[at-l] Re: Newfound Gap to Davenport Gap in 1 Day

[papa_bear_nyc@yahoo.com (Papa Bear)]

We had an interesting experience along these lines when we hiked in Maine a
few weeks ago.

Our first day out was from Gorham NH to Gentian Pond Shelter, a distance of
about 12 miles.  We carried full packs with 4 days of food and 2 liters (4
lb) of water.  We hit the trail about 8:00 AM and we thought we were doing
pretty good.  My daughter and I were each a couple of months out of shape.
We took a lunch break at Trident Col Campsite (about 7 miles) and got going
again about 2:00 PM  We moved on past Dream Lake (9.6 miles) around 4:00 PM
at which time we met a Thru-hiker named Ducktape (actually he was a
half-thru-hiker: finishing up from last year) going the same way and passing
us.  He too was headed to Gentian Pond and also started at Gorham.  He
mentioned he had got started about noon.  After he left, my daughter and I
just looked at each other!  The guy was going something close to twice as
fast as us.  This didn't particularly bother us though.

Well, we saw him that night at the shelter, and ironically over the next two
weeks we would see him again and again.  On our last night, in Stratton,
over 100 miles later, there he was having fun with some friends on the porch
of one of the Hostels.  Seems like fast as he was, he always managed to take
a day off in town or do whatever he did and never really got ahead of us.
And here we lost 3 days to rain! (We did slack pack 4 days and he did always
carried a full pack).  We had lots of fun (he did too).

HYOH
Pb


> -------Original Message-------
>
> From: Rami
> Date: Monday, September 30, 2002 12:03:00 PM
> To: manzana; at-l@mailman.backcountry.net
> Subject: [at-l] Re: Newfound Gap to Davenport Gap in 1 Day
>
> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
>
> On Monday, September 30, 2002 5:28 AM, Manzana said:
> Last month I hiked from Newfound Gap (Great Smokie NP) to Davenport Gap
> in 3 days. It really bushed me. I had the best sleeping bag and boots I
> could find. I was proud of my achievement... So 2 days ago at Cosby Knob
> some dude goes flying by me in shorts and tennis shoes. He had started
> at Newfound and was ending at Davenport the same day! Argggghhhh... I
> know he was truthing because I saw him run up the hill out of low Gap.
>
> "Somebody always pulls up in a Porsche..."
>
> trail angel Apple
>