In Part 1, I had my redemption hike and successfully summited Wildcat D and A. From A, I *just* needed to descend down the the Carter Notch Hut for the night. I reached the summit of A at 4PM. The hut was only 0.8 miles away, BUT it was also 1,100 feet down. That’s steep. I figured I’d be slow. I hoped I could get to the hut by 6 since that’s when they serve dinner. I was also concerned about “potential afternoon thunderstorms” that were in the forecast. I wanted to be comfortably in the hut before they started.

I began the descent. It was indeed steep. It was slow going, but do-able. If you’ll recall, in part 1, I mentioned that we had stopped at a spring, but I didn’t fill up my water. Weight is a big deal, you don’t want to carry any more weight than you need. Thinking the hut was only a couple of miles away from the spring, I didn’t think I needed to carry more water. (Mistake #1). It’s July. It’s also been an incredibly wet and humid July. And I sweat a lot on a good day. As usual, my clothes were soaked through with sweat.

On my last hike, when I climbed into my hammock that night, I had some pretty bad charlie horses. As a result, I made sure to have a bunch of liquid IV in my pack this time. I started the day with 2 liters of water. I put a liquid IV in each water. By the time I got to A, I had started on my second liter. Only 0.8 miles to go, no problem right?

My fingers started to tingle. My hands started throwing gang signs, as I call it. My fingers straightened uncontrollably. I kept going. (Mistake #2).

At one point, I saw Rook, a thru hiker I had met at lunch by the gondola. He was refilling his water from water spilling down a rock next to the trail. He said, “I learned my lesson to never pass up a water source”. I knew he was right, so I stopped as well. Now, I had the capacity to hold 3 filtered liters, and one unfiltered liter. I’d consumed 1 1/2 liters at this point. I collected and filtered one liter. Just one. Again, thinking I was so close to the hut. I didn’t want to waste the time to collect and filter more. I didn’t want to carry 3 liters, when I so close. (Mistake #3). I drank a little more water and the tingling stopped. So I continued on.

The tingling started again. As did the gang signs. I drank some water, but realized I needed to conserve in order to make sure I could get to the hut. (Mistake #4?). My legs began tingling. They were hard to pick up. Luckily I was descending, so I didn’t need to lift my feet. Unfortunately, dragging your legs and letting your foot fall down to the next rock isn’t the fastest way. I was (incorrectly) focused on getting down by 6, rather than stopping and doing what I needed to do for my body. I hadn’t seen any water in a while, so continued on hoping to find some.

I finally heard someone approach behind me. Relieved, my emotions took over me and I let myself stop. As I did, my legs fully seized up. They locked up straight and every muscle was fully contracted. It was possibly the most painful thing I’ve experienced. I cried out involuntarily.

The hiker called out “Are you OK?” and I responded “no”. They asked if I had fallen, to which I said no. They caught up to me and I explained that I thought it was electrolytes. I was still crying because it was so painful. I was sitting on the ground and my legs wouldn’t move. The hiker said “maybe you should take some ibuprofin”. I asked him if he could spare any water. In the most uncharacteristic behavior for a hiker that I’ve seen, he replied, “I do, but it’s in my water bladder and it’s hard to get out”. And he hiked off. I mean come on, dude, just lie to me and say you’re out of water. He seriously acted like I was trying to con him. Like this was a set up and I was going to steal his watch.

I drank some more of my water. I did take ibuprofin in case it would help. I sat and waited for the seizing to let up, which it eventually did. I continued on.

I finally came upon the most glorious sign to see…

So I knew I was “close”, however it was still probably a third of a mile away. And still steep. I took this photo at 5:13 PM. Shortly after, some water was trickling next to the trail. I quickly grabbed a half liter, but didn’t filter it, thinking it was just back up. Surely I’d be at the hut any minute now. (Mistake #5).

I was feeling tingly again. I was slowing down. But I kept going. My legs weren’t functioning well, but I continued my little drag step. And they got worse. And then they seized up again completely. I couldn’t even sit on a rock, but legs were so locked up, that I just fell to the ground. I started to cry. I filtered the water and begged my cramped fingers not to spill the water. I ripped open a liquid IV with my teeth and poured it into the water.

