Date: 2009-07-11
From: Hanover, NH

To: SOUTH!
Miles today: 125.0
Weather: broken clouds

Well my friends, it¢s been quite a while since my last entry. Sorry for the long delay. Our venture through the White Mountains of New Hampshire was definitely one to write home about. Last I remember we had just rolled into NH when I did my last check in and we were in Gorham for the second time. Coming over the Wildcat Mountains was one of the most intense experiences up to that point I¢d had. Coming down into Pinkham Notch was definitely steep and Brewer and I passed some of the other SOBO¢s going in the opposite direction because they decided to slack pack over the Wildcats. Brewer and I have yet to slack pack although it is quite tempting to do so. Slack packing is where you have someone give you a daypack, you pack your lunch and some water and essentially day hike sections of the trail without a heavy pack. The advantage to this is that you can do REALLY BIG miles and not be as fatigued as you would with a full pack. So at Pinkham Notch we met a friend of Brewer¢s who¢s trail name is Rat Sandwich because he once killed a shelter mouse and cooked it up over the fire. This kid was super cool and it was great to hike with him but he was sick and upon summiting Mt. Washington he caught a ride with a nice family and went down the mountain and headed for home. Now for the actual summiting of Mt. Washington story: We decided to push from Pinkham Notch up Mt. Madison (which was a bummer to reach the top and not see a sign) but I got ahead of Brewer and Rat Sandwich and had the clouds break a little at a time where I could see both the top of Madison and the top of Washington. It was cool to feel the rushing wind and watch the clouds whirl around. We stayed at a shelter run by the Randolph Mountain Club which is sort of the B rate mountain club right after AMC. AMC runs system of huts where day hikers can experience the Whites and hike Hut to Hut and stay at the huts for the arm and a leg price of $112 per person. Thankfully hikers can either do work for stay or pay $10 for all you can eat food (it¢s just the leftovers of the guests) and a nice place to sleep on the tables or floors of the Huts.   So the actual story behind the summiting of Mt. Washington: we left the RMC hut and started summiting the mountain. The closer to the top of the mountain the higher the winds got, not to mention the fact that the rain was actually traveling up the mountain, and not really falling like good rain should. The top of Mt. Washington and Madison too are alpine, so they are above treeline. This means there is no protection from the 55+ mph gusts of constant wind and rain. The day we summated the weather was so bad that we traveled only 4 miles. We stayed at an AMC hut called Lake of the clouds which is right near the top of Mt. Washington and stayed in the hikers ¢dungeon¢ which was essentially an emergency shelter that was all concrete and steel in the bottom of the hut. (Check out the pic of me standing in the dungeon, it¢s the one that¢s cloudy) We left there and decided to push on and stay at another hut called Zealand hut. Zealand hut was one of the most hiker friendly places I¢d been on the trail. They hooked us up with some great pasta and forced us to eat eat eat! That was also our biggest day of about 19 miles. Through the Whites that¢s definitely big mileage, especially for SOBO¢s so we were pretty proud. Coming down out of the Whites into Crawford notch we had the skies clear and we had some amazing views of the valley and mountains below. The great thing about good clear days is that there is plenty of time and daylight for hiking. So we pulled some good miles onward! Our last big climb was Mt. Musaulake. Even though it was cloudy when we left the shelter and rainy on the top, the mountain was beautiful.   It looked like something out of the Scottish Highlands. So we took in what view we had and pushed on to Glencliff. Glencliff is right on the trail but it is the smallest town I think that I¢ve seen thus far along the trail. There is a hostel for hikers run by these guys that were cool but would talk your ear off. It was great to hear from them because they had plenty of wisdom for us and we took it to heart knowing that it would come in handy. The most amazing thing about Glencliff was the trail as you leave south. It was a drastic change in the terrain. We quickly found that the terrain was FLAT with a few hills here and there but our ability to hike on the terrain was something unlike we¢ve experienced since well¢¦never.With the new terrain comes bigger miles¢¦ We finally were pulling bigger miles. Yesterday we pulled our biggest day yet! A big 24 miles all the way from the Firewarden¢s cabin all the way to Hanover, NH. The great thing about the Fire Warden¢s cabin was that the firetower was the perfect place to see a sunset (see sunset pictures). The cabin was still up on the mountain and is actually the shelter for hiker to stay in. It was one of the cooler places I¢ve stayed. Hanover has been one of the coolest places that we¢ve hit as hikers. We went to this place called Rumunto¢s where they give a free slice of cheese, and they hooked us up with some free pasta too. Trail magic is starting to come up our way! We¢ve met some great people and what some of the NOBO¢s tell us is that the further south we go the better the more magic that we¢ll run into. Well we¢re hitting Vermont tomorrow when we leave! And the trail is super sleek from there until southern PA and VA. So I¢m off! Take care and I look forward to see all of you soon!