Date: 2010-07-20
From: Shelburne, NH

To: View Entry
Miles today: 144.0

It's been a while since we wrote and almost a whole state has passed since then. So, yes... New Hampshire was awesome. We had a really hot spell when we first left the ol' home place after the 4th of July weekend, and made horrible mileage as we melted in the sun. Other hikers night-hiked or just trucked through the heat, but DethMarch, Cole, and I took the easier and lazier route and laid low. We hitchhiked to Goose Pond and floated one afternoon, sat by streams with our feet and/or heads submerged, and walked to town for ice cream almost daily. I guess everyone's got their own coping mechanisms.Then my mom and her friend Darlene came out and did Moosilauke with us to usher in the Whites, and we had amazing views and clear weather pretty much throughout. Franconia Ridge knocked my socks off and I realized why Dethmarch has been raving about that section of trail since I met him in 2008. We had more company (DM's sister, her fiance, and their one-year-old traildog-in-training) for the Presidential Range. When we summitted Washington we had unbelievably clear weather, but an hour later a storm rolled in and we decided not to drag our guests through a dangerous situation, so we got down off the ridge and stayed in a motel. (Ironically, our one night with TV and electricity was thwarted by a long power outage-- we might be destined to live like we do!) When we got back up on the ridge the next day, sans Megan, Matt, and Boomer-the-wonder-dog, we had beautiful weather again as we finished up the Presidentials. In fact, we decided to blue-blaze and do the summit loops over some of the biggest peaks, because we realized you're not treated to such nice weather in the Whites very often, and sometimes, as DM says, "the AT is a highway and you need to get off it every once in a while to see the best stuff!"Now we're out of the Whites, past the huts and the most stringent rules about where we can and cannot pitch a tent, and back to the good ol' AT as we've known it for so long. Last night we stayed at my second cousin's spacious and gracious house (literally ON the trail in Shelburne, NH, near Gorham), and then decided to zero here to spend some more time with family. Tomorrow DM's friend James will meet us here and hike into Maine and through Mahoosuc Notch with us. It's nice to have company and drop-ins now that we're in New England, and everyone who has been wanting to come out for months now has to get it together, since there are only a few weeks left of this adventure. We'd love to stretch out the hike as long as we possibly can, but our budget begs otherwise. Basically right now we're trying to stay out here for as long as we can but not run out of money before Katahdin. It's a tricky balance and we're eating a lot of Ramen and crunchy PB. Today we bought three $1 scratch tickets but only won $1. So basically we lost $2.Sometimes I wonder how it is that we're not sick of this, how we can feel so melancholy about being almost done, but I think this life was made for us. We're living what we love, and living until we die.Here's to the mountains...Sugarbush [and Dethmarch and Cole, if I may speak for them]