Whites here I Come!

Day 138 Hikers Welcome Hostel To Kinsman Notch — AT Daily Miles 9.5; AT Total Miles 1807.8

I didn’t sleep great in the bunkhouse, but I never do. That’s just part of staying in a shelter or a hostel for me. This hostel doesn’t allow tent camping due to bear activity. I’ll be here at least one more day waiting on my sleeping pad and possibly more because of thunderstorms coming through the area over the next three days. I really want to get my trek going but at the same time I don’t want to be above tree line during storms. I know they say no rain no pain no Maine but my hope is I can minimize the rain and the pain somewhat.

Today was actually one of my favorite days on trail. It was just under 10 miles. I did the hostel’s slackpack. That means I was shuttled to a trailhead and hiked back to the hostel with a much lighter pack. Since the hike was extremely steep it made a big difference. I was up on top of Mount Moosilauke within two hours and back at the hostel in less than six. It was incredible being above line and the view was outstanding. I wish the next two weeks could be as perfect but know otherwise.

Once back at the hostel, I had a quick shower and some light laundry and a good snack. After going into the small town to get some dinner, I came back to trail magic! Queen Diva served us all a great pasta dinner complete with salad and dessert of fudge brownies and chocolate mint ice cream. I couldn’t eat the dinner I had just bought and will need to save it for tomorrow.

Saving the food could actually work out in my favor. I’m not sure how many days I’m gonna stay at the hostel here to wait out the bad weather over the mountains and I have a lot of food to eat. There is no way I can carry everything I have at the current time. Again, I’m torn between wanting to get done but wanting to avoid potentially dangerous weather. The White Mountains are nothing to mess with and hikers often get seriously hurt if underestimating them. I still have time to be safe.

Heading Up Mt Moosilauke

Atop Mt Moosilauke

Moosilauke Sign

Day 139 Hikers Welcome Hostel Rest Day — AT Daily Miles 0; AT Total Miles 1807.8

It poured down rain all night and rained most of the day. Every time it let up, I was thinking I should be out on the trail. But as soon as I started thinking that way, it started to pour down rain again and made me feel better about my decision. The next two days will be marginally better with a 50% chance of rain. I don’t think I can sit still any longer though. I think I need to get going and then in three days when the weather is nice I will be further along and up higher to take advantage of the good weather then. Sounds good in theory at least.

I spent the day doing various things like eating a lot, calling family, and getting my pack ready for the upcoming hiking. My resupply is done. I’m just obsessing about all the details at the moment. Too much time on my hands is not a good thing with how my brain works. Doubts tend to creep in.

A rough plan will be to hike about 8 miles each of the next two days in the rain to get to Lincoln New Hampshire. From there, I may need to carry five days of food to get to the next resupply. I’m a little bit less than 100 miles from Maine and hope this section goes well and goes by quickly. I know I should slow down because the scenery is so beautiful, but I’m ready to finish up and get home to my family.

Patience Runs the Show

Queen Diva Fed Us!

View From My Bunk

Day 140 Kinsman Notch To Kinsman Pond Shelter — AT Daily Miles 11.5; AT Total Miles 1819.3

What a brutally tough day today was. It was only in the low 60s and it rained the entire day. In fact, since it rained yesterday too, the entire trail was like hiking in a stream bed. By the end of the day I was soaked from head to toe and quite chilled.

The day started innocently enough at the hostel. I was up by 5:30 AM and with a 8:30 AM shuttle scheduled. I had plenty of time for two breakfasts. The shuttle had me at the trailhead by 9:15 AM and I was off. I went into the rainy cloud that was to be my day. Most of the time I was pretty warm since it was a lot of uphill but if I didn’t keep moving, I quickly got chilled. I only stopped long enough to filter water and all my eating was while I was walking.

As I said above the entire hike seemed to be uphill. I went over Wolf Mountain, and the Kinsman South and North Mountains. The trails were incredibly steep and with the rain yesterday and today were flooded and slippery. On a dry sunny day it would’ve been a pleasant hike as the scenery was pretty nice. This day I was just hiking in a rainy cloud, so I saw very little, slipped a lot, and fell on my rear end once.

I was so happy to get to the shelter at 6 PM and immediately got out of my cold and wet clothes and got into dry ones. I collected water, set up my tent and sleeping pad, had dinner and turned in early, quite exhausted.

Tomorrow will be a short day of maybe 5 miles to get to the point where a shuttle will pick me up and take me to a hostel. I need resupply for five days and that’s gonna be heavy but there’s no other good option. I’m not looking forward to caring that much food weight.

Another point I wanted to make was that I nearly took today and tomorrow off because of the rainy weather. I decided to go ahead and endure it though so that when it’s nice the day after tomorrow and for the next few days after that I can really enjoy views and make some mileage in the Whites.

Hiking Towards South Kinsman

Atop North Kinsman

Kinsman Pond Shelter

Day 141 Kinsman Pond To Lincoln NH — AT Daily Miles 4.9; AT Total Miles 1824.2

Today I was up and on the trail by 7:15 AM. I give much of the credit to a fellow hiker named Mary Poppins. Mary is very knowledgeable and a lot of fun to chat with. Plus she has the best little dog companion named Daisy. It was so much fun to hike with her for 5 miles. Daisy and Mary Poppins even gave me a ride into town.

The trail itself was like hiking in a stream again. There were even stream crossings that were up to my upper leg and quite swift and dangerous. That’s what happens when mountains get a lot of rain in a short amount of time. I was much more concerned about little Daisy than for myself. In the end though, we all made it safely to the trailhead.

