We are getting so close to the end now. Only 484 miles left!! It has been raining pretty much every day, which has made things kind of gloomy. I think I counted about 26 out of the last 33 days it has rained on us. We just want the sun to come out!! Another gloomy thing is now I have lyme disease. It is such a hard thing to identify, and everyone seems to have different symptoms. I have been tired and moody for the past 10 days or so, but I just figured it was from walking in the rain every day. I talked to a couple of doctors on the phone two days ago, and they both agreed they did not think I had it. The very next day I woke up and my elbow ached so bad, then my fingers on my right hand started swelling and aching just holding my pole. The aching seemed to just throb from my right knee, up to my hip, and then down my arm hitting every joint. We hiked 10 miles yesterday, and decided to stay at a really nice lodge that is extremely hiker friendly. I started taking Nick's antibiotics, and it seems my joints are already aching less but my head is about to explode. Stupid ticks!!!
Oh yeah, I didn't get a root canal. They put in a temporary wedge thing, and it didn't hurt afterwards so they say I might not need a root canal ever.
Paul came and visited us on top of Mt. Greylock, the tallest mountain in Massachusetts at 3,491ft. We did not get a view though.
We made it to Vermont!!! This is also the end of the Long Trail. The LT is a 275 mile trail from the southern end of Vermont to the northern end. It is the first long distance trail made in the US. The AT and LT follow the same trail for the first 105 miles.
A typical swampy pond in Vermont.
A moose!!!! We were just hitting the trail in the morning when we heard something running towards us. All of a sudden this huge animal came through the trees just trotting down the trail towards us. I said, "Look at that!" That scared her, and she turned around and started trotting away from us down the trail. We started walking fast after her to see if we could catch her. In about 5 minutes we saw she had tired and was just wondering down the trail. Nick took the camera and started following her. They reached a power line clearing, and she got scared and turned around and started running back towards Nick. This picture captured her running back towards him. He yelled, and she turned again, ran back, and headed down the power line.
This is her running away after Nick yelled.
I cannot believe how big moose are! I think they crossed a horse with a cow. I cannot imagine how scary it would be to encounter a big bull moose.
The view of Vermont from a fire tower.
We had a wonder trail magic surprise in Manchester, VT. This lady picked us up when we were trying to hitch into town. She offered for us to stay in her barn where she had an apartment....we of course took her up on this offer, but we had no idea it would be soooo nice. We had this place all to ourselves...just us and one other hiker. It was the nicest apartment we could have imagined. She also had a pond, hot tub, sauna, and 5 golden retrievers she shared with us.
This was the living room. We were dreaming of how nice it would be to snuggle up in this room with the wood stove and watching the snow fall outside on all the trees in the winter. It must be wonderful!!
Vermont mud sucks. The trail is very muddy in some spots. This is one of those sections. Nick's poles are about a foot in the mud.
Now his leg is sucked into the mud...just kidding.
We barely caught this view of a mountain before all the clouds blowed back in.
Nick crossing a bridge. The sign warns the weight limit is one person....that is reassuring.
I guess some boy scout group stacked up a pile of rocks and it started this tradition. Everybody tries to add a contribution when they hike by.
Of course Nick and Justin could not just add one rock. They added a shelf and each added a stack of rocks.
This was another area the rock cairns were taking over the trail. It is pretty crazy.
Clarendon Gorge.
On top of Mt. Killington....look at that view behind us. Nothing but clouds and whistling wind.
That tower is only about 200ft away, but we can barely see it through the clouds.
We made it to the "Maine Junction" where the Long Trail splits off and heads north and the AT starts angling NE. Hikers on the LT only have 165.9 miles left to Canada.
We have 469 miles by this sign to Katahdin, but this year we actually have 486.9 miles left.
I don't know why I can't write under the next picture, but this is me with lyme disease. I look pretty sad carrying my right hand in my coat because my elbow hurts too bad to carry the pole.
Mountain Meadows Lodge where we took 3 days off for me to rest up from the lyme disease.
While we were resting up a lot of new people caught up to us. We thought this was Nick's friend Aaron when we first saw him. Nick couldn't believe we ran into Aaron at a random shelter in Vermont.
Tapping the trees for maple in Vermont.
