. There are monsters and bears and moose and all kinds of bad shit out there and I’m just alone walking into it. Fuck fuck fuck what was that sound? Sky, stay on the path please. I am such an idiot, why did I watch a scary movie today? Why why why why would I do that? Trails at night weren’t so scary before, ugh I am going to die here—–WHAT WAS THAT? OH my god please Sky can you just try to run a little with me please. I’m going to just start yelling, make sure all the bear and moose know I’m here… HELLLO BEARS I HAVE A DOG. I’ll just yell that every couple of minutes… oh shit. Oh shit oh shit what is that? Something written with sticks on the ground and an arrow? What does it say? “Help me”? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING? There’s a goddamn arrow pointing down the trail I have to take? Does it say “help me”? I’m not going to look again, jesus I don’t want to know. Oh my god this was such a stupid idea. [This really happened]

3:30AM Lincoln Woods Trail 1:30 into hike

GOOD GIRL SKY. I’m going to just keep yelling that every 3 minutes. I haven’t seen a bear or moose or anything bad yet. Good thing the scary movie I watched was just The Exorcist and not the Blair Witch Project or something… fuck now I’m thinking about the Blair Witch Project. Fuck fuck shit I’m so dumb. Sky, stop trying to eat toads. As soon as you catch them, they just pee in your mouth…

4:30AM BONDCLIFF SUMMIT 2:30 into hike

Holy shit, this is the most beautiful moment of my life. I just experienced more stars than I’ve ever seen before and now this sunrise. I’m alone, there’s a strong wind waking me up, and the summits of mountains are all around me, 360 degrees, rising out of the undercast clouds like the heads of titans. Look! There’s Carrigain, Franconia ridge, Willey, Field, wow this is.. wow. Flashlight off, let me just sit, I think I might cry.

6:45AM somewhere near South Twin, 4:45 into hike

The sun is really up now. I can’t believe what a morning that was. I still haven’t seen anyone, this is really perfect. I wish Sky would move faster though, this is so runnable.

8:00AM Galehead Hut 6:00 into hike

Breakfast for the backpackers, the hut is packed! No dogs in the hut, I’ll have her sit outside while I go in and refill her water bottles that I stupidly emptied and refill my own water. Hmm… I guess I didn’t drink much? I barely have to refill. I really am just so stupid, why didn’t I drink more? Oh well. I’ll feed Sky, too. I could shoot up Galehead and back. It’s a mile round trip and I already missed the West Bond spur. I’m not sure how Sky will fare now that it will be warmer, not sure how I will feel either. I’ll skip it. I’ll be back attempting more Pemi’s in the future anyway.

9:30AM Trying to get up Garfield 7:30 into hike

Man, fuck Garfield, fuck this climb, fuck this waterfall. Holy crap this asshole mountain just shoots out of the ground out of no where and then I have to go all the way back down? This is so stupid. Who is Garfield anyway? Not cool enough to be in the Presidential range, huh? Isn’t Garfield a fat cartoon cat? Fuck this fat cat. Sky is mostly a mountain goat, but I’m doing a lot of helping her on this climb. It’s not even such a huge climb, maybe 1000ft but sharp, so sharp. Ugh, just keep pushing.

10:15AM Garfield Summit, 8:15 into hike

This is my first summit with people! Real people to talk to! I met some dude who was running the loop CW (smart, lucky man) and some day hikers as well as 2 dudes and a dog who slept on top of Garfield. It’s nice to finally be able to talk some. Worth the rest and time for snacks also. I know what is coming next, long descent and then the last big climb. I’ll let Sky rest some more, I think she’s already asleep… “Hey thanks! I love Janji, great company and they make my favorite shorts.”

11:15AM en route up Lafayette, 3.7 miles from Garfield summit to Lafeyette summit, 9:15 into hike

Seeing a lot of people now, it’s a decent hour where people are actually awake. It’s getting warm, too. Especially in these little clearings in the sun. Oh look, more runners! Man I wish I were running. “No you got it, come through. You’re still running..” Oh, that guy knows the Brighton Bangers! He’s running with a few runners from Community Rowing, I didn’t know they had a run club. Cool.. that one guy with the beard is pretty cute. Small world, I think most people doing the loop that I have talked to are from the greater Boston area.

11:50AM very close to Lafeyette summit, 9:50 into hike

LISA?? Oh my god, what a place to run into you. Oh, you think I look fresh? Thanks! Just the pick me up I needed. Enjoy your pemi loop!

12:00PM Lafeyette summit, 10:00 into hike

holy fucking hell, how did all these people get here already? Oh my god, there must be 150 people on this summit, at least 9 other dogs. Oh my god this is going to be awful. I didn’t think Franconia Ridge would be this packed. No, don’t let your dog just run over to mine. No sorry my dog’s water is not for your dog. Fuck off everyone go away. Sky, sorry we can’t rest here, I’m so uncomfortable.

