The Last State

I feel like a broken record when I say that we got a late start out of town and our packs were way to heavy with food. Grad School and I decided that we were going to push to the shelter just over the Maine border. The terrain was not horrible but had many ups and downs which slowed us way down. We hit the border sign in the dark and made our way to Carlo Col Shelter (17 miles even).

On the 10th we hiked 16.5 miles to Baldpate Lean-To across some of the hardest terrain we have seen. The Mahoosuc Notch and Arm are well talked about as being very tough. The notch is a large bolder field were you have to climb, hop, and squeeze under huge rocks. This was fun for about 40 minutes and then became very strenuous. We made it through the 1.1 mile notch in about one hour and 40 minutes. The arm is a straight up 1600 feet in 1.4 miles not an easy task. However what killed me was the constant short steep ups and short steep downs for the 8 miles before the Mahoosucs.

The next day was a little bit easier but was no cake walk. We went over four more mountain with a fair amount of steep climbing. We ended the day 18 miles in at a campsite right next to South Arm Road. When Redwood got off the trail he kept the tent we were sharing and I took an old rain fly from Chet's place (as a make shift shelter). However we knew it was going to rain and Grad School is caring a 1.5 person tent so we squeezed in together. It made for a hot, humid, and very smelly night.

Starting on the 12th we wanted to put in some more big days to get to Caratuck, ME by the 16th and give us plenty of time to finish Maine. We ended up doing 21.6 miles to Little Swift River Pond Campsite to set up an in and out of Rangeley. This was the first day in Maine that did not kill me physically. The last several miles we could actually hike and move at a decent pace. This night I actually set up the "trap" and it kept me dry when it rained for 15 minutes in the middle of the night. However it did not keep the bugs out.

The next morning we got moving fairly early because we were heading to town (Rangeley, ME). With a quick hitch we made it to the post office, then hit a dinner, and then raided the grocery store. With another quick hitch we were back on the trail in just over 3 hours and climbing up Saddleback Mountain. Crossed over The Horn and then Saddleback Junior and then found a place to camp on a logging road part way up Lone Mountain. We covered 20.2 miles.

The next day seemed a bit unlike other parts of the AT because we climbed up the sides of several mountains but never went directly over the top. The hardest, steepest, and longest of them came at the end of the day to Horns Pond Lean-Tos where we spent the night. Total milage for the day was 22 miles. Another odd thing about this day and the past several days was the large number of kids groups out hiking the trail. I guess Maine on the AT is the place to be in the summer.

On Friday we needed to do as many miles as possible so on Saturday we could get to the post office in Caratuck before 11:30am. In the morning we still had 10 miles of mountains before the terrain flattened out like a pancake. After leaving early we were able to make it to the third shelter Pierce Pond Lean-To, 27.5 miles away. My feet were hurting but it felt good doing a huge day (my biggest I think) and still got in before any of the previous days.

This left a short 4 mile down hill walk to town. In that stretch, we had what is known as the most dangerous stream crossing on the trail. Upstream is a hydroelectric dam making the large fast moving Kennebec river's current even move unpredictable. The ATC has a person ferry hikers across by canoe. When we got to the post office I found out that my packages were not there. In most towns not a huge problem but Caratunk is not most towns. There is nothing but houses, the post office, and a restaurant/bar two miles away. I only had snacks left and need food to get to Monson, ME which is two days away. I was lucky because a section hiker was ending his trip and had leftovers that he gave me. Also the hiker box at the post office had enough to get me to Monson. We hitched to the restaurant/bar to get burgers and hitched back. That afternoon we climbed over Pleasant Pond Mountain to Bald Mountain Brook Lean-To finishing the day a 18.7 miles.

The 17th was our first of several lazy days to come. We left the shelter late (9:30am) climbed to the top of Moxie Bald Mountain and then the rest of the day was down hill. And I mean down hill. We planned to only go 13 miles to Horseshoe Canyon Lean-To and that's all we did. We got there around 4pm and relaxed the rest of the day. At some point over the last few day my feet have started hurting more then normal (blisters on the inside of both heels) and it was nice to be horizontal in a shelter by the middle of the afternoon.

