About a year ago, my co-worker Simone asked me if I would hike Mt Washington with her this year. She was turning 40 and wanted to do something big to commemorate it. I would definitely not advertise myself as a hiker, but Simone knew I was a rock climber. Mt Washington sounded like a badass challenge, so of course I was in.
We decided the best time of year would probably be at the end of the summer. So, a few weeks ago she stopped by my desk and we sat down to map out a training plan. Based on schedules, we were able to plan two sessions together to train for our challenge. Last weekend was our first training session!
My alarm went off Sunday morning at 7am. I had tossed and turned for most of the night on an uncomfortable mattress, so I got up feeling pretty grumpy. I cranked some music and hopped into the shower, trying to shake it off and get myself psyched up for the day. That seemed to work & all of my prep the night before in packing and laying out my clothes got me out the door on time. Except, I forgot to put on my deodorant. Let's just say that I was pretty ripe by the end of the day.
I picked up Simone from her house in Concord at 8am with light rain falling. No worries I told her, it won't be raining in Jaffrey, NH. Shortly after we got on Rt 2 to head West, the rain stopped. After passing our exit on the highway because we were too engrossed in girl chat & then stopping for gas, we pulled into the Mt Monadnock parking lot around 9:45am. So did the rain. We decided to wait it out in the car, checking the weather radar on our cell phones. It passed in about 10 minutes & we jumped out of the car to start putting on our hiking boots and packs. After a quick stop at the toilets, we were on the trail by 10am.
I chose the white dot trail for our ascent. It was about 1700 feet in elevation gain & the cardio kicked my butt. Cardio is my nemesis. Of course, it didn't help that I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast. Who does that? Me. Mt Washington will be about 4200 feet of elevation gain. Can't wait. Sufferfest.
The hike was pretty cool, I remembered some of the views and details of the trail from my hike there 3 years ago. This was the first mountain that I've ever hiked or summited, so it holds a special place in my heart.
We reached the summit & found a spot to sit and eat some snacks. I brought blueberries & a granola bar. Normally blueberries make me very happy on a summit. However, their magical powers were just not working that day. There were a lot of stagnant water puddles on the summit, so it wasn't long before the bugs were ushering us back down the mountain.
To mix it up a bit, we took the white cross trail on our descent. It was a little longer, but it was supposed to be less steep overall. Still very hard on the body though. Simone started to feel it in her knees first. My knees are fairly strong, but after awhile I could feel it in my hips.
30-40 minutes into our descent, I felt something buzzing around my sweaty hair and swatted it away with my hand. I didn't get a complete visual on it, but I think it was a wasp & it sank its stinger into my hand near my first knuckle. I shook my hand violently to try to shake it off of me, but it just held on pumping its venom into me. I can't remember the last time I was stung. My hand hurt severely and immediately started swelling.
We made it off the mountain about 20 minutes after my sting & I was able to pop some Advil and buy an ice pack. But, by this time, the venom had already worked its way into my knuckle. I drove us home one handed while icing my wound. 6 hours later, I was still icing the affected area. Throbbing, relentless joint pain.
When I'm on Mt Washington five weeks from now feeling like I can't go on, I want to remember the pain I felt from that wasp sting. I think summiting Mt Washington for me is going to be 50% physical & 50% mental. Physical is either there or it's not... this is what I'm training for. Mental is a whole different game. I think that wasp gave me the mental edge I'm going to need to push through to the summit.
