I know everyone is rolling their eyes right now, but after signing up for the overnight shift for supporting the 50, my crew and I became super duper supporters. Every year, the Dartmouth outing club hosts a 50 mile endurance extravaganza from campus to Mount Mousilake, which is, by definition 50 miles away. Teams hike between 15 (running) and 40 (ouch!) hours through the night along the AT trail with their only respite being the support teams every ten miles or so. My crew and I were stationed at Atwell Hill, an overnight station with groups supposedly arriving between midnight and noon the next day.
There is a tradition for support crews at Dartmouth - you need to have an awesome theme to go with your hospitality. Some crews go for trippy themes, but since we figured that the hikers would already be tripping by the time they arrived at our station, we went for a much calmer bed and breakfast theme - The Cow Pie Inn.
Our crew arrived at eleven at night to set up our inn in the pouring rain (thank god I wasn't hiking in that!). After that we prepared our stove for some serious egg mcmuffin making and tuned the guitar. By midnight we were both ready and overtired, having woken up for classes that morning. For the next six hours we alternated between sing alongs like wagon wheel and teaching each other to dance. Needless to say, we were thoroughly bonded before the first hikers arrived with stories of waist deep mud at six am.
For the next seven hours, we manned the egg griddle, patched blisters and gave foot/back massages to the weary hiker who came through. By the time we headed for a celebratory dinner, our group was indistinguishable from the hikers as far as sanity went. That day set a record for me. Well two actually. I don't think that I have ever sang so much in my life and 50 hours without sleep is definitely a record I am not keen on breaking any time soon.
That is until next year when I complete the hike!
No comments:
Post a Comment