The morning of the 19th we moved quickly over fairly easy terrain to make it to the post office in Monson. My boxes from Caratuck were to be forward to Monson and arrive on Tuesday morning, so we modified our plans to stay the night in town. Monson is a small town but is a haven for hikers both heading north and those coming south. When we leave here, it starts the 100 Mile Wilderness. It is a long stretch of untouched land with many lakes and ponds with little to no signs of human influences. For north bounders, this means the last resupply, laundry, hot shower, town food before finishing. So it is nice to soak it in before heading off in the morning.

LEGO

The Whites

Annmarie served us another good healthy breakfast and then Peter drove us back to the trail. On the way, we stopped and picked up "Grad School" and then dropped off all of our food at Chet's One Step at a Time Hostel. We did this because we were planning to hike from Kinsman Notch to Franconia Notch and stay at the hostel. Our bags felt super light (around 20 pounds) and after taking a zero we were feeling fairly rested. The climb up Mt Wolf was not bad at all. After lunch we climbed our second 4000 footer, South Kinsman Mountain. On our way to the notch we stopped at Lonesome Lake Hut for some water. One of the caretakers gave us dinner because they only had two guest that night and they had leftovers. She was also bribing us to stay with fireworks, good music, and beer. We had to push on with our food still in Lincoln. By the time we hit the road it was late and on a holiday (4th of July) hitching was going to be nearly imposable so we called a shuttle. Back at the hostel we met many more thur-hikers. It included "Patches", "Backflip", "Mile High", and "High Life" all of which we have hear of through the trail registers.

The events of the next morning were not expected but did not come completely out of the blue. Redwood woke up really not feel all that great. Over the past few days he had been experiencing major shifts in energy, headaches, a fever one night, and several large red rashes on his upper body. He needed to be checked out by a doctor because he was in no condition to go on and climb mountains. After some discussion he went to the doctors while "Grad School" and I (LEGO) would hike on.. After some more days of rest and still not feeling better he made the difficult decision to head home. More then 1800 miles into the trail is a huge accomplishment but for a thur-hiker it is hard to let go of the dream of Katahdin. Luckily the trail will be hear when Redwood is ready and health to finish it.

We left late but decided to do a big day anyway. The climbs in the White Mountains are not to be taken lightly. We climb up to Little Haystack 2200 feet over three miles then followed the ridge above tree line over Lincoln, and Lafayette. Then we dipped back through the trees and climbed steeply up and steeply down Garfield. We stopped at Galehead Hut to cook dinner and then finished with a climb over South Twin Mointain before descending to Zealand Falls Hut. After hitting over five peak higher then 4000 feet and going 19.6 miles my feet and knees called it quits. We rolled in the Zealand late with our head lamps on and slept on the porch.

Then next morning we talked to the caretackers at Zealand Hut and they were cool with letting us sweep the floors to work off our stay. In the Whites usually two thur-hikers can work-for-stay and get dinner and braekfrst leftovers for a short 30 minute job. That day there were six of us. After sweeping the floor we hiked the easy terrain to Crawford Notch and then climbed the steep and endless climb up into the Presidental Range to Misspah Hut. We left the hut around 4pm in hopes to make it to Lake of the Clowds Hut before an evening storm was predicted to come. We made it about one mile (on top of Mt Perice/Clinton) before we could see the ridge trail and the very dark clouds to the east. At this point the wind was gusting around 40-50 mph and we were above tree line and would have stayed above tree line until the next hut. We quickly made a decision that neither of us liked but knew was the smart one and we turned around and head back for Mizpah Hut. After some begging we were allowed to be the forth and fifth hikers to do work for stay. Total milage ended up only being 14.1 miles.

On the 7th I had some choices but Grad School had to make it to Gorham NH by Saturday before noon to pick up a mail drop. So we pushed to Pinkham Notch and did 19.4 miles across the entire Presidential Range. In the morning there were still heavy clouds and wind from last nights storm giving us no views. After a short break at Lake of the Clouds Hut we summited Mt Washington (6288 feet). As we descanted the mountain the clouds started to lift giving us a good views of the second half of the range. This was the most spectacular part of the entire AT. We walk for hours above tree line giving us 360 degree views the whole time. Once again we made a stop at a hut (Madison) and then started the long decent off the range down into the notch. This was one of the most painful descant we have done so far. We ended up stealth camping close to the road.