We made it to New Hampshire. Our 13th state.
The famous Ivy League School-Dartmouth. The trail goes right through Hanover and the Dartmouth campus. We felt smart/rich for the 10 minutes we were here.
Nanna Winnie-another trail angel. She picked us up in front of CVS, took us home, gave us a shower, cooked us food, and washed our clothes. She had been dreaming of helping some hikers out for a long time, and we were her first ones. She was so tickled, and we were soooo thankful.
Nick has a twin? This is Rojo...he was headed southbound. His friends could not get over how much he looked like Nick.
We took a day off at the Hikers Welcome hostel for me to get over my diarrhea, and we were lucky enough to see some old hiker friends we had not seen in a long time. We have been hiking with these guys off and on since the beginning.
Our first mountain in the Whites. This is the highest we have been since Virginia.
Us on top of Mt. Moosilauke. The owner of the hostel we stayed at in Lincoln said they camped at the base of Moosilauke one time and it was -84 degrees. That's NEGATIVE 84 degrees.
Going down Moosilauke was interesting. Very steep!!!
It was so steep because it followed this brook that had carved the steep trail down the mountain.
The view from Kinsman. This was one of the hardest mountains we have climbed. Very steep and rocky. I was grouchy because I was still sick at the time and very weak from not eating.
Us taking in the view from Kinsman.
We are in the Whites baby!!! Our first day on the ridge in the Presidential range. This was the worst weather we encountered the whole time, which we feel very very lucky. We have heard many stories of hikers with frozen rain jackets from hiking on the ridge. This was Mt. Lafayette, which was supposed to have some of the best views on the whole AT. We missed those views, but we did get some awesome views in the next few days.
Nick on top of Mt. Garfield.
The biggest toad we have seen on the trail.
The view from Webster's Cliffs. This was another interesting climb. Another climb that made my legs and buns burn.
There he is....Mt Washington. We have been hearing about this mountain for 1800 miles. We just have to walk over that ridge up that mountain and down the ridge on the other side.
The view from the Lakes of the Clouds hut at the bottom of Mt. Washington. It was such a beautiful morning. We felt like the luckiest people in the world to get such great views.
The Lakes of the Clouds Hut. The Whites have 6 huts along the trail. About 4-5 college aged kids work in them. They run off of solar and wind energy (the huts that is). The staff composts the sewage, carries up all the food, and cooks all the meals. The huts hold 40-90 guests. They pay $90-120 to stay the night in a bunk, eat dinner, and eat breakfast. As a thru-hiker we get a chance to do "work-for-stay" where we do 2 hours of work in exchange for sleeping on the floor, dinner, and breakfast. We got to do this at 2 huts. It was an interesting experience, but not very restful. We had to wait for leftovers after dinner and breakfast, so a lot of time is wasted just waiting for the paying guests to finish eating and go to bed, for them to get out of our way.
The view from Washington looking back at the ridge we just came across. You can see the hut before the first peak.
Washington is covered in stuff. This is a picture of the tv anteannes and weather instruments.
The Tip-Top House was built in the 1800's. It was a hotel for guests to come and visit Washington. In the summer they had 100 guests a day. They paid $1 a day to stay and $1 per meal. The average income back then was $1 per week. Who knew back then people would want to sleep on a mountain so badly. This place was such a money maker that they built 3 more hotels up there.
Mt. Washington is where the highest winds have ever been recorded at 231 mph. Craziness!! You can see one of the chains holding the roof on. This building had 4 huge chains holding the roof down.
A picture of a picture of Washington in the winter.
The summit. The highest peak in the NE 6,288ft.
The cog railroad that goes up to Mt. Washington. The tradition is to moon the train and the engineer will throw coal at you. We were standing this far away for Nick to feel safe to moon them.
Nick on the very tip top of Mt. Adams.
The ridge.
Summiting another president.
John and his son Cole. They came out just to hike the Whites. They were a really nice.
Nick standing like he is a cool hiker on Wildcat Mountain.
Pond by Carter Notch Hut.
Looking back at the Presidential range.
Some of these descents just take too much thinking. I ripped the bottom of my shorts out from butt scooting down rocks.
The last look back at the Whites before going down the last notch. We are very thankful for the wonderful weather we experienced in the Whites!
