This day didn’t go as planned. I had originally planned to go 13.3 miles to Imp Shelter. I understood that this was going to be a very painful day as I’d be climbing the Wildcat Mountains for the first 5 miles and then a steep descent to Carter Notch Shelter just to do another massively steep climb up from there to Carter Dome, Mount Hight and then South, Middle and North Carter mountains before reaching the shelter. I would be left with only a little over 8 miles the following day to get to Route 2 where I have a hotel room booked. Since I just left town, I only had to resupply for two days so I wasn’t carrying a lot of food weight. The climb up the Wildcats has some seriously steep, smooth rock faces that were fully exposed. Trip and fall on one of those and you’ll be falling for a long time. Well, Sparkle has an obvious fear of heights and this day was quickly becoming one of the worst days for her. We’re sharing the hotel room when we get to Route 2 so I had promised I’m sticking by her as she gets over this treacherous section. It was a good thing I was there with her because she had multiple panic attacks/serious breakdowns and a couple times I put out my hand to pull her up and guide her. It broke my heart to see her on her hands and knees with eyes closed not wanting to look and just in tears. I had to keep reminding her that she’s stronger than she knows. She’s also hiked almost 1,900 miles already, through some sections scarier than this. Her nerves just really got to her today. With all these steep climbs and rock scrambles, we were barely doing a mile per hour and there’s no way we’d make it to Imp Shelter before dark. We got between Carter Dome and Mount Hight when it started raining and the temp dropped low enough that we got concerned about hypothermia once we stopped moving as we were completely soaked. We found a stealth site that would fit both of our tents and stopped early (before 3pm) making today 7.9 miles only. Sparkle kept calling me a saint from heaven for being here staying by her side to help her through today’s hike. I wouldn’t go that far. I’m not really saint material. I felt more like a gym coach talking someone through doing one more push-up. She did the work. She got up those climbs. I just talked her through it since she was obviously letting her thoughts get in her way. She should be proud of herself for tackling her phobias. I don’t mean to say all this to embarrass her. I hope it doesn’t if she reads this. It’s just what happened today and I’m still proud of both of us for doing the 4,698 foot elevation gains. Climbing that much in such a short distance is tiring work! Anyway, we’re camped out early in the day but looks like we got more rain set to fall on and off tonight and for the next few days. We’ll have to do 13.2 miles tomorrow to get to our hotel but the climbs and descents look a lot easier so we should be able to pull it off. We have two nights planned at the hotel anyway as we need the zero since we’re so physically and mentally exhausted. The last few days going through the White Mountains were the hardest days I’ve had yet and every muscle in my body feels it. On the 10th after leaving Gorham, NH for the last time, I’ll be passing 1,900 miles. Then on the next morning, I’ll have a very emotional milestone that I just know will have me in tears. I will finally enter Maine… the last State on this journey all the way from Georgia. I’m already emotional just thinking about it.