Days 20-28 The White Mountains of New Hampshire

Welcome to the highest point in New Hampshire! You'll get to see more of the top of Mt. Washington later...

So after I left the Hikers Welcome Hostel I was ready to tackle the Whites in earnest. Of course the White Mountains were ready for me and they provided tons of muck puddles to go through and around. As you read this blog, just imagine me constantly thinking I can't imagine what this would be like if it were rainy. In fact I'm pushing to do 15 or 16 miles every day because I need to get over the Presidential Ranges before the rain comes in.

The nice thing about the Whites is that you do get a lot of viewpoints. I might not have included this picture had the black fly not made an appearance. The thing about this section of the trail is that you constantly seem to be dogged by some kind of biting animal. Sometimes it's the horseflies, sometimes the black flies, and sometimes the mosquitoes.

The White Mountains also have a number of waterfalls on the trail and just off on side trails. Some of them are named and some of them aren't but it lets me know why this is such a popular tourist destination.

When I came upon my first true alpine bog, I felt like I was back on our Parachuting Beaver road trip. The tall flowers that you can see with the red tops are hooked to pitcher plants and there was Sundew nestled in amongst the grass as well. We got to walk by on boardwalks so this unusual habitat is being well protected.

This is Kinsman Mountain, one of the first summit views that I have had since starting.

This summit reminds me of Gros Morne in Newfoundland. It even comes with whipping wind and the low pine trees with dense growth that we call Tuckamore.

I took a side trail past one of the shelters so I could see Kinsman pond. Sadly no camping here on the pond so all I can do is enjoy it as the sun starts to set. This has been a very long hiking day and I am ready to find a spot for the night. I end up doing so on the banks of Cascade Brook.

Mike will tell you that I generally have all the gear that I need for a hike but that I don't always investigate what the best parts are going to be because I like to be surprised. Today I managed to get myself a bit sunburned because I summited Mount Lincoln and went across a place called Franconia Ridge.

It was really windy and cold on the ridge and I kept thinking that we were going to go back into the trees any time but that's not how this section of the AT works. You continue across the ridge with gorgeous views in all directions for several miles. This may not seem like enough time to burn to some people but I like to joke that I can burn in October in the shade. Should have put on my sunscreen.

Just thought I'd add in a picture of me on Franconia Ridge because it's so iconic in the Whites. This is one of the few places that I saw a number of tourists because they can walk up from a primitive hotel about halfway down Franconia Ridge. Many hikers try to work-for-stay at the huts because they are $125 a night, but I like to camp out.

Here's another photograph of the trail in this area. You are high enough and exposed enough that it looks like the 14,000 ft. mountains in the Rockies.

Alright I know, enough pictures of this area but you have to understand that I have felt like I was hiking in a green tunnel or that the terrain was so tough I just stared at the ground to keep from slipping on rocks, tripping over tree roots or falling into mucky bogs. So getting to look around as I hiked was a treat.

Another nice thing about being so far North is that I have come back to Spring flowers again. It is amazing but I walk faster than the seasons change so these flowers were dead in Vermont and New Hampshire but alive and well here. They are Maine's Lady's-slipper, Cypripedium reginae.

So here is a view out of my tent towards the Presidentials portion of the range which I'll be hiking through tomorrow.

Before I found my stealth site I was hiking on Crawford Path for a while. When you're on the Appalachian Trail in the White Mountains you are often on a trail that has another name. It's actually one of the things that makes this section so challenging, in that the Appalachian Trail is not the primary trail in this National Forest, it's just one of many and sometimes, when you get to an intersection, the AT doesn't get a mention. This is where my maps come in handy and I didn't get lost at all.

This is the Lakes of the Clouds Hut. It is one of the most famous in the Whites and many hikers kill to work-for-stay here because it is the closest to Mt. Washington's summit.

The location of this one is very apropos because near this location 2 hikers died of exposure. A sad start to a very cool place to stay. Yet even with staying at this location when I summited there was almost no one there and right after I summited the clouds rolled in for the next 3 days.

So here is my Mt. Washington summit photo. Okay, okay, I know this is only 80% up but I could see the writing on the wall that I was going to just make it as the clouds rolled in so here is my last clear photo of the valley.

Here is part of the Mount Washington Observatory. You can see some of the weather, climate, cell phone and other equipment on the summit.

