Maine!

On the 21st I did a tad bit of blue blazing, hiking 6ish miles to cover 14.8 trail miles and stayed at the White Mountain hostel. On the 22nd I did 21.2 miles and stayed at the White Mountain hostel. On the 23rd I did 7.8 miles and camped at Page Pond. On the 24th I did 16.2 miles and camped at Bull Branch campsite. On the 25th I did 16.5 miles and camped at Dunn Falls.

I am once again in Maine!

At Lake of the Clouds my uncle met me and hiked up to the peak of Washington with me. It was fun hiking with him but a bit strange seeing someone from "real life" instead of just trail people. It also meant that I now have some sweet action shots! Don't let them fool you, it might look like I'm just walking but it's action!

That afternoon Zoom and Rosie came up with the idea of spending the next two nights at a local hostel and slack packing the 21 miles between roads. It worked out decently but 21 miles in the Whites kinda sucks even with just day packs on. This put us at under 300 miles left and the location where we stop hiking together. Rosie is off to a wedding for a week and Zoom needed a few zero days to let his knees heal. It was odd hiking out of town that next day solo. We had been hiking together as a group since Harpers Ferry (900ish miles ago).

Man, I had forgotten how hard the miles out of Gorham are. It's either that or my legs need a rest after pushing fairly hard through the Whites. The terrain has crushed my legs will to work the last couple of days. Those two 16's are probably the hardest days I've had on the trail. The first one even included Mahoosuc Notch which is a fantastically fun mile but quite challenging. The trail is at least mostly well marked with arrows.

The terrain might be hard but the views are absolutely amazing. I don't think I could ever get sick of hiking in this area. Every mountain top is beautiful and a challenge just to get up. Perfect combo.

Tomorrow I start my relaxed and lower mileage section of Maine. A friend is coming to hike some of the trail with me and so they don't die and so they hate only a little for convincing them to come, nice low mile days are ahead. My body could absolutely use the break. Hopefully this slow pace will allow Zoom and Rosie to catch up and we can summit Katahdin together. It seems fitting if we did so many miles together that we should at least put a little effort into summiting at the same time if it's feasible. It feels strange to be getting so close to the end. 

White Mountains? No Problem

On the 14th I did 17.5 miles and stayed at a trail angels house. On the 15th I did 18.6 miles and stayed at the Ore Hill campsite. On the 16th I did 15.1 miles and stayed at Beaver Brook shelter. On the 17th I did 9 miles and stayed at Eliza Brook shelter. On the 18th I did 18.3 miles and stayed near Garfield pond. On the 19th I did 18.3 miles and camped along the Saco River. On the 20th I did 11.1 miles and stayed at Lake of the Clouds hut.

This week was the main section of the White Mountains. They are outrageously gorgeous but somewhat difficult. Surprisingly my mileage is still going strong. I was even able to pull off back to back 18 plus mile days. The first of those 18 involved doing Kinsman mountain first thing and then doing Franconia Ridge at the end. Quite a day but one full good views. Like these...

So New Hampshire has been fantastic. These mountains are what I was waiting for since Georgia. Thankfully they do not disappoint. The trail is rugged and difficult and I love it. Nothing is quite as fun as climbing tough mountains everyday.

Besides the mountains, what has been amazing is the people. For some reason many people in the south will tell you that people are less friendly in the north. As a northern I have always disagreed. The trail this year has proven that this is blatantly untrue. The town of Hanover, NH has amazing trail angels. One of them gave us a ride to an outfitter, then a ride up trail to slack pack and finally picked us up again, took us to her house and fed us fancy cheese and gelato. All out of the goodness of her heart. Also, while in town two other people asked if I needed a place to stay. This is an extreme example of northern kindness but it has been the same way all over the north. Hitches come easy and trail magic is plentiful, it's a wonderful thing to see.

Tomorrow I summit Mt Washington and then shortly after it is on to Maine. Things are coming to an end. Hikers are more prone to discussions of life post trail now and it brings up quite the array of emotions. It might be nice to have knees that bend without complaint and feet that don't hurt but the trail is so amazing it will be sad to leave it again.

I'm am Not a Duck

On the 6th I did 21.9 miles and stayed on top of Glastenbury Mt. On the 7th I did 19 miles and stayed at Stratton Pond shelter. On the 8th I did 11.7 miles and stayed in Manchester Center. On the 9th I did 19.8 miles and stayed at Little Rock Pond shelter. On the 10th I did 19.4 miles and stayed at Governor Clement shelter. On the 11th I did 20.6 miles and stayed at Stony Brook shelter. On the 12th I did 21.5 miles and stayed at Thistle Hill shelter. On the 13th I did 14.7 miles and stayed in Hanover, NH. 

Vermont went quite smoothly. It felt great to once again have some sense that I was in mountains. I once again could stand out top of something I climbed and be completely surrounded by a great view. The best of these turned out to be Killington.

There were a couple other fantastic views in Vermont even though most of the mountains had fully wooded summits.

