Northern Altitude
Day 120+1+2+3:
Ok so that thing where I run out
of motivation to journal hapoened again unfortunately. Here’s another quick rundown of the last few days:
⁃ Did a really short day where we finally crossed into New Hampshire

⁃ Hung out around Dartmouth campus for basically the entire day. It was great
⁃ Slept in a fire cabin on the top of smarts mountain. Great views, a lil chilly.
⁃ Was socked in by clouds in the morning, and hit a wee bit of rain
⁃ Didn’t miss Mist Mountain!
⁃ Accidentally left Lindsey at the trailhead for an hour because we both thought I was behind her (I went to the hostel where I assumed she had gone, she assumed I would catch up)
⁃ Zerod at a really nice hostel at the foot of the white mountains.
So yeah, a whirlwind of a few days. But we’re about to go into the White Mountains! I’m very very excited about it. I think it’s gonna be some of the best stuff we’ve done so far. Hopefully we’re not gonna get too beat up by the hiking, but I guess there’s only one way to find out!
Day 124:
Into the Whites, here we go! I was up early, like 5:30, which is a little unusual for me. But we didn’t actually get going until like 7. That’s always the tough part of staying at hostels. ESPECIALLY after a zero. Especially especially if you’re about to enter the hardest part of the trail. But away we went, back into the mountains.
The first few miles were pretty easy. We had to climb back into the foothills, so it didn’t take much for us to build up to a steady pace. We did get a little slowed up by someone handing out ice cream at like 8:30 in the morning. But never too early for ice cream! All fueled up, I was super ready to hit the mountain.
I’ll be honest, the climb up Mount Moosilauke was way easier than I expected. Was it steep? In places, sure. Was it rocky? Definitely at times. But it wasn’t super super killer. It only took me about 2 hours to climb the 3700 feet to the summit. Once you break through the tree line, things really got spectacular.
There were sweeping open views all around us of Vermont and New Hampshire. It was GORGEOUS. And also freaking windy. I was worried we were going to get blown away by some of the wind gusts up there. But we made it out all right. A group of us met up on the summit, and hung out and took picture until our fingers got cold. Then we hiked on.

Now, if the climb was easier than I anticipated, the decent was exactly the opposite. Apparently, this is like the second steepest section of the entire trail. So yeah. That’s fun. But not only was it steep and rocky, but it had also rained the day before, so it was super slick. And there were even places where the trail was literally just waterfall running over the trail. Way less than ideal. But, we made it!
The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. I wouldn’t say it was “cruisy” but it was super exciting either. We landed just short of the Kinsman mountains, the first OFFICIAL mountains of the white (Moosilauke is technically outside the range). So that starts tomorrow! Very very excited.
I feel pretty good all in all today! Honestly much better than I normally feel coming out of a zero. I think it’s because this finally feels like the beginning of the home stretch, so that is exciting. Also everyone sayas this next week or so is the most beautiful part of the trail, so simply how can you not be excited for that? Yeah, bring it on White Mountains. I’m ready.
Quote of the day: “But some of the steps were just…. GONE”
Today I’m grateful for rebar, traction, and alfredo pasta.
Day 125:
What’s the best way to start any morning? With a 2000 foot climb of course! Welcome to the white mountains! But honestly it was pretty fun. It’s like a mix between steep climbing (which everyone loves, right?), step ups (again, everyone’s favorite!), and rock scrambles (which I do genuinely really enjoy). I kinda flew up it.
I passed Lindsey about 20 minutes outside of camp, and she made me fully go in front, which is fair considering how much our paces differed. And I definitely don’t want to pressure her to go faster than she wants to. About 10 minutes after that, I reached the summit! Must be beautiful views after a climb like that right? WRONG. We were totally walled in by clouds. Which sucks, but so is life. That’s just what happens out here sometimes.

