Day 132- The One With The Severe Thunderstorm Warning

Aug 11, 2015

Kinsman Notch(1799.8) 0 Miles

I always knew that I might have to take a zero day in the Whites because of weather. I just didn't expect it to be on my second day in the Whites. Since we are above treeline for a good portion of this section, it isn't very smart to be so exposed during bad weather. We woke up this morning to very high winds. We all pulled out our smart phones to check the weather. I'm not sure how people hiked the trail before the invention of smart phones. The weather report was not good. We decided that we had three options; walk through the storm(not really an option), hunker down for the day in our tents and hammocks, or go into town and take a zero day. 

Obviously, option number three won. The motel was really cheap since the four of us shared a room. We quickly packed up and headed down to the road. There was already two hikers there trying to get a ride. We joined them and the next car that passed by stopped and picked us all up. By then the rain had started, but it wasn't too bad yet. Legs, the lady who picked us up, thru-hiked SOBO last year. It was really nice of her to pick up six wet hikers from the side of the road. She drove us into North Woodstock and dropped us off at the Carriage Motel. The front office wasn't open yet, so we killed time at the local coffee shop. We ended up staying there most of the morning. We played trivial pursuit, caught up on social media, and watched it rain. It was a very boring morning, but we kept each other entertained. 

After our electronics were fully charged and the rain momentarily let up, we walked back to the motel and checked in. The room had one double bed and a twin bed. The owner said she would bring in a rollout bed once the rain stopped. It's a good thing we are all friends, it's a really small room. We stowed our packs and went across the street to a deli for lunch. 

We bought an insane amount of food and went back to the room. Our sandwiches were the perfect hiker portions, enormous. 

South Paws sandwich

Outro tackling hers

We also bought a full sized pie to share and a half gallon of ice cream. We realized that we didn't have and bowls or plates so we had to improvise. We turned our cookware into "pie cups". 

South Paw with her Pie Cup

We sat around the rest of the afternoon digesting our food and making each other laugh. Eventually, we turned on the tv and watched a rerun of Friends and Seinfeld. We also watched a few episodes of Law and Order: SVU. It was nice to lounge around. It made me feel like I was back home in the "real world". 

We spent the evening watching YouTube clips, Americas Got Talent, and movie trailers. 

The weather tomorrow should be better. Hopefully we will be done hiking for the day before the afternoon thunderstorms begin. 

"I don’t want to live in the kind of world where we don’t look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I cant change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit.” – Charles de Lint