I came across a cool spot at the top of a mountain where people built a lot of rock cairns. People had even placed rocks pretty far up in the trees. Obviously I had to one up such people and go higher.

Vermont has been the first state that had some spots that really felt maineish. There are lots of ponds and evergreen woods that have the look and smell of Maine. It has felt great with the feeling of home.

In my last blog I believe I forgot to bring up the fact that I had succeeded in my own four state challenge. I mentioned a while ago trying to go four states without shower or laundry but it didn't last. I reinvigorated myself at the Deleware water gap for the challenge. I made it! I didn't shower between Deleware Water Gap, PA (mile 1289) and Manchester Center, VT (mile 1647). Laundry was even more impressive since I did that at Duncannon, PA (mile 1143) before Manchester Center. It was not a challenge for the faint of heart but it passed the time.

Now I'm onto another challenge. It has been coined the Fecal Trinity. The challenge is to poop in a flush toilet, a privy and in the woods all in the same day. It is outrageously difficult and I think I need the stars to align perfectly to have it happen. So far many days of 2 out of 3 and I keep continue to come up short. Eventually I hope to complete this one. It says something about the brain after so many miles of hiking. Such an activity is t challenging enough, you have to keep pushing the limit. Also, entertaining ourselves in the woods can be hilarious.

And now for something completely different...

Anyone who has a dream interpretation book laying around try your hand at this interesting specimen I had a few days ago.

The dream starts and I'm on a date with some reasonably attractive woman, at no point could I remember a face to this woman so just some faceless yet attractive woman. During the course of that date I find out she is addicted to heroin and in debt to the Russian mob. The next day I grab my guns, like everything is normal, and go to rescue her from the Russian mob's heroin den.

During this rescue attempt I meet heavy resistance and I was forced to run. I decided to run to get help from Kim Jong-un in North Korea. I ran there amidst a hail of gunfire (obviously you can run to North Korea in a few minutes) and found Kim astride a large horse firing back at the Russians. While I knew he was Kim Jong-un he had the rugged appearance of an American cowboy instead of kind of looking like a giant baby. He apparently hates heroin and people that deal in its trade. I end up getting wounded and as I am laying under a copse of trees Kim rides up and dismounts. At this time I realize that all of the Russians are actually ducks firing machine guns. I am distraught to discover that when I look down at myself I am also a duck. Kim kneels over me, placing his hand on my shoulder, and in a deep, sincere voice says, "You are not a duck. You are a turtle." I immediately feel completely at peace with my place in the world and awake.

Hiking does some strange things to your mind I think. Your welcome to comment on your interpretation of that.

Vermont!

On the 29th I did 21.6 miles and camped at Laurel Ridge campsite. On the 30th I did 26.4 miles and stayed at Mt Wilcox North shelter. On the 1st I did 15.6 miles and stayed at the Super 8 in Lee, MA. On the 2nd I did 19.0 miles and stayed at the Quality Inn near Dalton, MA. On the 3rd I did 8.8 miles and stayed at the St Marys of the Assumption Church. On the 4th I zeroed at the church. On the 5th I did 21.6 miles and stayed at Seth Warner shelter.

This was an odd section for me. It ended with what felt like the first mountain in a long time. My Greylock is the highest mountain in Massachusetts and the first time the trail hit 3000 feet in hundreds of miles. Not a bad view from the top.

What made this section was spurred on by the World Cup. Doctor Zoom, Rosie and I decided to try and get into Lee in time to see the USA game. This meant we had to do a 26 mile day, which ended at 10 pm. Followed by 16 miles the next day before 2pm. That was rough to do but at the road crossing we had a car waiting for us. A fellow thru hiker was from the area and she was letting us borrow her car. This made it feel quite strange to not have to hitch and be able to go wherever. But it worked and was a relaxing night in a hotel.

The following day had periods of downpours but between ducking into shelters and spending a few hours at a trail angel named The Cookie Lady I dodged 100% of it. We did 10 miles after 5pm to get into Dalton and sleep out of the rain but the hotel in town was full. Luckily the owner was super nice and drove us the another one two miles out of town. So already this is odd because it's two nights in a row in hotels. You can sort of tell how humid it is in this photo.

My spirits didn't get down at all either. Even without a great view.

The next day Wet Stray Dog, who I hiked with earlier but he had to get off, swung by and we hung out until the afternoon. I did 9 miles while dodging all the rain again and slept at a hiker friendly church. The following day I awoke to the sound of heavy rain and just rolled over and went to sleep. Of the ten or so hikers at the church that night all of them stayed another day to not get downpoured on. The father there was great and drove to the Berkshire Mall so we could hang out and take over a wing of a bar for World Cup watching. What a great guy. On a side note, he can tell when hikers are staying there because he can smell us in the rectory. Here's a few shots of us in town.

It was four days in a row staying inside and felt odd with all the town hoping. It worked out though since there was three days of rain and I didn't get rained on once. It made the day I crossed into Vermont absolutely beautiful. Not too many states left. The horrible humid weather has finally broken and I'm ready for Vermont to be awesome.