I didn’t linger on the summit of either Kinsman mountain, mostly because of the clouds. And the climb down, which was much steeper than the way up. And quite slick and rocky too, not really best thing to be doing on a cloudy morning. But I made it down safely. And again, the late morning was a cruise! Apart from the mud, which was all over the place. At one point a board gave way under my foot and I simply went ankle deep. So that was for sure pleasant.
Now comes to our fun uhhhhhh situation, shall we say, for the day. See Lindsey and I sent our packages to a campsite about 25 miles up from where we were. But it turns out, that campsite doesn’t really get mail. And so our packages were in limbo for a little while. Mine got rerouted to one of the visitors centers in the white (and I picked up some extra food to compensate), but Lindsey’s was still MIA. So, we thought we might have to hitch a ride into town and get her some food.
Turns out, just outside that road crossing, there’s another visitors center with, not exactly resupply, but food to be had. And service, so that Lindsey could locate her package. So we hiked over. After lunch, we hung around a while until Lindsey determined that her food was in fact where it was supposed to be, and very gettable from trail! Good, we’re not gonna starve. So we hung out for a little while longer, packed out food (because why not), and got going.
The last chunk of the day was literally straight uphill. Like, 2.7 miles, 1900 feet uphill. Which was unpleasant to say the least. But we got it done, and ended up at a nice campsite just south of Franconia Ridge. You unfortunately have to pay a fee at all the campsites in the whites, but they have some nice perks for thru hikers that we can take advantage of, so that’ll be lovely. And it was a pretty cool spot to camp.
All in all, yet another good day. I’m I thrilled about the low mileage? Not particularly, no. In fact to be candid, I am a little annoyed about it. But it’s hard to complain when the other option was Lindsey potentially starving. Plus, we cross Franconia Ridge tomorrow, which is rumored to be one of the nicest parts of trail (this is future Eitan butting in, the rumor is in fact true), so it’s hard to be too upset. Always something to look forward to.
Quote of the day: “Moisture is the enemy”
Today I’m grateful for sunlight, non waterproof shoes, and chicken tendies.
Day 126:
Again, what’s the best way to start a morning? A climb! We had a few hundred feet to finish the reach up to Franconia Ridge. And again, it was pretty easy to motivate yourself up to it, given what we knew was ahead. And so I climbed. Only a few hundred feet, and I was on the ridge. Just barely below the tree line.
That simply did not last long. About 50 feet and I cleared the trees. And then? Honestly I don’t have many words to describe it. I was a little worried at first that we would be clouded in like yesterday. When I got to the top I was surprised that there were no clouds. Then I realized that there were, they were just several hundred feet below us. So uhhhhh that’s pretty sick.
As far as the view, to the west as far as the eye could see were low rolling hills, most of vermont. There was one mountain with a sheer rock face right across from the ridge, which was insanely cool to look at. To the east, the White Mountains. Like, ALL of them. Well, except the ones I had to walk over. But it was stunning to look at. I kept almost tripping over my feet because I wasn’t looking at the fairly rocky ground.

The actual walk along the ridge was pretty easy. The first part was an absolute cruise, as we had already done most of the climbing the night before. After a few miles we began a steady climb up Mount Lincoln, which was the first of the Franconia Range. That was a pretty easy climb to be honest. But when I reached the top, I had a clear view of the next mountain, Mount Lafayette. That thing was a good bit taller. And worse, I had to go down in between!
But it honestly wasn’t that bad. It was insanely windy at the top, like, I thought I might get blown off the mountain windy, but other than that as gorgeous as the rest. There’s supposed to be a view of Mount Washington from Lafayette, but unfortunately that was literally the ONLY PLACE CLOUDED IN. Because of course it was.
The next part of the day was east enough. There was a steep down off Lafayette, but there was a nice cruise afterwords. Around 10:30 I started a steep climb of Mount Garfield, which is halfway between Franconia Ridge and the Guyot Ridge. At the top I was met by Lindsey, and an ex thru hiker handing out beer. Who’s gonna say no to a beer at 11 on top of a mountain? Certainly not me! We also ran into someone who section hiked with us around the hundred mile mark? Which was crazy. Shoutout Ricky.
We did a short crossing over to a hut for lunch. The huts are a range of buildings set up by the AMC for day hikers to come through. They have food, gunk spaces, bathrooms, etc. They’re pretty nice. But we weren’t staying at this one, just eating lunch. But it’s a good time nonetheless. And we had a pretty nice view from the front deck.
Right after lunch, we had our last big climb of the day. South Twin Mountain. And this one was real steep. 1000 feet in less than a mile. It took a while, like 45 minutes, but we made it. And from the top? A clear view of Mount Washington! Hell fucking yeah. The decent off the mountain was a lot easier than the up, but still not easy. It was another couple miles until we had a choice to make for the day.