Once in town, I checked into the hostel and did my usual routine of shower, laundry, and resupply. Resupply was painful weight wise though, because I needed to carry five days worth of food to get to my next resupply point. Since hikers eat a lot and this particular stretch of trail is so steep and hard, it is going to be even tougher.

Technically, I’ve been hiking in the White Mountains  for two days but tomorrow feels more like the start to me. It will be a stretch where we start going over the presidential section like Mount Lincoln and Mount Washington for example. There’s about five days of good weather forecasted and I will need every one of them  to get to my next resupply point. Once there I will look at the weather and decide if I can keep going or need to take a short break. Stay tuned.

Very Wet Trail

Hiking with Mary Poppins

Day 142 Lincoln NH To Garfield Ridge Campsite — AT Daily Miles 10.1; AT Total Miles 1834.3

Today started on a bad note when I discovered I didn’t have my satellite communicator anymore. I went to get my backpack out of the shed and it was missing. My backpack had been moved by someone, but I don’t think a hiker would ever take it. I speculated I had left it a mile from the trailhead that I would be starting at. That meant my hiking day would start with a mile in reverse and then a mile back to the starting position. My 10 mile day was 12 miles but I only progressed forward the 10. And I never found the unit.

Today’s high was only in the mid 50s and it was our first big introduction to the White Mountains. Hiking over Mount Lafayette and Mount Lincoln were incredible. They were way above the tree line with seemingly unending views. The wind was wicked, but refreshing. Most of the day was sunshine, but just enough clouds to make it even more beautiful.

Over the next eight or nine days, I will go over several mountains each day and do somewhere around 5000 feet of elevation gain. Those are really tough days and the descents are so steep that it’s hard to make any kind of good time. Long days are 12 miles of hiking. If I can average 11 the next four days, I’ll get into the next town just as my food supply is running out. That’s motivation!

Tonight’s shelter is the Mount Garfield shelter. The elevation is just over 4000 feet so it’s forecast to be just in the mid 40s tonight. That is a lot colder than we’ve been used to for a very long time. It’ll take some getting used to again. It is really beautiful though with the pine trees all around.

Tomorrow’s goal us another 10 miles but hopefully I could do a few more. Looks like less climbing than today. The other bonuses are that we go very close to huts which are have hot food and maybe a pastry. Such a luxury for through hikers. I can’t wait!

Pine Tree Zone

Heading Towards Mt Lafayette

What a View!

Day 143 Garfield Ridge To Ethan Pond Campsite — AT Daily Miles 14.6; AT Total Miles 1848.9

Overall today turned out to be a great day. I say overall because I did have one mess up. While hiking with a fellow NOBO named Airhead, I missed a turn and didn’t realize my mistake until .8 miles later. And of course to fix the mistake I had to hike back .8 miles meaning I did an extra 1.6 miles on top of my AT miles. That’s a lot up in these mountains!

The signposts in the White Mountains are a little different than I’m used to. The AT uses other existing trails here under different names. Once in a while, they will put “AT” in parentheses but it’s very seldom. So if you’re not paying attention like in my case, you keep going straight when you should’ve made a turn. From now on, I will be checking my GPS app at every single sign post!

Another thing about the White Mountains is that they are so incredibly scenic. It will be hard to do my usual three photos per day hiked but I’ll just have to pick the best ones lol.

Huts are also unique in these mountains. The Appalachian Mountain Club runs them as well as the campsites. The huts typically have some very basic food and if you time it right, you get the leftovers that were made for the guests that stayed there. I had a couple bites of oatmeal and some cornbread at the first hut, but the next hut had no food left. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.

At the end of today, I’m going to count it as a winner. The weather was awesome and I was still able to make it to the target campsite despite the wrong turn. I didn’t have as much spare time in camp to relax before getting to sleep. That’s the penalty for my carelessness.

Tomorrow I’d love to get about another 12 to 14 miles in, but the trail will be much much harder. I really need to keep my average around 11 miles or more to make sure I beat the rain forecasted in three days and to get into the next town for a resupply. Wish me luck!

Hiking Buddy Airhead

South Twin Mountain

Ethan Pond

Day 144 Ethan Pond To Lake Of The Clouds Hut — AT Daily Miles 14.0; AT Total Miles 1862.9

Today ended up being a very special day. I climbed three mountains, Webster, Jackson, and Pierce. By the end of the day, I had put in 14 miles and decided to reward myself with a stay in an Appalachian Mountain Club hut, Lake of the Clouds. They had a cancellation and when given the choice between staying in what they call the dungeon or pay more for a room that a six course meal is included with, I splurged

Today was very hard with uphill most of the way. We climbed from the Crawford Notch, which was about 1500 feet in elevation, to the three mountains which were around 4000 feet. Kind of funny that the hut I’m staying at is all the way up at 5000 feet of elevation, much higher in elevation than those three mountains.

I hiked again with Airhead today. He is a very strong hiker, stronger than me, and is 70 years old. I can’t keep up with him. We share a similar life experience and it’s fun to have someone to chat with. It makes the monotony of the trail go by quicker. Scenery has also been spectacular, especially when you’re up above the tree line.

Tomorrow I will try to get a relatively early start and get over Mount Washington within about an hour of leaving here. Thunderstorms are in the forecast and I want to get off the high summits and down to a lower elevation as quickly as possible. Fingers crossed the weather stays nice for us. It might be a couple days off hiking while a storm front moves through. I hope not but have to be safe.

Above the Tree Line

Presidential Range Trekking

Lake of the Clouds Hostel