Days 107-122

Gorham, NH, through The White Mountains, to Hanover, NH

Day 107

12.7 miles today, under great weather. We're now really getting into the White Mountains and they are beautiful. They are huge and hard work, but worth it.

We're carrying 2 days of food, enough to get us to Pinkham Notch where the hostel is dropping off our other 6 days that will get us out of The Whites and to the next town. We figured this will break up some of our weight to make going up the huge mountains somewhat bearable.

Tonight we are stealth camping a Zeta Pass. Stealth camping is where you camp somewhere alongside the trail, rather than a shelter or designated campsite, we usually go for preexisting stealth spots. We are trying to avoid paying for the shelters and huts in the whites as much as we can so stealth camping it is. There's actually a list of preferred stealth camping spots that has circulated through the thruhiker bubbles. I had a random northbounder hiking by a few days ago give me a paper copy of most the sites, she even wrote comments to many of the sites. It's crazy how news, info, and helpful hints spread like wildfire up and down the trail. 

Tomorrow we take on the Wildcat Mountains.

Day 108

Last night as I was hanging the bear bag and we were doing all our nightly rituals, we heard a large animal creeping around our tent in the brush. We weren't sure what it was but my first though was that it's a bear, so I made a fire in hopes that it would ward off any visitors to the tent. And we were off to sleep. At about 4am we woke up to what sounded lie horse hoofs walking in our camp, so I unzipped the tent and with my headlamp saw a moose (maybe 2) walking by! I finally got my moose sighting, they were gone before Cathrine looked. And we were back to sleep until 8:30ish.

We were on our way to stop by the Carter Hut, in the first part of our day and kept hearing helicopters flying around. One of our first thoughts were that they were search and rescue. As we were coming down Carter Dome we caught a nice view of the mountains ahead of us and the valley below with some ponds and the Carter Hut. We had been looking for the helicopters above us for a good while, until here, we were looking down on it as it was flying to and from the Hut, bringing in supplies and taking out what I would guess to be garbage.

When we got down to the hut we refilled on water and had lunch while we watched the helicopter come and go, flying right over our heads. We talked to the workers at the hut who said the helicopter would make about a dozen trips to and from the hut today, and that this event happens only twice a year. We felt really lucky to have been able to witness it, sometimes you forget how remote it is out in the woods and you need a helicopter to remind you.

After that, we climbed the beastly Wildcats, that took a large portion of our day. We then climbed down to Pinkham Notch, the mile climb down took us almost 3 hours. It was a long, treacherous way down. We got our food drop from the visitors center (we were worried it wouldn't be there because the shuttle guy at the hostel was very forgetful, the employee at the visitor center said it was just recently dropped off)

It was 5pm and we decided would hike on for a bit until we found a good stealth spot, so that we would be set up better to take on the presidential range tomorrow. We hear Mt Madison is a butt whoop.

About a mile and a half out of Pinkham Notch, as we were walking, I heard a chewing noise and looked over, and about 15ft off the trail, there was a moose just munching away on some leaves. 2 in 1 day! We stood there for a minute to take him in, I tried to snap some good photos, but didn't want to get too close, and the brush was too thick to get anything good.

Tomorrow we take on Mt Washington.

