8/1/22
White Mountains Guide Day Twenty-One

Today was hard. I don’t know if it was because it was so humid, or if I am just grotesquely out of shape because I took off 5 days in a row last week, but either way, I ended up modifying my hike once I realized that I would be well over 16 miles of hiking by the time I finished my original plan and had started too late in the day to make it home by a reasonable hour if I did my full plan. Things will change. And I know this because I’ve attempted to do this two other times before. You think everything will go smoothly and then it rains, or you underestimate mileage, or think that you will be strong enough to make it some exorbitant amount of miles and you aren’t able to in the time you’ve allotted. The difficult part of doing these hikes as day hikes is that not only do I have to hike all day (which is typically anywhere from 5 to 9 hours) I also have to drive at least 90 minutes one way to trailheads, and then drive home afterwards. I still have to be an adult after my hikes, do dishes, laundry, write up daily reports for my hikes, and be a wife. I want to do this. I don’t want to stay up north in a hotel, on someone’s couch, or in my car. But sometimes I wish I could spend all day hiking and not have to drive home afterwards. 

Daily Miles: 13.53
Daily Vert: 3742’
Overall Miles: 216.79
Overall Vert: 73,728’ 
Guide: 8.5% -> 8.9%
Summits: Zealand, Guyot
NEHH: 10/100 

Trails:

Zealand Trail
Zeacliff View Loop
Zeacliff Pond Trail
Zealand Spur
Twinway