On the 8th, we wanted to get close to Gorham, NH so we could get in and out of town. As we left the notch, we climbed very steeply up to the Wildcat Mountain. This was more like rock climbing but with a full pack on your back. A few miles later we had another steep down and up to get to Carter Dome. From there the rest of the day was not easy but it was easier in comparison. We went over a few more peck and started the long descent toward town. We made the decision sometime in the afternoon that we would push the 1.8 mile past the last shelter and go in to town and stay in a hostel. The day ended up being 21.5 miles and now I have less then 300 miles to Katahdin.

LEGO

NJ > NH

Sorry for the long delay and the long post but this should catch you up with where we are. Picking up from where we left off:

Carmen fed us once again but this time it was a delicious pancake breakfast before driving us back to the Delaware Water Gap, PA. It was nice to say "good bye and good ridens" to Pennsylvania for a second time. The next shelter was more then 25 miles away so we planned to make it a short day and stop at Mohican Outdoor Center at 10.3 miles. The nice thing about the MOC is that it sits on a lake (where we swam), has a large communal lodge (where we charged our phones and drank sodas) and they allow thru-hikers camp for free.

On the 8th, we hiked the 20.9 miles to Glen Anderson Shelter. The small pointy rocks from Pennsylvania have completely disappeared but New Jersey does still have rocks and they still hurt your feet. About 4 miles before the shelter we crossed a road with a bar about 500 feet off the trail. We grabbed a quick bite to eat with a few other hikers (Inchworm & Sprocket, Teen Bean & Green Mile, and Calf). This helped fuel us up the last climb of the day.

The next morning we left early (5:30am) because we knew the temperature and humidity where going to be through the roof. We made good time getting to the next shelter and ran into Cascade and this dog Sierra who we had not heard from in over a week. Hiking together and still making good time we made it to High Point State Park Headquarters by 10am. We left Cascade and Sierra (who were heading to the nearest town) as we moved closer to the High Point. Before getting there we left the trail with Calf for a sandy beach and water to cool us off from the 90 plus degree weather. Once cooled we walked up to the High Point (highest peak in NJ) and climbed the 191 step tower. We ended the day after 18.4 miles at a privately owned shelter that was off the trail. It was basically a small four walled building with electrical outlets and the owner brought us a fan and drove us to and from town. There were a large crowd of hikers which made for a good time.

There were four exciting things that happened on our way to Wawayanda Shelter 18.6 miles away. The first three were bears. That's right LEGO saw three bears in one day (Redwood missed the first one). For all of the encounters the bear heard us first and then ran away which then we heard as crashing thorugh the trees. The other exciting thing that we crossed was a boardwalk that was about a mile long over a swamp. It was pretty cool.

On the 11th there were poorly placed shelters at either 14.3 miles or 26.3 miles. We ended up making a big push to Fingerboard Shelter 26.3 miles away. In the morning it was lightly raining which ended up delaying our departure time. We ended up moving fairly slowly in the morning because a majority of the time was spent on exposed slippery rocks. By the time we stopped for late lunch we had left New Jersey and entered New York and had walked 14 miles. We started hiking with "Teen Bean" and "Green Mile" after lunch were there were several short steep climbs and descents once again slowing our progress. Right after turning on our head lamps we entered a rock feature called the lemon squeezer. Its a narrow passage between two huge rocks and in most cases removing your pack is required to fit through. It was followed by a short 7 foot straight vertical climb. The next several miles seemed to take forever as the fog rolled in. Everyone just wanted to get to the shelter and with the exception of LEGO, none of us were having fun. We made it to the shelter around 10:30 pm.

By no means was the terrain easy the next morning as we went up and down many rocky climbs. But the highlight came as we climbed Bear Mountain. Most of the trail up and over the mountain had been very nicely built with rock steps and gravel. After coming off the mountain we walked through a state park with a large number of people out for a picnic. Then we walk through a public zoo. By the bear cage was the lowest point on the entire AT at just 120 feet above sea level. Next we crossed the Hudson River and headed back into the hills. About a half mile from a place to camp was a deli and convenience store. After loading up on a meal, snacks, and beer we headed to Graymoor Spiritual Life Center where they welcome hikers to stay at a pavilion on their property. The total days mileage was 21.8 miles.