A running monologue for the Franconia Ridge section from Lafayette to Lincoln

Okay, okay, let’s go. Sky, c’mon please lets try to run the 10 yard sections between groups of hikers that we can? I want this stretch to end as soon as possible. Ugh, “ha ha ha yes her backpack is cute”; “no she is tired and doesn’t want to play”; “no I don’t make her carry my things, she carries her own food and water.” Sure you guys take your time, you and your 25 person group can slowly go up this 7 ft rock and not give me 2 seconds to literally jump down. “no I don’t make her carry my things, she carries her own food and water.” Oh my fucking god just move over. Sky, keep up… “no I don’t make her carry my things, she carries her own food and water.” What a tale of 2 halves of the day. I couldn’t have been happier at 4am alone on the other side. There must be close to 1000 people up here. This is worse than the mass pike on a Friday afternoon. “NO I don’t make her carry my things, she carries her own food and water.” I hope to god it gets better after Lincoln. SKY COME ON. This is the slowest final 8 miles of anything I’ve ever done. “No she doesn’t want to play with your dog she’s tired” oh your dog is tired too? Can’t tell by how it’s pulling you all over the place, did you put 25 miles on your dog already? Oh for fucks sake “no I don’t make her carry my things, she carries her own food and water.”

[I realize what a snob I am inside my head but rest assured, I was nothing but polite aloud to anyone. However, I will NEVER attempt to be on that ridge on a good weekend day in the summer every again.]

1:00PM Just past Lincoln, 11:00 into hike

Finally, oh my god finally. Still a bunch of people on this side but in comparison, it’s deserted. I am low on water and Sky is out. We just have to perservere at this point. Liberty is kind of an annoying climb this far into the day and Flume after. At least we will have less people and nearly no reason to hang out on the summits. We’ve been on Flume and Liberty maybe 6 times already.

2:30PM Franconia Ridge after Liberty, 12:30 into hike

I’m on autopilot, just ran out of water, still tons of people slowly going up liberty or going down. I can’t believe how much time we’ve wasted on this ridge.

3:00PM Just passed Flume, 13:00 into hike

FINALLY, 5.5 miles until the bottom, I am tired but I know this is the gently downhill we need. I’ll walk some and run some but we are MOVING. Sky, there will be water at the bottom, at the glorious bottom. We are not so far away. Let’s go let’s go let’s go.

5:00PM Dunking myself in the Pemi River by the trailhead, 15:00 & finished

Oh my god. So this is what it feels like to finish the Pemi loop, huh? I feel awful. I am tired. A girl on a bike just yelled at me because Sky walked in her path. “Leash your dog!” yeah… I get that she doesn’t want to get hurt or hurt my dog but I am way too tired to care. The hike alone is tiring, but without sleep for 36 hrs at this point, plus a drive back to Boston, I can’t be bothered with people. Her stopping her bike shouldn’t ruin her day completely. I thought I’d feel more accomplished or something but the last 6 miles were really killing me. Like KILLING ME. My feet hurt so much from walking, running would’ve been better. I have to think about how to carry some water for Sky if I choose to run it next time.. I can’t go her “pack pace” anymore. Oh well. Ice cold water on the legs is a relief. I’m going to eat a burger and then go home. I wonder what happened to whoever wrote “help me” back there?

…and we will never know.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen: that is my Pemi report. I am tired again just from reliving the whole thing. I’m very proud of Sky for now being able to hold the title we all knew she deserved—that of Ultra Dog. As for my own mental state upon finishing, well, I’m not too changed. I didn’t expect to be, but I can’t believe how bad the Franconia Ridge made me feel about the rest of the experience. I shouldn’t let a shared beauty in NH get me down, those hikers have as much a right to be there as I do, and I should have foreseen a busy ridge midday on a clear and beautiful Saturday. I just love when I am in solitude, I like going my own way at my own pace and I like having just my dog around for company. I’ll take that last 10 miles to the bank and learn a lesson for next time.

As for finally completing the loop after failing twice before, I certainly feel glad, but I don’t feel changed. I think that’s appropriate. I (perhaps) jokingly described the Pemi Loop as my “ex boyfriend” of hikes because it was grand, impressive, and no matter how much I knew I was good enough and deserving, it never let me feel that way. Well, here I am proving to be good enough, and still wanting more. Much like my ex.. the first half of the Pemi loop experience was life changing and incredible but by the last stretch, I just wanted that shit to be over.

I took on a few new peaks in the process of this hike: Bondcliff (39), Bond (40), South Twin (41), & Garfield (42). I have 6 remaining peaks– West Bond, Galehead, North Twin (all within an arms reach from the Pemi loop), Cabot, Hale, and the gnarly Owl’s Head (in the center of the Pemi loop).

I try to learn a thing or two from every experience so here it is broken down:

• Figure out how to make Sky run faster or carry her shit for her
• Don’t watch scary movies before going alone in the woods… but perhaps watch scary movies before night trail races because I was ready to SPRINT up Bondcliff
• Drink more water early, chronically failing at that
• Be patient with strangers, you are the face of trail running and ultra running/hiking to some people so don’t be a dick even if you are tired and cranky and hungry and thirsty
• Have confidence, you know what you are capable of.

Ahh you’ve made it this far in the post? I’ll reward you with photos.

My uniform, plus a black Nike longsleeves

My sunrise photos from the East side of the loop

The dunk in the Pemi to conclude the day