Cathrine's Perspective-

Hiked down Carter Dome early on in the day. Heard a helicopter off in the distance. Then we came out to a clearing and saw a small helicopter going down to one of the  huts, It was Carter Notch hut. The helicopter had a long rope on it. It picked up a propane tank and flew away. Then it kept coming back and forth dropping off supplies lumbar, stone, etc. It was literally feet from us because it kept flying back and forth until we made our way off the mountain to the hut. It was blowing my clothes and hair every which way. It was awesome! Apparently that only happens twice a year and we saw it! Then we had a steep climb up out of the hut up Wildcat Mountain. Whew what a climb! I collapsed playfully on a rock at our first view. They sure do make short order of these mountains. Straight up, straight down. We came to an old ski gondola. That was pretty cool we poked around a bit. It looked abandoned but it still had some signs of recent use. Joe was able to give Earls sock to some ladies going north, who planned on staying at the cabin. We made it down to Pinkham Notch and got some trail magic!!! Gatorade, orange, and mini snickers for Joe and I. I forgot to mention how treacherous coming down Wildcat was. It said in the book rocky crevasse and it was a very steep descent but we eventually made it off the mountain. I heard some loud hoof noises last night and Joe looked out and it was two moose! I was bummed I was too lazy to look out the tent at the time. Later on I started talking about it after we pushed on from Pinkham Notch (because it was too expensive to stay at ) and then Joe said, "Cathrine, it's a moose!" I looked over and low and behold there was a cute, huge moose chomping away at some leaves. Joe tried to get a picture but brush obscured a good shot from being taken. The moose has pretty much been munching around our camp and Joe has been trying to chase it down. 

Day 109

We had a huge storm roll in at 11:30ish last night. It poured rain for probably 3 hours, we laid awake and listened to it until it stopped.

We woke up to partly cloudy skys and decided we would walk as far as the Madison Hut and determine if the weather would be good for us to move on and take on Mt. Washington. Mt. Washington has some of the most unpredictable weather on earth, so we didn't want to mess around. Google Mt Washington facts, its a pretty cool place. 

The hike up Mt Madison was long but not as crazy it had been built up to be, maybe Cathrine and I just build things up in our minds. The weather up there on Madison was intense though. We found ourselves in a thick sheet of fog, about 15ft of visibility. Wind gusts were averaging 55mph, we were told the record wind for the day on Mt Washington was 70mph. The fog cleared up as the day progressed and we got some unbelievable views. 

We got to the Madison Hut as 2ish and went in for some soup. They said it would be 15 minutes, we waited 45, and it wasn't ready so we decided to move on and take on a few of the presidentials and aim for the Lake of the Clouds Hut on the other side of Mt Washington.

A long 13.8 miles over multiple mountains, but it was beautiful, one of the best days yet for sure.

We summited Mt Washington at 6pm and aimed straight for the snack bar. The worker there had just closed up, we barely missed closing time by 5 minutes! He offered to let us in real quick and grab what we wanted and we were in heaven.

We stuffed our sandwhiched down and were on our way, 1.5, miles to Lake of the Clouds before the sun went down.

We got here at 7:30, paid $10 to stay in "The Dungeon", an emergency bomb shelter looking room attached to the outside of the hut. It beats paying $120/bunk in the hut. they offered us work for stay, but we were tired and just wanted to go to bed. We paid another $10 for dinner leftovers that the paying guests didnt eat: pulled pork, mashed potatoes, greenbeans, rolls, and salad. It was delicious.

Day 110

11.5 miles today, we're stealth camping near Crawford Notch. Im proud of the mileage we've been doing through the whites, whiles at the same time keeping our heads.

Neither of us slept well last night, the dungeon was sketchy so Cathrine snuck back into the hut and slept on a bench because she was freaked out. Apparently no one noticed her because of the style of her sleeping bag, she just looked like a big trashbag on the bench, and the employees dont really care either way. 

We took our time hiking today, the weather couldn't have been better, clear as could be. We stopped and talked to most everyone we came across. Still seeing tons of people we knew from before we flipped.

