Date: 2016-06-28
From: Imp Campsite

To: Route 2 Intersection with AT, then 
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Hiked 8 miles this morning from a jam-packed Imp Campsite Shelter to where AT crosses US 2 outside of Gorham, NH hitched into town, and am noshing on Dunkin Donuts until Kim picks me up for another overnight stay at Camp. A gentleman named Steve gave me a ride into town enroute to see his wife in a nursing home where she is dying of Alzheimer's. Steve had thought yesterday may have been her last but she bounced back overnight. Very sad. Talked to a 75 year old man while eating my donuts who had hiked the trail in 2003. He congratulated me for getting this far, "Just 298 miles left" he said and then "the next 30 miles are probably the hardest on the trail, including the Mahoosuc Notch which is considered the single most difficult mile". I have asked several south-bounders about this and they are taking about 2 hours to get through it. It's followed by a 1600 foot climb up the Mahoosuc Notch over 1.5 miles which is wickedly steep.   Can't wait!Thought some of you might be interested in the following statistics about hiking the trail.   The following information is taken from some work done by Steve Shuman, aka, "map man." I condensed it down considerably, but if you want to see the whole thing, go to the whiteblazes website. Steve used data 240 thru-hikers who had kept journals over the period of 2001 - 2010. His study is limited to north bound thru-hikers (NOBOs) who completed their hike in one hiking season. I'll post my stats when I'm done...1. The mean number of days for these thruhikers was 168.18 days while the median number was 171.2. Here's the distribution of hikers grouped by the month they left Springer mountain in Georgia and the month they reached Mount Katahdin: 2 hikers in this study left Springer in January 30 in February144 in March (60%)57 in April7 in May 3. Steve looked at the journals for the hikers in his study to see if He could determine how old each hiker was. In the end, here is what he estimated:45% were under 3026% were age 30-4929% were 50 and older4. Here are the average (mean) times, and number of mean zero days, it took these various age groups to finish their thru-hikes:Under 30 -- 167 days to complete and 20 zero days30-49 -- 170 days to complete and 21 zero days50 and over -- 174 days to complete and 21 zero days5. Fewer than 10 percent of the hikers in his study completed the traiI in under 130 days. Here are how the numbers for "quick" hikers in the study broke down:52% were in the younger age group (under 30)29% were in the middle age group (30-49)19% were in the older age group (50 and over)6. Using his database for this study, here is how the numbers broke down by gender:The 165 male hikers have taken a mean 164.5 days to complete (median: 167) with 20.3 zero days (median: 18).The 42 female hikers have taken a mean 179.7 days to complete (median: 184) with 21.2 zero days (median: 22.5).The 31 M/F couples have taken a mean 178.8 days to complete (median: 180) with 22.1 zero days (median: 22).7. The mean number of nights that hikers in the study spent in various places broke down like this:Shelters: 62 nightsTents or Hammocks: 53 nightsMotels: 23 nightsHostels: 21 nightsPrivate Homes: 9 nights