Here is the old welcome / souvenir house on Mt. Washington. The mountain is 6288 ft and boasts the worst weather in the US and on April 12, 1934, the Mount Washington Observatory recorded a windspeed of 231 miles per hour at the summit. This was the world record from 1934 until 1996.

Here is a panorama from the other side of the mountain. You can see a bit of the auto road. Yes you can drive up here, and the cog railroad that I will hike across twice on my way to Pinkham Notch. Have to hustle to miss the thunderstorms that are coming in.

Before I left the top I wanted to stop in to the Ranger station and use the bathroom as well as browse the museums. The saddest thing is that they didn't serve hot food until 11:00 a.m.! That is way past the time that most hikers are going across the summit. At least they did have hot coffee.

After crossing over Mount Washington I actually ran into a few banks of snow. I was very surprised that there are still a few trails in White Mountains National Forest that are not yet fully open to hiking. Once you see the snow you understand why though. If Mike were here, he definitely would have climbed down and scooped up a handful to toss at me. This is a tradition from our road trip in which he managed to find snow and hit me with a snowball almost every month that we were away.

After I cleared the Whites and the Wildcats I got to stay in Gorham at the Barn. This was a really nice hostel with a wonderful owner who really enforced people being quiet after 9 o'clock, so I got a wonderful night's sleep.

At the Barn Hostel lots of people tented in the back yard. I chose to stay inside because it was supposed to rain and I was having none of that when I could be out of it.

Some part of me thought that it would get easier after the Whites... Sadly that appears not to be true. I had been told that Southern Maine was quite a bear and I'll be there today. For me I think the hardest part of this entire section is that you spend a lot of time climbing down large flat rock sections that don't have any handholds, but you can see the reward of the top.

I've been on the trail a long time and generally don't make very many navigation mistakes. Yet at this alpine pond I got turned around and did .3 miles in the wrong direction. I'm very lucky it wasn't farther than that as I remembered the through-hiker that I met after he did 4 miles in the wrong direction in Connecticut.

This is Mount Success in the Mahoosuc Range. In a moment you'll see a video of my pretty campsite here, but this was one of the biggest mistakes I've made on the trail. The weather forecast said 0% chance of rain so I thought what the heck and camped at the top of the mountain. What they meant by that was 100% chance of rain. My tent wasn't staked out because I was camping on rock and everything I owned got soaked! Lesson learned! I got up at 3:00 a.m. and started hiking, figuring I'd try to dry out tomorrow.

I am still debating whether it was worth it. The view was great and in the a.m. when I hiked I realized that there were not really any stealth sites for miles. What I know now is that after Gorham there really are very few sites that are unmarked as camp sites. Guess I'm just glad I'm not in the bubble with 100 of my closest hiker friends.

So I am finally in the last State on the Appalachian Trail, and feeling a little bit like a sad drowned rat after last night. There's not a whole lot of Sun today so I'm a bit worried about getting dried out but you can only do what you can do.

This is me passing through a 1 mile section of the trail called Mahoosuc Notch. It is known as some of the most fun / worst miles on the AT.

The boulders here are enormous and there is still snow under many of them as you can see in the previous picture. The cool thing is that it's almost like being in a walk-in blast freezer when you're down at the base of the rocks. Some of them are larger than a one-story building and I thought if there is anywhere on the trail that I was going to get injured this would be it. Luckily I made it through reasonably unscathed with just a bit of a twisted ankle.

Sometimes I have a photo in my gallery and I'm just not sure which mountain it is. But the view is lovely even if some people viewing this may think it's a bit redundant.

In the middle of the trail I ran into the Elderberry Borer, Desmocerus palliatus. I loved his shimmery blue body and yellow banding. He is native to the American Northeast. I just love beetles and wish I had seen more on this trip!

This is a section that I loved, called Baldpate Mountain. You walk along several sections of exposed rock and then you climb up a dome of exposed rock which you can see in the distance. Super glad I got to do this in dry weather!!

So Northern New Hampshire and Maine have an odd geographic feature in that there is often water, both flowing and bog-like, at the top of mountains. So for almost all of the AT, if you want to camp or hang out on mountains you carry water from the bottom to the top. Here they break the mold and cut your carry distance by 75%.

And here is another view of a slightly different section of the Baldpate area.

I hope all of you are enjoying my blog. I have to say I'm getting towards the end of the most difficult section in Maine and I can't say that I'm sorry that it's behind me. I'll be in Caratunk in a few days where I'll get my last box, thank you Mike. It seems like for the AT there are a lot of lasts coming up, so stay tuned.