Legs and Borders

The views have arrived! Very early start today to make it in time to the Lonesome Lake Hut for free breakfast scraps for thru hikers! It's not a glamorous thing I know but at this point any calories are good, the way it works is after paid guests (they pay minimum 130$ for the night) finish their breakfast thru hikers are allowed to claim the leftovers only requirement is to be there at 8 AM. Myself and Tum Tum who also left early to make it to the hut had a big climb to accomplish first, it was steep with lots of boulders and holding on to the trees for balance and support, eventually we made it to the top of Kinsman Mountain and the first big view of Appalachia opened up for us, the weather was perfect and so was the panorama, I might have shed a little tear at this point it was very exciting. After a funky descent, we made it to the Lonesome Lake Hut in time for food. It was nothing fancy, few scrambled eggs, waffles, porridge and ...

"After hiking in White Mountain's everything else seems easy" Sue First day in the White's, I can confirm now that terrain here is unlike anything we faced on the AT so far. In the morning I had a coffee and a breakfast muffin at the hostel, surprisingly despite the early hour Tum Tum, Iceman, Yukon and Gutsy were up as well. Weather was supposed to be a mixed bag but we were all determined to climb Mt Moosilauke today. I headed out and started the 4000 feet climb first, it was a long, steady uphill going through well maintained terrain, problems only started at the top. Day was quite windy, combined with the rain and exposed, alpine environment, it became a recipe for a very wet, cold and uncomfortable time. At the top wind was pushing me left and right and rain was cutting across with great speed, I was completely drenched in just few moments. Luckily exposed section didn't last too long and the AT dived into the pine forest soon after. ...

Hot, humid, stormy day. My goal was to place myself withing the short distance before the climb to Mount Moosilauke. AT in New Hampshire definitely prooved from the very begining that it means business. The first and second climb of the day:  Smarts Mountain and Mt Cube were steep and rocky, the path was muddy, overgrown and not very well marked, combined with the hot and humid weather I was moving at a snail's pace. Views were quite rewarding though and after the initial struggle trail got easier for the rest of the day. I've seen yet another two bear cubs, no mother in sight this time around which got me a bit spooked. Cubs climbed so high up the tree I could hardly see them from the trail, they were so incredibly agile! I've taken a blurry video of the couple as I thought it was fairly safe to do so, that's 10 black bears I've seen so far on Appalachian Trail.  At one point I took a break  by the road and tried to dry my feet a...

I've said farewell to Vermont and welcomed my new overlord New Hampshire arguably the toughest state to hike on the entire Appalachian Trail, especially 100 miles of White Mountains or as people liked to call them "Whites". I've woke up way too early and cooked myself a breakfast consisting of six eggs, four toasted tortillas (they are great toasted!) and a chocolate milk. Greg didn't came down until quarter to eight so I had time for a quick, unplanned nap as well. At 8 AM Greg gave me a ride to town, I took a picture with him outside of his house, he took another one of me and said that he will upload it onto his Facebook page which was fine with me. I've shared with him my plan to potentially come back here and finish the Long Trail and he was happy to help me, he would shuttle me to Killington and let me stay over for another night if needed. When I offered him money for his help he politely refused and said that "trail angels don't take it",...

"At least now I knew that my heart was wedded to the mountains - to the wild places. It was there, and there alone, that I was whole, contented, and blissful. No relationship, career, or wealth could ever take its place." Heather "Anish" Anderson Last 20 miles hiking in Vermont, in rain but spending the night at the trail angels. I've set up the alarm clock to be up and running at 5 PM, first and foremost I wanted to be in Hanover as early as possible and to avoid the bulk of rain which was going to intensify in the afternoon. It started to drizzle right after I set off, trail wasn't too steep or muddy so it was fairly smooth sailing overall. I was surprised that Snail did not catch up with me but I guess he had a later start, he wasn't stopping at Norwich for long anyway. I went past few maple trees tap pipes which were extracting the juices later boiled down to make maple syrup, it was quite interesting to see. ...