We could either stop at a campsite about a mile off trail, or we could push on another 4 miles to the next hut. The nice part about the huts is they let hikers do work for stays there. The problem is they can only take 2, and it’s first come first serve. We were gonna get to the hut a little late so we didn’t honestly think we’d get one, but it’s worth a shot. Worst comes to worst, we can stealth camp past it.
The way to the hut was the easier part of the day, but still not easy. It was mostly steep downhill, and my knees for sure hurt at the end of it, but it was simply not easy. We got through it, and all the way to the hut. The good news? They had work for stay! The bad news? They only had one spot. So, we ate our own dinner at the shelter and hiked on. Fortunately there was a stealth site like half a mile up trail, so we didn’t have to go far. But it was nice to finally be at camp.
Honestly, probably my favorite day on trail so far. Franconia Ridge was literally incredible. For sure the best thing we’ve done so far. But fingers crossed the presidentials might be even better. At least, that’s what some people say. But I guess we’ll find out! I’m tired, and a little sore, but all worth it for a good day.
Quote of the day: “I can’t tell if everything is really funny right now or if I’m just really dehydrated and just drank a beer.”
Today I’m grateful for good weather, hazy IPAs, and sleep.
Day 127:
What’s the best way to start off a morning??? With… 5 really flat miles? I guess? It was certainly a change from what we had been doing, but not an unwelcome one. The walking was super easy, which is unusual to say the least since we got into the white mountains. The only downside is that we literally were walking in a cloud, and everything was a wee bit damp, but that wasn’t that big a deal.
We got a big surprise around 7:30 when we ran into a couple of friends from school coming the other way up the trail. Now, I won’t pretend we didn’t know it was coming, but we only found out like, 24 hours before. And we definitely weren’t expecting to see them so early on the trail! But see them we did! They brought us real bagels from new jersey, which literally almost made me cry from happiness. They then did a short hike with us back to the parking lot, where we hung out for a little while.
It was really really amazing to see familiar faces it here again, but unfortunately they had an exciting road trip to be on and had to get going. And we had some excitement of our own! The rest of the day was spent climbing our way up into the Presidential range, which is supposedly some of the most difficult and beautiful sections of the trail.
It sure started difficult enough. We had about 2 miles of straight vertical climbing to start our way up the ridge. It wasn’t the HARDEST climb ever, but it was certainly long. THere were some very pretty views from the top, and we finally started to see Mount Washington, getting closer and closer as we moved forward.
Right after lunch, we began our real climb onto the presidential ridge. This climb was, shockingly, difficult! I feel like that should be zero surprise at this point. BUT it was mercifully short, and when we reached the top? Goodness gracious. Hold on I have to compose myself for a second. Ahem…
I thought Franconia Ridge was the coolest thing I’ve seen on trail so far. The presidential ridge was like if you took Franconia, and jacked it up to 1000. Now don’t get me wrong, franconia ridge was still amazing, mind blowing. But the presidentials? Good god. Everything was just bigger, more stunning. We had zero clouds, so that meant wide open views for what felt like hundreds of miles (it wasn’t actually but it sure felt like it). And in front the whole time? Mount Washington, SOMEHOW untouched by clouds, clear against the sky. It was absolutely mind boggling.

We made our way along the ridge for about an hour and a half. I would’ve done double that if I could’ve. But eventually we reached the famous Lake of the Clouds hut. And lucky us, they had two work for stay spots still available! It was pretty dope, we basically just helped them clean up dinner and then got to eat all the leftovers we could. Absolute 10/10, would recommend. And we got to see a pretty dope sunset, so we really went 2/2 today.

