The New England Trail Part 1: From the Top! (sorta)

Hiking in the shoulder seasons bring a unique set of challenges. The weather is apt to swing to extremes, often from one day to the next. Winter gear? Summer gear? Both? You’ve got to be prepared for anything.

“Fortunately” for me, New England was hard hit by a nor’easter just a few weeks before I had planned to start my thru hike. My winter gear kit was packed. The weather warmed a little, snow melt started, but would it be enough? I had planned a southbound thru hike, which meant I’d be starting at the New Hampshire border of Massachusetts. Barely 18 miles south of Mt Monadnock’s 3000ft summit, snow on the ground was a guarantee, but just how much was the question. While I live in New England, I’m new here, snow shoeing and skiing are not in my skill set. My only snowy hiking was on my AT thru hike the year before.

I am a firm believer of not letting challenges scare me, but I also maintain an honest and humble assessment of my capabilities.

To add to the situation, my hiking buddy, Band Aid, was recovering from Covid, and wasn’t going to be able to join me at the start of the hike. Whatever decision I made, I was absolutely going to be going alone.
I turned to the trail resources. While the NET is still relatively young as a thru hike destination, it is extremely popular for section and day hiking. I tapped into online resources and Facebook groups to learn the latest trail conditions. There weren’t many trail maintainers or day hikers out and about yet, but I did discover a thru hiker, PTL, was making his way up from the southern terminus. I reached out to him as he passed through my town (a plus for living smack on the trail!), and he was due to summit a couple days before my start day. Perfect. I’d get current trail conditions, straight from the perspective of a thru hiker!

What next?

I sat back and waited for PTL’s summit. I kept up with my training, checked and rechecked my gear, made up my resupply, and over thought every little detail. You know, the usual pre hike routine. Most importantly, I came up with a Plan B. What would I do if the northern terminus was impassable? Would I wait it out, push back my start date another week? Unlike my AT hike, I had a time frame in which to accomplish this trail, so I didn’t want to waste any time. Should I start at the southern terminus instead? My heart was adamantly set on a waterfront finale. I settled for changing my start location. If trail conditions were unfavorable, I would start a little further south on a familiar section I used to train for the AT. The terrain was familiar and I knew there wasn’t much snow to worry about, whereas starting at the northern terminus was committing to a 4 day section of overnights and brand new territory once I started. Plan B was established, worry reduced, so I waited.

Soon enough. reports came back worse than I imagined.

Not only had PTL been forced to post hole and break new trail for much of the last 30 or so miles, the amount of blow downs caused by the storms had blocked and obliterated whole sections of trail. The recent reroutes were not updated on the Far Out app, so he spent large amounts of time just trying to find the trail. Yeah, he’s a beast. (Congrats PTL!) Part of my reason for doing the NET was to tackle a milder trail than the AT. No more post holing. Been there, done that, long live the #derrickknob9  Check out that story at https://thetrek.co/appalachian-trail/surviving-the-snow-in-the-smoky-mountains/


My original plan was 4 overnights. Unfortunately, the NET has few places to camp, and stealth camping is not permitted. My new start location was mile 43.5 (I know, it’s a missed opportunity, I should have started at mile 42). The next overnight location on trail was the Harold Akey tentsite, located at mile 89.7, so I’d start my thru hike with day hikes. The new plan was to hike a few days and then jump back up to the northern terminus, do the first 40 miles, and then hop down to continue south. So, if you want to be technical, my hike was a SOBO semi flip flop? I think?

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your hike is stay flexible!

Plan B set in motion, let’s go!