Cathrines Perspective-

I didn't write in my journal last night because I was exhausted and so much happened. We made it up Madison. It was a long climb up but once we made it pass the tree line I didn't care that it kept going up, because it was awesome. A giant misty cloud obscured Madison and we just saw rocky peak, upon rocky peak leading up to what would be the summit if we could see it. We kept coming across people who would tell us the conditions and what the experience was like for them... "70 mile an hour wind gust", "should clear up by 3 o'clock", "visibility about 50 feet". One guy had his pack cover blown off. We are pretty sure we found it on mt. Adams. I kept asking Joe initially when we were above treeline if we should continue hiking, but we just kept taking one step at a time. At some points it was clear, at others a cloud would blow in and I could only see to the next cairn. A little freaky. The wind was so strong I couldn't keep my pack cover on, it just flew in the wind hanging on by a piece of Velcro. Tried to get soup at the Madison hut but it took too long. Climbed two more presidentials, the fog cleared even though it was still windy. Really fun hiking Adams and Jefferson so high up above tree line with amazing views. I told Joe what a fun trip it would be to do with family, not to hard of hiking. Joe said that our standards of hard hiking have changed and it would probably be very difficult to do as a section hike. We pressed on to Mount Washington ( the highest peak north and east of Tennessee with unpredictable weather). As we made our way up we caught sight of the last cog train full of people going down the mountain. Joe ran and caught a photo of the train. It was hilarious because I could see everyone pull out there cameras and take photos of us, and then wave back at us. We are pretty much like wild animals on display up here. I told Joe we are going to be in so many peoples photo albums. In fact hiking down from Washington today a day hiker whipped out his camera and took a picture of us as we came around the corner, without talking to  us first. They were closing up the visitor center as we go to the Mount Washington Summit but one of the employees was kind enough to let us buy some food before we hit the trail to hike down to the lake of the clouds hut, for a stunning absolutely stunning sunset. We contemplated doing work for stay as a guest but we were told by some northbounders to pay the 10 bucks to stay in what is known as the dungeon. So we immediately fork over the money to stay in the dungeon. The dungeon... it reminded me of a gas chamber from the holocaust. It had one steel door and four stone walls. I could probably touch both ends of the room if I did an ornate yoga pose. It also had one tiny window that was kind of boarded up. Its actually supposed to be used as an emergency refuge in severe weather. I asked that the door be left cracked open but it was so windy and the door squeaked. I gave up and went upstairs and slept on a wooden bench. I thought I heard the guys banging on the metal door trying to escape but then I decided it was just the wind (sounded like a giant trying to blow the hut away). Joe told me later he was afraid I'd get lost trying to get into the main hut or I'd get blown away. Some guy got his pack off the bench I was sleeping on, I poked my head out and caught him off guard because he didn't know I was there. We hiked on in the morning. I forgot to mention Teddy Bear and True South got denied stay at the Madison hut and hiked off Mount Washington in the dark! They stayed in the dungeon with us (also Osprey a northbounder we met in Va/W. Va). Calmer weather this morning and amazing views. Met up with Naturally Hob and his wife. This is their second time hiking the AT and he is a really a really sweet older guy. He gave Joe and I both two thin mints each (he also gave us some the first time we met him in Va). I guess he was having some health issues and isn't even supposed to be hiking but he is anyways ( he's probably in his mid to late 60's). Lost the trail for a bit today, that was scary and had a long painful downhill. Stealth camping tonight.  

Day 111

We walked 7.3 miles to a good stealth site a quarter mile or so short of the Zealand Falls Hut. Today was smooth, easy hiking, when people tell you about the whites they dont mention the 7 mile flat stretch right in the middle of it. We're camping just shy of our next big climb so tomorrow we'll be back into the straight up and straight down. We have like 50 more miles until Mt Moosilauke, the last big climb for us to get out of the whites.

For lunch we stopped at a river and soaked our legs and feet while we took our time eating. It was a lazy day for sure, but well deserved. I got to catch up on some harmonica playing and we ran into our old friend Poncho who we hadn't seen since Virginia.

We got to where we are staying tonight at about 12:30 and had the rest of the day to chill. We left our packs and walked the quarter mile to the zealand falls hut. Here we ate a few bowls of their triple beans soup and drank lemonade. There wasnt much going on around there so we sat and chatted with one of the workers for a good while. He didnt charge us for the lemonade and told us to come by at around 8:15 tomorrow for some free breakfast leftovers!

