Garfield (2/21/22)

I enjoy winter backpacking. When I did a winter backpacking trip to the Bonds back in March 2020 (literally the day before the world went crazy from the COVID-19 pandemic), I enjoyed the peace and serenity of being by myself in the woods, although some of that might be selective memory comparing it to the pandemic craziness that came afterwards. When I did a winter backpacking trip to Owl's Head last year, I also enjoyed it, though I think that I prefer shelters over tents in the winter (and in the non-winter, for that matter).

When this winter started, I wanted to make sure that I had at least one backpacking trip planned. At one point I had planned to combine Garfield with the Twins, but I quickly realized that was a bad idea. Instead, I decided to do Garfield as its own trip. I wanted to wait until February to do it so that I would have enough light. I didn't know it at the time, but that would prove to be a very wise choice.

I let myself start a little later than normal, figuring that I wouldn't need a super early start because I was only going up the mountain and not down. I was using my Osprey Xenith 105, my absolutely massive pack, and it had a lot of stuff in it. The biggest issue was my snowshoes. I didn't end up needing them, but I carried them up and down the mountain, and they are a lot of added weight. The Xenith carries a load well, but it was probably too much weight for me, and I was struggling under it.

It didn't help that the hike was extended by two factors. For one thing, the parking lot was full when I got there, so I had to park further away and walk down the side of US 3. Second, the road is closed in winter, so that meant a mile or so of road walking before ever hitting the trailhead.

At the trailhead, I met two guys who I would cross paths with several more times during the hike, and eventually end up summiting with. What was cool about these guys is that they weren't hiking or snowshoeing, or even skiing, up the mountain. They were bicycling up the mountain! I have seen a lot of things in the Whites, but I had never seen snow bicycling before. It's amazing how many new winter sports are popping up each year.

The hike up the mountain would probably have been fairly easy if not for the Xenith. I was getting passed quite frequently, and that's very rare for me. I was also stopping for constant breaks, and just generally struggling under the weight. They say that a pack should be no more than a quarter of your body weight, and honestly I think even that's high. The Xenith was sitting right around a quarter of my body weight, so that probably explains my struggles.

Thankfully, the Garfield trail has a number of switchbacks built in, and they did help a lot as I got higher on the mountain. If the trail had been super steep, I don't know what I would have done. Finally, I made it up to the trail intersection. From here, the summit trail was a short uphill hike in one direction, and the shelter was a short downhill hike in the other direction. I dropped my pack at the intersection, and I felt really good as I raced up to the top of Garfield. In retrospect, I'm not sure why my friend Sylvia and I didn't do that when we hiked Garfield back in the fall.

Up at the top of the mountain, I met up with the biking guys again. There's an old foundation up there, and one of them quickly realized that you could get out of the wind by hiding in the foundation. I didn't think the wind was too bad, but to each their own. I did ask them if they would be willing to take a picture for me, and they were nice enough to do so. It didn't come out great thanks to my squinting, but at least the background is nice.

After summiting, I quickly headed back down to retrieve my pack. Thankfully it was still where I left it. I put it back on and proceeded down the steep decline that led to the shelter. By the time I got to the shelter, I was pretty tired. The shelter is on an incline of its own that branches off the main path, and that wasn't fun with the Xenith on. My time wasn't bad, though. The six plus miles I had hiked had only taken me about three and a half hours, which wasn't bad for hiking uphill with that much weight.

I began to set up camp when I got to the shelter. I grabbed some snacks for lunch, and then I set up my sleeping system. I was listening to The Fellowship of the Ring on audiobook, and I realized that there wasn't a lot to do other than just lie in bed and listen to the book. It was about 1:00 PM, and I spent the next three hours just lying there and listening to the adventures of Frodo, Gandalf, and all the rest. By the time 4:00 rolled around, I realized it was probably time to start making dinner.

I rolled out of bed and grabbed my food. I set up my stove, went to light it, and realized that I had forgotten something really important. My entire backpacking trip was about to be derailed by an item that weighs less than ounce. I had forgotten my lighter. Without the lighter, not only could I not cook warm food, but I couldn't boil water or melt snow, either. I had some emergency matches with me, so I tried them, but they didn't work. It was by now about 4:15, and I had to make a decision. Should I stay or should I go?