This time I mean it when I say nothing happened during the 18.6 miles to RPH Shelter. Weather was nice and the terrain was manageable. Once again, we could order pizza from the shelter and we did.

On the 14th, we left the shelter and about 3 miles later the gray sky open right up and dumped heavy ran on us for about an hour. Our choice of shelters were at 16.8 or 25.5 miles. We stopped with the intension of spending the night at Telephone Pioneers Shelter (16.8) but we learned that a Garden Center 2.9 miles further allows camping on the property. It was still fairly early so we pushed on. While cooking dinner at the center a trail maintainer named "Sasquatch" came over and talked to us for a long time. He mentioned to us that there is a deli .6 miles down the road. He left to go play with his dog and then came back immediately to let us use his car. That's right, he turned over his keys and gave LEGO some money to pick up him some cigarettes. People are inherently kind and giving and it is so appreciated by us thru-hikers. When we got back "Sasquatch" stayed around for another hour and chatted with us. Total mileage for the day was 19.7 miles.

On the 15th we left the garden center and hiked 11.3 miles plus another 1 mile off the trail to stay with the family of one of LEGO's friends. We crossed into Connecticut early in the day and officilaay entered New England. We arrived at the farm we would be staying at at around 1:30pm. It was an interesting place with a lot of animals and gardens. Duke, a freind of the family's immediately cooked us a delicious meal of home made pasta, black beans, turkey, and greens. The entire family was very friendly and the hospitality was great. We relaxed the rest of the day and took care of some chore like things. That night we went out to a bar/restaurant for food and open mic music. It was fun.

The next morning after a huge, delicious french toast breakfast we set out on a 24.2 mile hike to Pine Swamp Brook Shelter. The day was sunny and in the 80's. Other than that, the day was pretty uneventful. The terrain was up and dwon in the morning but not too difficult. There was a nice long flat stretch then some stepper climbs. All in all, not too bad a day.

On the 17th, it was raining in the morning so we didn't have much incentive to get an early start. Instead we slept in and didn't leave until around 10:00am. It was cooler today somewhere in the 60's and foggy. We walked up and down for a while before following a road. After a long climb and a very steep descent we stopped in Salisbury, CT to get some food. There our hiking buddy, "Grad School," left to meet his friend with plans to meet up with us later. The climb out of Salisbury was tough but not awful. We stopped for the night at Brassie Brook Shelter after 21 miles. It was the first time so far all trip that we were alone at a shelter. It was kind of nice.

The next morning as we were leaving, "Breeze," who we had met before walked into the shelter. Apparently, he had camped just about a mile away the night before. We ended up hiking with him pretty much all day. Not long into the day's hike we crossed into Massachusetts. Not long after we goot off the trail by mistake for a bit. It turned out that we followed a short section of the old trail that met back up with the new trail after a short distance. Just before lunch we met, "Irish Runner," a section hiker out for a few days. He was a pretty cool guy and he ended up hiking longer than he had planned so that he could hang out with us longer. We stopped for a break at US 7 and that where "Irish Runner" left us. Just before that we had to take off our shoes to cross a flooded section of trail. It's so great when the water goes even higher than the plank bridges. The final climb of the day was pretty tough but we finally made it to Tom Leonard Shelter after 23.2 miles. That night we didn't sleep very well though because something was chewing very loudly on the wood of the shelter all night. We would turn on our light and look around but we never found out what or where it was. "Breeze" even banged on the shelter wall to scare it off and got out to look for it but nothing stopped it. Two minutes after we were back in bed with the lights out the loud chewing would start again. Damn animal. Later someone told us that it was probably a porcupine. Whatever it was, it was loud!