We got back here at about 2ish, set up the tent, I played harmonica some more, Cathrine read her book, I spent about an hour hanging the best bear bag Ive ever hung, we had dinner, its almost 6 and we'll be asleep soon. Looks like a rough day tomorrow going over South Twin Mountain.

Cathrines Perspective-

Took an easy day today and it was awesome! The uphill frustrated me partly because I was irritated about all the long uphills and downhills. We passed a couple northbounders I was hitting my walking sticks on rocks to try and vent some of my frustration and a northbounder walked up. I told him it made me feel better to hit the rocks today. He didin't look amused. We finally hit some soft, flat trail. I spotted a stream and figured it was about lunch time and we covered a fair amount of ground by that point so I asked Joe if he wanted to stop for a break and soak our feet. He thought it was a good idea so a good chunk of time we basked in the sun and soaked our burning, twitching feet in ice cold water. It was awesome. I experienced my first shin splints today so it is good we took it easy and only did 7.3 miles. We are staying at a cool stealth spot. We walked up to the hut and finally got some soup, triple bean. It was delicious. They do know how to do soup up here. One of the zealand hut workers hooked it up for us and didn't charge us for lemonade ( a dollar a cup usually). We talked to him for a while and he told us to come back tomorrow at 8:15 for breakfast leftovers, free of charge. It is typically free of charge but the other hut workers have been kind of rude. Real nice guy so I tipped him. Joe and I have just been hangin out which has been really nice. He worked on the bear bag for a while but its the best one I've seen, perfect to regulation. 

Day 112

We got our breakfast this morning- pancakes, oatmeal, and broccoli, definitely beats spam and poptarts.

Todays 9.8 went by fast, we got to the closest hut, Galehead Hut, at about noon where we took our time eating some soup and bread over a game of chess. Storms were in the forecast for the afternoon so we were keeping our eye on that since alot of our day would be spent above treeline.

We had 3 miles to the Garfield campsite where we planned on staying so we just went for it.

We got here just as it started sprinkling and had the tent set up right before the downpour.

Not many other people here and there are tons of spots but the caretaker over the site for some reason decided to squeeze us all in the same area. We were hoping to catch up on some sleep but I dont think thats going to happen tonight. We also just realized Cathrine left her wallet at the last hut.

Day 113

Irony is when then hippies in the tent next to yours say that they dont wear any synthetic fabrics because the petroleum is bad for your body, but then brag about who got more messed up at the last party they went to. They were very chatty and loud and didnt stop talking from the time they got there, around 6, until I told them to be quiet after having enough, around 11pm.

We determined that Cathrine had to of left her wallet on the bench at the Galehead Hut. Last night we asked the campsite caretaker to radio them to see it they had anything turned in, he did, and nothing had turned up. We have been to enough huts now to know how hard they looked for the wallet. I knew it was there. So this morning I got up at 6:30 and ran the 3 miles, backtracking to the hut. I saw her wallet right where we left it as soon as I walked in the door. I ran the 3 miles back and returned by 8:30 to show Cathrines what I had found. Her cash, credit card, ID, and Iphone were all still there! Losing any of those things would have been a huge damper on the trip or possibly even put an end to it.

So after running 6 miles before 9am, we were packed and ready to hike another 7.6 by 9:30. 

Today we hiked over Franconia Ridge, some of the landmark sights so see in the whites. We wernt expecting to see tons of people up there, but it was gorgeous none the less. Its weird sometimes sharing these views with so many other people because we're used to getting so many of them all to ourselves. I could be wrong but I think today had some of our last panoramic views of the trip, we really took our time taking lots of breaks to soak it all in. Awesome weather for Franconia, we've been really lucky.

We're at Liberty Springs Campsite tonight. Set up the tent by 3 and had the whole afternoon to do nothing. We're about 3 miles from the road where we'll hitch into Lincoln, NH, where we will get to spend our day tomorrow.

Day 114

We had a quick 2.7 miles down the hill to the road where we called Mt Liberty Motel & Cabins. They were there within 10 minutes to pick us up.

