the toughest day (of the #NHRebellion walk)

So this is difficult, it turns out. I guess that should have been obvious, but still, difficult.

Tuesday we did a short walk from Gorham to Pinkham Notch — basically straight up the mountain. As we arrived at an Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the rain began, and with it began an insane 36 hours.

My second kid’s birthday was Wednesday, so a volunteer took me to Hertz (thanks Dotti), and I drove three hours to Boston to surprise him. We played and celebrated his birthday, I did some laundry, went to bed (complete peace), got up at 4, and at 4:30 we (Kai from 99Rise  was joining the march and had come up from NY the night before and crashed at our house), drove back to Glen. A volunteer picked us up at Herz (thanks again, Dotti) took us back to Pinkham Notch. We walked 17 miles in warm, brilliantly sunny weather, to North Conway. I grabbed a coffee and then spoke for an hour (with questions) to a large group from the community — no chance to shower, or even change the hiking boots. Dinner, aching legs, crashed. 

That wasn’t the difficult part. After I put my son to bed, he woke, crying. He came to me, put his arms around my neck, and begged me to stay. “Why do you need to go,” he asked. “I’m trying to help make things better for all of us, puppy.” “How is walking across New Hampshire ever going to make anything better." 

This is difficult.