I figured that if I moved quickly enough, I had enough daylight left to make it most of the way out before needing a headlamp. I couldn't easily stay with the lack of fire, so I decided to hike out. I went to call Dragonfly to let her know, and my phone battery died. Apparently it was too cold for it. "What else can go wrong?" I thought to myself.

I plugged the phone into the portable battery pack that I had with me, and started to pack up camp. I was actually way more efficienct than usual. Typically it takes me an hour or more to pack up camp, but I had camp mostly packed up within fifteen minutes. Once the phone had some charge, I tried to call Dragonfly again, but the signal was weak. It was showing two bars LTE, but I wasn't getting service anywhere near that. Nonetheless, I eventually managed to let her know my plan.

I left camp at about 4:45. I wasn't exactly sure when sunset would be, but I figured I would have some time after sunset where there would still be enough light to see, especially with the brightness of the white snow. I did stuff my headlamp into my pocket to make it easily accessible, though. As I started to head down the path, I saw the first traces of color in the sky. It was pretty, and I stopped for a quick picture.

The hike back up to the trail intersection was killer. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done while hiking. I was already tired from the long hiking day, and this was the steepest incline I had dealt with all day. With the Xenith on, I just wasn't making much progress. Whenever I wind up in a bad spot like that while I am hiking, I always turn to music for inspiration. I put on my hiking and climbing playlist, and it chose perfect songs for me. The first song it picked was "On Top of the World" by Imagine Dragons. That song contains these lyrics: "And I know it's hard when you're falling down, and it's a long way up when you hit the ground, get up now, get up, get up now." It worked. I kept repeating to myself, "Get up, get up now," and eventually I did. I made it back to the trail intersection. From here, I knew it was all downhill, and for the first time all day, the weight of the Xenith would work for me instead of against me.

Not long into my hike down, I met a guy hiking up. He had on a short-sleeved shirt, and a small pack. He told me that he was going up to see the sunset. That seemed unwise to me, as he didn't necessarily look prepared to be out after dark. Still, he wasn't in any obvious distress and seemed to be doing okay, so I decided not to make an issue of it. People don't generally appreciate you getting involved in their business, anyway.

Not long after I met him, the sun did set. And what a sunset! It was bright red, one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen, maybe because of my vantage point. I tried to get a picture, but it didn't come out through the trees. Of course, now I knew that speed was even more vital since I would be losing the light quickly.

I sped back down through the switchbacks. I was going so fast that my feet felt like they were literally burning. I suspected that if I took off my shoes, I would actually see flames coming out. I knew I was going to have some blisters after this mad dash, but that was a problem for tomorrow. I kept going as fast as I could. At one point, I covered 0.7 miles in just ten minutes, which is a 4 mile per hour pace. If you're not familiar with normal human walking and hiking paces, just know that's insanely fast.

I was able to navigate by the remaining light in the sky until I got down to the two water crossings on the trail. At that point I reached into my pocket and got my headlamp out. I did not want to misjudge a water crossing in the dark and fall in. The ice seemed precarious and it crunched under me, but it didn't give way, and I crossed safely.

From there, I went back into high speed mode. Part of the trail was ice and not snow, and that made it more difficult to navigate in the dark, but I did okay. Eventually I made it back out to the trailhead. From there, I had to go back down the road walk.

I didn't figure I would run into anyone that late, so I was surprised to see headlamps ahead. It was a big group of maybe half a dozen people. One of them seemed to be struggling, and I wondered if he had been injured. He recognized me, which meant that he had been on the mountain during my climb up. Given that I had wasted something like three and a half hours at the shelter, it was concerning that he was still on the mountain all that time later. That only added evidence to my injury hypothesis, but there wasn't much I could do. He already had a group of half a dozen people with him, so he was going to be fine.

I moved on quickly, and before long I made it out to the road. I took off my spikes and hiked along the highway in the dark (with my headlamp definitely still on) back to my car. When I made it back there, it was 6:45. That meant that I had made it out those six plus miles in almost exactly two hours, which might be a record fast pace for me.

I texted Dragonfly and let her know I was safe, and I also called my mother. I tried to stop for dinner on the way home, but every place I stopped at had long delays. I did grab a root beer, which was a rare treat since I almost never drink soda, but I thought that I had earned it. I didn't end up eating until I got home at around 9:00, but it was okay. I was just glad that my minor problem didn't turn into a major one. Remember that you can't take flight until you spread your wings, and always hike safe!