Slogs: July 24th-August 6th, 2022

After my Tahawus loop in mid-July, the temperatures rised sharply for a couple weeks, leading to some of the most miserable hikes of my life in terms of heat and humidity. The only way I feel I can appropriately describe these was as "slogs", with pure will and endurance taking me through - in the sense that there was no real enjoyment in most of these. Oh well, I was still able to have some cool and unique experiences on each hike!!!

Boott Spur, July 24th

Boott Spur??? I hardly even know her!!!

In all seriousness, this was supposed to be a trip toward Isolation via Glenn Boulder Trail, with a quick hop up to Boott Spur serving as a little cherry on top. Unfortunately for me, I chose one of the hottest days of the year - it reached 90 in Pinkam, and as I ascended farther up the mountain, the temperature didn't measurably decrease. It probably was only sixty or so around the summit, but it was also entirely in the sun, and I had ran out of water earlier on the trail. Despite my original intentions, I had no capacity to proceed onto Isolation, and I had to abandon the goal. Curiously, I decided to get a photo of me on top of Boott Spur even though it wasn't on the official 115 list, and if I had, that would have facilitated an "additional peak" type mentality for my peakbagging, where I gladly take flags up peaks that aren't on the main list. I had considered doing this for Pyramid and Guyot, but had decided not to. Alas, once I reached the summit I found out I had left the flag in my car, so it was a mute point. And with that, it would take more than a year for me to do Pamola, with Height and Cannon Balls still not being done - even though just a mentality change would have allowed me to display a flag at each of these peaks. Oh well, at least there were some killer views :)

Allen, July 30th

Allen was a mountain that, upon the completion of my first 46, I thought was actually a lot better than people gave it credit for. The second time around my opinions didn't change. I think it's neat, and much nicer than Owls Head, to which it is frequently compared. Nevertheless, it was a long hike that saw two interesting things. Firstly, I met the youngest 46er a few weeks before she finished! She wasn't even in kindergarten yet, and I was shocked to find a kid that small coming off of Allen at what had to be mile 12. There's a news article about her, you should look it up - she's very strong and the whole thing is quite cute. Anyhow, the second big thing for me happened on the way back, when I was struck with the idea that my camping prospects for the night would be much better if I could fit a mattress in the back of my car - which I couldn't since Camrys just aren't that big. This idea would grow over the following 24 hours to become the genesis of "Vera living out of a van", which as of 16 months of owning Amanda, has obviously had a large impact on my life. Nevertheless, I made it back and slept at the Santanoni trailhead, hoping not to run into a Ranger along the way

Santanoni Range, July 31st

Couchsacraga was a mountain that, upon the completion of my first 46, I thought was actually a lot better than people gave it credit for. The second time around my opinions changed sharply. I hated this mountain the second time around - probably because it was a 17 mile day after a 20 mile day, as opposed to just a 7 mile day after a 9 mile day the previous time. Man this mountain sucks, and upon hiking the Barren Range in the Hundred Mile Wilderness, pretty frustrating with regard to trail maintenance. Much has been said of the annoying bog in the middle of the trail, but not as much has been said about how bogs are fragile ecosystems that require careful trail maintenance to preserve. And here NYSDEC is leaving this trail, along with a similar one near Emmons, entirely unmaintained. Why? Is it really so hard to commit to putting a few bog bridges down? I know it's an issue of hikers causing this destruction, but the 46 is the most established and popular list in the country - and has been for decades. There reaches a point where the blame shifts from the sum of individual decisions to the inaction of institutions supposed to safeguard the well-being of the environment. NYSDEC has the capacity to send a crew to improve this section - not to mention to fix the erosion and spread of the trail on the rest of the range. Yet they don't. Whether this is a budgetarial or managerial failure ultimately doesn't matter - because what suffers is the ecosystem. I bushwhacked around the bog. The rest of the hike was not notable outside of meeting the mother of the youngest 46er, who herself was training to break the women's FKT for the 46, a hard fucking challenge if I've ever seen one - and I have

Kinsman Range, August 6th

Kinsmans??? More like: KinsWOMANS, amirite???

In all seriousness, this was the hardest hike of the entire season because of how hot it was - I had a continual headache for the entire ascent, and was only comforted by a brief and nice conversation with a SoBoer on South Kinsman. I barely even remember the trip over to Cannon, but by the time I drove back to Hanover, I vomited from sickness when I stepped out of my air-conditioned car because it was *still* that hot even at 10pm. Terrible