Day 32 to Imp Campsite

I woke up to a cloudy day. To boot,  myknee  was still a bit swollen and stiff. But I thought walking would work that out. So we (NH Bob and I) had the big hiker breakfast and set out for the Wildcats.  This was a much talked about ridge. It was supposed to be very tough. It starts out with a steep rocky 2000 ft climb.

We quickly saw from a height where we spent the night.

At the top was the Wildcat ski lift.

And then the rain started. It rained all day. That made the rocks slippery. 

And there was no view. 

All during the day, my knee was a problem. It was still swollen and stiff. I had to do a lot of rock scrambling including handholds.  With my limited range of movement in my knee plus pain, my walk turned into the first day of a "self-rescue."  I had to use my poles to hold my weight as I eased down onto the left leg. Down climbing backwards was

also a challenge since I couldn't bent my left knee much. 

Walking in the rain is something one gets used to as long as it not too cold. I don't wear my rain clothes because I get just as wet inside my rain clothes because of the exertion. So I keep them as a dry layer. But the clammy feeling gets old. 

I had lunch at Carter notch hut.  Eating my own food reduced the weight in the pack so I didn't buy soup. 

It was getting dark as I hobbled the last 300 yards into Imp campsite. I pitched my tent on a platform. Before a few days previous I'd never done that because my tent is not self standing. But I learned to jam my tent stakes into the spaces between the slats with twigs. They held fine. I again boiled water under the vestibule of my tent, ate my freeze-dried beef stroganoff and went to sleep. But not before I was joined by Timber and Legs who also tented on my platform. 

Miles: 12.1

2016 miles: 383

Total AT miles: 1882.8