God what a good day this was! Seeing old friends (with bagels!!!), climbing the presidential ridge, sleeping just below mount washington, it was all amazing. So far New Hampshire is living up to ALL the hype. Including the parts about how hard it is. The hiking is tough, but everything else more than makes up for it.
Quote of the day: “Oh no dude we live in a cloud”
Today I’m grateful for bagels, ledges, and stuffed shells
Day 128:
Have you ever woken up on the floor with a bunch of people sitting around you drinking coffee acting like you don’t exist? Absolutely wild experience. Not that I blame them, I would do that too if a random smelly thru hiker slept on the common room floor in a hut I had made reservations at months ago. But it was certainly a way to wake up.
Todays the day. It’s Mount Washington day. 1 mile, 1100 feet, and we’d be on the highest summit in the northeastern US. After a quick bagel to fuel up, we hit the road. Now, here’s the thing about Daddy W (yes i’m calling washington that). It’s covered in clouds. like, ALWAYS covered in clouds. This morning was no exception. We walked for about 10 minutes, and the were clouded in.
How clouded in were we? Well, we walked up to the summit literally without realizing it. We only figured it out because the clouds cleared for about 10 seconds and we saw a weather tower literally right next to us. So that was a surprise. We were up there early, literally before the crew that opened the visitors center. That did mean that we had zero wait to take our picture with the sign!

We spent the next, oh, 3 hours just hanging out on the mountain? There was a good amount of stuff to do up there, and it was nice to sit around and do nothing for a while. But eventually it started to get crowded. So after getting a little food, I rolled on out around 11:30.
The way down was not any less pretty than the way up. AND the clouds finally cleared so I had a nice view for the majority of my afternoon. And the hiking was pretty easy. It was rocky, but pretty flat! I arrived at the last hut on the presidential range around 2:30, and ran into Lindsey. We sat around and hung out a little bit, but she headed out around 3:15, and I left about 15 minutes later.

The next stretch of trail was…. well really hard. There was a short, steep climb up Mount Madison, which was that bad. It was the down which was a real problem. It was 2 miles of steep, rocky, vertical decent. Those 2 miles took somewhere around, oh, 3 hours? Yeah it was tough. But I survived! And the campsite at the bottom was pretty cool. So all in all, a good day.
Mount Washington climbed! It feels kinda weird to have crossed that milestone. I feel like for so long we were talking about “oh when we do mount washington” and now we did it! Insanity. Yeah, that’s kinda all I got. Mind blowing.
Quote of the day: “Glad you didn’t die dude!”
Today Im grateful for clear skies, shoe traction, and mac n cheese.
Day 129:
I got woken up by a loud peel of thunder at 4:30 in the morning. Only problem? We were on a wooden tent platform, so I couldn’t stake out my rain fly. Most of me was still covered, but my backpack and shoes got quite wet by the time I was awake unfortunately.
Fortunately, we knew the storms would be coming, even if they were a little earlier than we expected. So , we were only doing 5 miles today, and then heading into town. We sped through the 5 miles, because the Pinkham Notch visitors center had a breakfast buffet we wanted to get to. And we made it with about 10 minutes to spare!
The rest of the day was really short. Into town, resupply, and lay around the hostel. That’s about all. But yeah, all in all a pretty fine day.
Quote of the day: “Surely it can’t be THAT bad”
Today I’m grateful for potatoes, sheets, and showers.
Day 130:
Ok I’m not gonna lie, I’m gonna have to keep this one short too. Not because it was a short day or anything, but because my eyes are literally closing as I’m trying to write this.
We decided to slackpack the wildcat and carter ranges today, effectively getting us through the rest of the white mountains. 21 miles. Here. We. Go.
The climb up wildcat mountain is literally the steepest on trail. And made no easier because of the rain. Im very glad we had our slack packs on. But even so, it still took us about an hour to climb. Then another hour or so to cross. Then 2 hours back down. By the time we reached the hut just before carter ridge, I knew this day was gonna take a while.

The carter dome climb was a little shorter than wildcat, but not by much. It was still incredibly steep and wet, so everything was slick. But on the summit we had a nice long traverse before we had to descend. The way down took a while, but we got there eventually. All in all the hike took almost 12 hours to finish. But just like that we’re out of the whites! And tomorrow, we get into Maine 👀.
That’s all I got the awakeness for tonight, sorry.
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