They let us have one oof their cabins, rather than a motel room for the same price because they're in between seasons and the tourists are nowhere to been seen. We have the place to ourselves.

We got cleaned up and they took us into Liberty to get lunch and our resupply.

We're doing a 9 mile day to Eliza Brook Shelter tomorrow.

Day 115

We took our time getting out of the cabin this morning. The owner was nice enough to swing us by McDonalds before taking us back to the trail. It's been a while since either of us have eaten at McDonalds and we are disgusted at ourselves for ever having craved it. We were even more disgusted that we actually really enjoyed it. Ok, no more McDonalds.

We ran into Derrick while eating. We last saw him at Delaware Water Gap, right before we flipped to start hiking south. This is about the halfway point (give or take a few miles) where we should have seen him. He looked excited to take on the whites. We chatted for a bit and caught up and the was back to pick us up and we were back on the trail, ready to take on the last 2 mountains if the whites.

Today we did 8.8 miles over the Kinsman Mountains and made it to the Eliza Brook Shelter. We're finally making our way out of AMC territory, so we can camp for free again at shelters.

We hit our 1200 mile mark today! Tomorrow we plan to hike 9 miles and make our way halfway up Mt. Moosilauke, the last huge mountain we have to climb until we get to the Smokies in NC/Tn in about a month or so.

Day 116

We made it 9 mile to Beaver Brook Shelter today. A hard, but pretty hike up Mt. Moosilauke, the trail pretty much followed along a steep waterfall. Tomorrow it may rain, if it does we're going to zero in the tent up here on the mountain, rather than try to hike down the other side of Moosilauke. This mountain is known for being treacherous, apparently a trail runner died on it just a few days ago, or so we're told.

Day 117

It has poured rain nonstop all day. I left the tent once to retrieve our food, hanging in the shelter. We did nothing all day, luckily we have 4g up here so I downloaded the BFG audiobook to my phone. It's been our entertainment for the day. 

We talked about sucking it up and hiking the 8 miles to the next road, but 5 miles of it is downhill off of Moosilauke. We dont know how dangerous it is and figured it's not worth it. Looks like the rain will let up later tonight. Maybe we can make up our lost mileage tomorrow.

Day 118

We were out of camp by 9am this morning. It was our coldest morning yet, I bet it got below freezing over night because my thermometer read 35 as we were eating breakfast. We were ready to finally get off of Moosilauke .

When we summited Moosilauke it was about 10am. Our last mountain of the whites! The temperature was in the low 30's with 30mph winds, visibility was awful. The hike down the mountain wasnt nearly as intense as the climb up. (We could have done it yesterday, but better safe than sorry). Again I had 4g on my phone so we listened to the Christmas station on Pandora as we made our way down.

As soon as we made it off the mountain, the trails were back to normal. For the first time in a month it felt like we were hiking and not rock climbing. It feels great to be able to hike as fast as we want again and not have not have to take on a new obstacle every 20 feet.

We made it to NH25 where we walked down to the "Hikers Welcome Hostel" .4 down the road. We were depending on them to take us into Warren where we planned on resupplying on the 4 days of food to get us to Hanover, NH. We waited around for 2 hours and they finally took us. My theory is that they were waiting until later to take us so that we would be more inclined to stay at their establishment because perhaps the later it got, the less motivated we would be to hike on. (If this was their plan, it had the opposite effect) 

We got our most expensive resupply yet at an overpriced has station. (The only one for miles and miles so I guess they could charge whatever they want) Beggars cant be choosers. We got subs, hotdogs, fresh vegetables, and yogurt to munch on for dinner.

We got back to the hostel, got our gear together and hit the trail at 5pm to find a stealth site down the trail so that we wouldnt have to pay $30 to tent outside of that grimy hostel. Hopefully some more warmer days are in store.

Day 119

Another chilly day, I dont think it broke 50 degrees, we're hoping its a cold front and not our weather from here on out.