“The trail provides” is a thing some folks say. And at this moment, the trail provided. I heard someone approaching. She heard me crying and yelled out “Are you OK?”. I responded “no”. She said “Did you fall?”. Does this conversation feel familiar? I said no and again explained (between crying) that I thought it was electrolytes. She stopped and sat with me. Asked me what was happening, my symptoms. I explained. She said we were close to the hut and did I think I could get there. The complete seizing did stop, but they still tingled. I tried to stand up. I was able to make excruciatingly slow progress. She waited and walked with me. I am incredibly grateful to her. This was how I’d seen most hikers behave when someone is struggling. She was so kind and caring without condescending.

Unfortunately, my legs seized up again. I couldn’t even move two more feet to sit on a rock. I cried out. I asked her to go ahead and go to the hut and let them know I was struggling here. Once again, I fell to the ground unable to do anything. I was like an ironing board across the trail. I had fallen back, laying on my pack, legs stiff. I felt like a turtle. A turtle in incredible pain.

I reached for my Garmin. Luckily (?) the SOS button is very hard to trigger when your fingers are cramping. I waited a minute and still couldn’t move. I was worried the hut croo wouldn’t be able to do anything for me (meaning, wouldn’t be allowed). I pulled out my phone and the app for the Garmin. At 6:27 PM I sent this to my boyfriend and my friend that is my “call NH Fish and Game if I don’t hear from Kathy” person: “Please do not worry. I am very close to the hut. But also stuck. My legs seized up. A fellow hiker is getting help”. My legs were still locked. I tapped the SOS page. Honestly, the only thing that kept me from triggering the SOS was that the screen said “For emergency use only”. I figured I was alive, it wasn’t yet an emergency. And I REALLY didn’t want to end up on North Woods Law.

Fun fact, my message to my boyfriend and friend didn’t deliver at that point. I drank the rest of my water, figuring I was close enough, that someone would come back with water. (First freaking good choice I made during the descent). Finally, my legs unlocked. I waited some more. The tingling stopped. I attempted to stand up. I was able to walk, slowly. But I figured I had to try my best to make progress towards the hut. I sent a message that I was on the move.

The descent finally eases as you see one of the lakes next to the hut. I knew it was close, and the descent would be slightly easier. I heard two people approach behind me. Repeat the same beginning conversation. Once they reached me and heard what was wrong, they offered me some blox. And asked if I needed any help. Since I was moving, I asked that they go ahead and let the croo know I was moving again. I was slightly concerned they’d gone into emergency mode and called fish and game or something.

I began circling around the lake when two young people came towards me.

Me: Hi

Them: HI!

Me: I’m guessing you’re looking for me.

Them: Are you Kathy?!

They seemed very excited to see me. I know I was very excited to see them. They immediately went into help mode. Pulled out a nalgene of water, dumped in electrolytes, handed it to me, offered me food. I drank some of the water, and off we went to the hut. I arrived around 8PM. So yeah, that’s four hours to go less than a mile.

Very embarrassingly, nearly everyone asked me if I was OK. Clearly at this point, everyone (including the very nice thru hikers I’d met earlier in the day) knew something had happened and that it had happened to me.

The woman who stopped for me on the trail (Amy? I think), brought me over dessert that she saved for me and chatted with me while I ate dinner. She let me know that when she told the croo I needed help, they jumped into action and seemed very excited to do it. That was cute and made me feel less bad about the whole situation.

It was around then that my message about being stuck went out. But NOT the messages saying I was on the move. Or the message saying I was safe at the hut. Sigh. Thankfully, those did eventually go through. Sorry for the panic, loved ones!

I can say with 100% certainty, that last time, Right Turn definitely made the right call to bail when we did. As slow as I was and the problems I had, I still made it to the hut before dark. If these same issues had hit us on that first hike (or any other issues), we would have been descending steeply in the dark.

Also, unbeknownst to me, only a few days earlier, a hiker was doing the exact same traverse but in the opposite direction, and turned unresponsive due to the heat and conditions. He was carried out by Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue and taken to the hospital. He’s an experienced hiker with all the appropriate gear (and is also ok now). While I feel bad that it happened, it does make me aware that it could have been worse for me, and even experienced hikers have bad days.

I filled up a liter of water, put a liquid IV in it and brought it with me to the bunkhouse. I settled in and fell asleep around 9PM (hiker midnight!). Around 9:30 I was woken up by incredibly loud rain on the hut roof and super bright lightning flashes. When you’re deep in the woods, it’s really dark, so the lightning seems like it lights up the world. I was deeply grateful to have made it the hut and not be out in my hammock during that storm.

The original plan was to continue on to the Imp tentsite the next day, and hike out the day after. I told myself I would reassess in the morning. Stay tuned for Part 3…