The 19th was a tough day for both of us. The weather was very nice but we were both tired after 3 long days. Unfortuantely, we had another long day planned as we were going to meet some of LEGO's family's friends to stay with them for the evening. There were some very nice sections of trail but we were both very tired and the day dragged on and felt very long for both of us. Finally we crossed over I-90 which was cool because we had both driven under the AT on that highway many times. After another short 5 miles we made it to US 20 where we were picked up by Dan and Sue who took us back to there house. We both felt much better after showers, laundry, and a delicious dinnver of salad, baked potatoes, grilled chicken, and fruit salad, Blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert. It was fantastic.
It was very tough to get out of a real bed the next morning but knowing a real breakfast was waiting did help. After a quick resupply we hit the trail. Surprisingly we found a note from our friends Rick and Judy from Ithaca, NY waiting for us on the trail. Apparrently they had been there not to long before us. To our surprise, "Grad School," caught us after only a few hours making it a 27 mile day for him once we made our 16 miles to Kay Wood Shelter. Also to our surprise shortly after getting to the shelter our friend "Breeze" also caught us (or did not pass us).

On the 21st we went 16.9 miles because we went through two small towns. We stopped at Dalton for a breakfast and then stopped in Cheshire for ice cream and picked up some adult beverages to pack out. After leaving Cheshire we only had few miles to go but they were all up the side of Mt Graylock. Our friend "Grad School" picked up a drop box (food resupply that he packaged before leaving on the trip and a family member sends) at the post office in Dalton. Because he had mentioned to this mother that he had lost more weight she ended up sending 4 days of extra food. His pack weight jumped up to 70 or maybe even 80 pounds. He is a small guy like LEGO and at this high pack weight he is burning far more calories then the food has so he will undoubtedly will lose more weight. Also he normal moves at a good pace but that significantly slowed down for the rest of the day and more then likely a few days to come. When we arrived at the shelter there were two groups of Overland instructors out on a training trip. Overland is an organization that takes young adults on backpacking trips or on service trips. It sounds like a pretty cool program. We spent the hanging out with all of the instructors.

Moving as a group again we finished the climb up to the top of Mt Graylock on the morning of the 22nd. Shortly after arriving the gray sky opened up with some fairly heavy rain but luckily there is a large cabin with a visitor center to hide from the rain in. We studied the current weather map and made the decision to push on when there was a good break in the rain knowing that more was on it's way. Somewhere close to the border of Vermont we were hit again with the rain but this time we had no way to hide from it. After having everything soaked the next shelter (which was shorter then the original plan) became very appetizing to stop at. However it was full of hikers doing sections. So we ended up pushing 7 more miles in the rain to Congdon Shelter. By this time about 98% of the trail was covered with thick mud, pools of water, or simply was a creek making the hiking less then enjoyable. We walked up on a shelter that seemed to had a ton of people already hiding from the rain. There was 3 section hikers and 12 in a group from Overland out as a staff training trip. The larger group knew they could not push four thru-hikers out of the shelter (as part of their trip they were to camp in their tents and not use the shelter). We had to wait around about an hour in our wet clothing as they gathered all their gear to free up half of the shelter for us ("Breeze", "Grad School" and the two of us).

On the 23rd the plan was to go about 23 miles but the weather did not change and the trail continued to be nasty so we cut it short at 18.7 at Kid Gore Shelter. The one nice thing about this day was rolling up to a shelter that was completely empty. This made it two straight days of wet socks and shoes and fairly uncomfortable hiking conditions. We are not liking the Long Trail.

When we awoke the cold wind and mist was blowing right in to the shelter along with the sound of rain hitting the metal roof. No one wanted to get out of their warm sleeping bag and venture out in to the cold rain so we ended up leaving real late (11:00am). The plan was to head either to Spruce Peak Shelter 22.9 miles or go additional 2.8 miles and hitch into Manchester Center, VT. The trail conditions still had not changed meaning that our feet got completely soaked and stayed soaked for the entire day. By the time we hit the shelter it was 8pm and mostly dark. Both "Breeze" and "Grad School" along with LEGO had to convince and encourage Redwood to push on to the road. When we hit the road it was completely dark and it had started raining again. As you can imagine these are not ideal hitching conditions but to out surprise a younger women stopped only about ten minutes later. She took us in to town to a bed in breakfast type place with no breakfast. We made a fast run to McDonald's then took showers and went to bed.