After having breakfast in the tent (probably a new tradition) to avoid the cold, we were hiking by 8am. A smooth 12.6 miles today. We're lovin the normal terrain,

We got to the Hexacuba Shelter at 1:30ish just as the cold rain began to fall. It got sandwich supplies at the gas station yesterday so we made some of those up. Now we're laying in the tent freezing our butts off. We've been listening to Jack London audiobooks, they make the weather we're having seem not as cold.

Day 120

Another frigid morning, very, very cold. The sun finally came out and it began to warm up on our way down Smart Mountain. It was great to see the sun again. 

We stopped by Bill Ackerly's house AKA "The Icecream Man". He lives right off the trail and invites hikers to some free icecream and to sit around and chat. He has a log he has hikers sign. He takes pride in having the most complete list of thru hikers on the trail (atleast until more southbounders hit Harpers Ferry and register with the ATC). He was very nice to us and we talked with him while I ate my ice cream bar and Cathrine ate her popsicle around his wood burning stove.

We hied 17.6 miles today, 6 more than we planned, with the nice weather, terrain and few extra hours of daylight we figured why not. We were cruising.

10 miles to Hanover omorrow. We will probably zero there to rest our bodies before we kick it into high geat through Vermont and the following states.

There was a section hiker, John, atthe shtler last night who we talked to while we were making dinner. He randomly started throwing up everything, mid conversation, it was gross and he down played it like nothing happened. I almost lost sleep last night that he had the zombie virus and would turn in the middle of the night and come try to eat our brains. I told Cathrine my thoughts on it this morning and she said the same thing crossed her mind and that she's been spending too much time with me.

Day 121

We had a smooth 10.9 miles into Hanover. Got into town at around 1pm and headed straight for the post office. Jessica, Brock, and the kids sent us a package with some delicious homemade snacks and quality toilet paper! Also Miriam sent us a good luck fairy. Thanks yall! Cathrine got to send home a few miscelaneous items that have just been taking up space in her pack. While I took over watching the packs outside the post office, a girl asked if we were thru hikers and offered to give us a ride where ever we needed to go. She thru hiked in 2011 so she knows how hard it can be for us to get aroound town. She made our lives much easier.

We got a quick and east ride to the Sunset Motor Inn, which is actually much cleaner on the inside than we thought it would be.

After getting cleaned up, we got a ride on the city bus back into town and get dinner at a Thai place. We missed the last bus back to the motel so we loaded up on candy at the gas station and walked the 2 miles down the road.

Tomorrow we plan to hang around town and meet up with some family on Cathrines side who live in the area.

Day 122

Today was a great day to not hike! We woke up to a cold drizzle and laid in bed until 10:30ish, that's when Cathrine's cousin, Susan, drove up to take us away on a day of sightseeing in New Hampshire and Vermont.

She took us to check out the Quechee Gorge, it was nice o get a good view without having to burn 4,000 calories and half our day. We also went to the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park and learned some neat history. It was so refreshing to do some normal things that wernt hiking related for a day. It was awesome of Susan to come see us on her day off and wheel us around. Thank you Susan! She also to us by the grocery store where we got a quick resupply, enough food to get us to Killington, VT. We then went by Eastern Moutain Sports to pick up some gloves for our ever frozen fingers. We hung out at an Italian restaurant for a bit where we met up with Cathrine's Uncle Kevin.

We said our goodbyes to Susan and jumped in Kevin's car and made our way to Kevin and Lisa's house where we are staying tonight. Lisa had a delicious dinner prepared or us, her BBQ made me think we were back in North Carolina for a minute. Cathrines cousins Josh and Jacob also joined us for dinner. They are very hospitable. Getting to play with all their dogs was a nice treat too!

We were very spoiled today with so much family. 

Cathrine got her covered bridge fix today, we've been looking forward to Vermont for some covered bridge action. We saw 3 or 4 cool ones, including the longest one in the world (allegedly)

Tomorrow we get back on the trail and make our way over the Vermont border, ready to take on another state!