Finishing the Whites

Day 145 Lake Of The Clouds To Gorham NH — AT Daily Miles 14.0; AT Total Miles 1877.8

It wasn’t a very good night sleep in the bunkroom. I think there were 21 of us in a room and everyone got up at least once in the night to use the bathroom and 2 or 3 snored. That is life on the trail and especially in shelters and in bunkrooms. It’s still better there than outside in the rain.

My recent hiking companion, Airhead, and I were able to get started by about 7 AM. In fact, we were over the top of Mount Washington and descended just after 8 AM and were on our way to Mount Madison. Unfortunately, there was no view as we were hiking in a cloud. It was a slight drizzle and my glasses kept fogging up. When I would remove them and try to hike, my depth perception was too far off and I walked around like I was inebriated. It drizzled most of the next few hours in fact and stopped about three hours later when we took a break at the Mount Madison hut. It was a great break with coffee and brownies, and gave us some energy.

With rain in the forecast for our evening and overnight now, we decided to put in a long 12 hour day and hike to the visitor center where we could get a shuttle ride into Gorham New Hampshire. The hike on the trail was slow because it was very rocky and often very steep downhill, but we made it by about 7 PM and was in town by 7:30 PM. That was a really long day but well worth it. The shower, laundry and dinner were much needed.

So we actually got into town a day earlier than planned because for two days we put in extra hours of hiking. Normally, I would’ve hiked fewer miles on those two days and hiked into a third day. With the weather forecast, it seemed more prudent to invest the time while we could and then hunker down safe out of the storm. At this point it’s looking like that means 2 zero days instead of 1 and hiking out on day 3 during a light rain. You can’t sit still forever and make it to Maine, right?

If all goes well, I will be over the Wildcat and Carter mountain ranges in two days and back into Gorham, New Hampshire for resupply. I will also be within two days of Maine, my final state!

Mt. Washington Approach

Mt. Washington Summit

View Near Mt. Madison

Days 146 and 147 Resting In Gorham NH — AT Daily Miles 0; AT Total Miles 1877.8

I was very tired and sore when I woke up in the morning. The previous week and especially the recent couple days of longer than normal hiking had me exhausted. I had a chore list of things to do too getting into town.

My chore list seemed long to me, but it is much the typical stuff I do once I get into a town. The first item was mailing a couple items that I hadn’t been using back home. That included some specialty tent stakes and a hoodie. I needed to get to the grocery store to get supplies for not only my two days in town but for the next two days of backpacking. Next up was getting a new pair of shoes because my current ones were very slick on the soles and I was slipping everywhere. I always need to plan the next few days of hiking and where I’m going to resupply next so I know how much food to carry. I wanted to catch up on my blogging. And last but not least I wanted to catch up on the phone with my family.

I was able to get all of this done over the two days I had off. I managed to eat about 5000 calories a day which included three Chinese buffets, McDonald’s for breakfast and lunch, and pints of ice cream daily. Plus I helped Airhead get his GPS communicator set up to do a check-in like I was doing when I had mine. He was nice enough to add my contacts to his list so that both of us are updating our loved ones while we are out here that we are OK. It’s looking like I might be hiking with Airhead for a while, which is OK with me because he’s a great guy. As I said before, though, he is a strong hiker and it’s going to be all I can do to keep up. But that should get me to Katahdin quicker.

Airhead in Gorham

New Shoes!

Day 148 Gorham NH To South Carter Mountain — AT Daily Miles 9.7; AT Total Miles 1887.5

When we got to camp at the end of the day, Airhead told me this was the most feet of elevation gain that he had hiked since starting the trail. So that probably applies to me too. I know I say a lot of days seem like they are nothing but uphill, but this one really was. We hiked from the visitor center over the two Wildcat mountains and one of the Carter mountains. In the end we got in just under 10 miles meaning we have 11 tomorrow to get to our shuttle pick up point. We’ll get an earlier start tomorrow and hopefully it’ll be more downhill than uphill and gentler overall.

I’ve already described the gist of the day. On a positive note, the rain held off and we were able to take a break in a AMC hut that had some fig brownies and cranberry juice. Anything helps on the trail. We were slightly tempted to stay there as it was late afternoon when we got there, but then we wouldn’t have been able to get to where we needed to get to tomorrow. We already fell a couple miles short of our morning goal, but we’re still happy with what we did. Sometimes 10 miles is a good day.

As I said above, we will do 11 miles tomorrow even if it takes all day. We need to get to town again to get a four or five day supply of food to get into the first resupply in Maine. The day itself is supposed to be rain free. Plus my new shoes are really protecting my feet and our giving me much better traction. They are heavier than I’m used to, but that’s the price that I’m willing to pay at the moment. I didn’t slip and fall today for the first time in I don’t know how long. Baby steps so to speak.

Climbing A Wildcat Mountain

Getting To The Top

Tight Stealth Site

Day 149 South Carter Mountain To Route 2 — AT Daily Miles 12.4; AT Total Miles 1898.9

Last night we ended up putting three tents in an extremely small space on Mount Carter. We could hear each other moving around in the tents all night. That is stealth camping in the White Mountains. It’s kind of tough because the trails are usually so steep and narrow that there’s not a lot of options. But there is no way last night we could  have been able to make it 4 more miles to a shelter. It would’ve been 10 PM or after.

We got started this day before 7 AM on the hike, which was good because we wanted to get to our shuttle pick up point by 3 PM. We had over 12 miles to go and two last mountains to finish up the Whites. The first one would be Middle Carter Mountain. The second and final one would be Mount Moriah.

The first part of the day was pretty typical with a very steep uphill, a steep descent, and then repeat that. That was all, but the final couple of miles. The remainder of the day was actually a decent level hike. Overall, the day was hard, but not as hard as the previous day. In the end we made it to the shuttle pick up point a few minutes early. The hostel owner, Paul, was there to pick us up on time. He is a very nice man and really looks out for us.

I’m going to wrap up this addition of my blog with this entry. I consider the last week or so a huge success since we were able to finish off the White Mountains. It also seems to make sense since I’m in a place with Wi-Fi so I can get this uploaded. I’ll be crossing the 1900 mile mark early tomorrow and should be in Maine the day after. My next blog entry should be after tackling perhaps the hardest week in Maine. I’ve been told the first hundred miles will be really hard and then hiking might ease up just a little bit. The trail is going to test us right up until the end!

Gorgeous Morning

Last White Mountain

Rattle River