After leaving the B&B at 11am we headed to a beagle place, EMS, Price Choppers, and then to the laundromat. It took about 35 minute of standing on the side of a busy road to catch a hitch back to the trail. About 20 minute after starting to hike the sky went from sunny to overcast and raining. We have no luck. We got to a shelter after 2 miles of hiking that had room for all four of us. It took some convincing by "Grad School", "Redwood", and "LEGO" to get "Breeze" to call it quits for the day (this was the shortest day he had ever done). It helped that we were dry and the forecast was for evening showers that came about 2 hours later.

On the 26th we all got up fairly early in order to do a big day of 27.7 miles. We made pretty good time in the morning but as the day went on everyone but "Breeze" started slowing down. Mostly this was do to heavier packs and the same muddy trail. "Grad School" and the two of us called it quits at 6pm and 22.6 miles at Greenwall Shelter. None of us wanted to hike in the dark and "Grad School" really hurt his knee after one of his many falls shortly before the shelter.

Not that much happened on the 27th. We had several smaller ups and downs in the morning some of which were fairly steep. The more exciting part of the day was reaching the top of Killington Mountain at over 4200 feet. It was really nice to have a 360 degree view of Vermont. This was a good taste of what is to come with the White Mountains. We hiked part way down the mountain to Churchill Scott Shelter at 23.3 miles.

Once again, not that much happened on the 28th. We woke up and made average time to a road for lunch. Everyone was feeling good and made even better time (3 mile per hour) till we hit the shelter at 21.8 miles. We eat dinner and then moved on to shorten the distance between us and Hanover, NH. We found a place to camp on top of Dana Hill making the total days mileage at 25.6 miles.

The morning of LEGO's birthday (29th) we had several small climbs making it a fairly bumpy start to the day. We made it to West Hartford, VT for lunch before and then moved quickly in order to get to Hanover before the post office closed at 5pm. The last 2.5 miles in to town was a road walk. Along the way there was a trail magic cooler that had a phone number of someone named Greg, offering a free place to stay, shower, and laundry. We spend some time in town looking for someone to take in three hikers (the two of us and "Grad School") but found no luck so we called Greg. He is an amazing guy. He picked us up after an all you can eat pizza dinner and $2 margaritas. He then let us drive his car to go pick up some beer and ice cream. All three of us had our own bed.

Greg ran us in to town in the morning before heading to work. For the next several hours we spent going around town getting breakfast, going to the post office, getting free coffee & pizza, taking the bus to EMS, and hitting a grocery store. By the early after noon all three of us had full stomachs and new (free) shoes. We started hiking and pushed on 16.7 miles to Trapper John Shelter. We rolled in after dark making it a late night.

The next day we went 19.1 miles going over two large climbs, Smarts Mountain and Mt Cube. One funny thing that happened was running in to a Dartmouth group. As we were passing them they quickly asked how far Ore Hill Shelter was. We looked slightly confused because they were pointing in the wrong direction. It turned out they started at a road and walked 1.5 miles up the wrong hill in the wrong direction. Oops. We made it to Ore Hill Shelter along with the Dartmouth group and there was also a group of four section hikers who came in after us.

On the 2nd of July, we planned a shorter day because of a huge climb up and over Mt Moosilauke a 4590 foot mountain. The climb only took about 2 hours and we had amazing views from the top. It is awesome to be up above tree line and have climbed over it with a full pack unlike the hundreds of day hikers we saw. The climb down was quiie rough in the fact we went down 1500 feet in 1.5 miles fallowing a waterfall off the side of the mountains. The only thing that kept us going was that we were being picked up by "Grad School's" grandfather to take us to Lincoln, NH. From there LEGO's brother-in-law's uncle and aunt (Peter and Annmarie) came and picked us up, took us to dinner, and then back to their place in Concord, NH.

We decided to take a day off at Peter and Annmarie's place to recuperate before hitting the White Mountains. Annmarie and Peter made sure the fridge was full and that we knew where everything was. They made us feel right at home. Once again sleeping in a bed is amazing and hard to get out of.

That gets you up to date for now.

LEGO & Redwood