Ever since we arrived in New Hampshire, Shawn has been singing “Oh, New Hampshire!” to the tune of “Oh Susanna, don’t you cry for me”. His version of the song is actually pretty catchy, and I think it’s needless to say that we are happy to be here!

When we last left you, we had one day left in Maine- the Mahoosuc Notch. This is a notorious mile filled with giant boulders that are seemingly tossed into a crevice between two mountains. It can take hours to hike this one section, but we actually had a lot of fun playing around in the hiker’s jungle gym.

After that, we crossed our first state border! I sat down on a log and cried tears of joy and disbelief, as there were a handful of moments in Maine when I didn’t know if I would be able to physically get up the next morning and keep hiking. But we did it!!

We raced the first 20 miles of State #2 into Gorham, our first big town of the Trail. We declared it a “big” town because there was a Wal-Mart AND a McDonalds there.  It was home to our first well-deserved zero, which is what it’s called when you take the day off from hiking. We spent the day eating our way through town, watching the Olympics, and sitting by the fire.  Also, wine.

There are 160 miles of trail in New Hampshire and 100 of those miles run through the White Mountain National Forest. As if the fore-warnings of Maine weren’t torturous enough, we were constantly being told “Oh you think southern Maine is hard? Just wait till you get to the Whites.”

However, I definitely have to disagree with this warning. I’m not sure if it’s because I had three weeks in Maine to grow my hiking legs before coming here, or if it’s the fact that our packs are getting lighter/we’re getting more efficient at packing, or if it’s because we’re in town more frequently and eating more real meals here than we did in Maine, but I have really enjoyed our time in this state. Plus, we were fortunate enough to have the good weather continue and we were able to get amazing views throughout our first couple days on the NH trail.

New Hampshire is full of ski mountains.

The morning before we summited Mount Washington, we found the most perfect stealth campsite smack dab in the middle of the Presidential Range. We went to sleep without even checking which direction was East, so when the bright morning sun woke us up by shining into our tent we were blown away in surprise at our front row seat to that morning’s sunrise.

Dinner the night before

And sunrise the next morning?

Another amazing surprise that day was what (or who) met us on the summit!

We had a great time catching up and having dinner with my parents and grandparents (and Murph, of course). Thanks for coming guys!!

People always say “the mountains make their own weather” and even though we knew it was true, we have never seen it to this degree before. Just one day after watching the sunrise from the side of Mount Jefferson, we were struggling to see cairn to cairn down the back side of Mount Washington.

Little did we know then that the rain had just begun. At first, we tried to slow down our pace and wait out the rain so that we would be able to see the views and have good weather for the Presidential Range. Ultimately though, we decided that we had to keep hiking onward. We were lucky enough to earn two nights of work-for-stays in two of the Appalachian Mountain Club huts, and we have been slackpacking the last few days with the Notch Hostel as our home base. Slackpacking is when you hike with just a day pack and they give you a ride to and from the trailhead; this has been a huge help this week with the rain, because it means a hot shower at the end of each day and dry socks in the morning.

One day we needed a dry place to make lunch, so MacGyver made us a little tent out of Tyvek?

The work-for-stays are a bit of a confusing concept that we weren’t really sure about when we started. Logistically, the Whites are difficult because a good portion of the hiking is above treeline, and you can’t pitch your tent safely that high up. Because of this, all the campsites on our map are typically about a mile off of the Trail, and it didn’t seem too appealing to add two miles to our day (and a $20 fee, because they charge you to camp here).  To add to the mix of logistic confusion, there are eight AMC huts located throughout the 100 miles of trail and you can rent a bunk for $135/person.  Yeah…not happening. However, the huts offer two AT thru-hikers each night the opportunity to “work-for stay”.  Essentially, we can do dishes, sweep floors, scrub shelves, etc in exchange for leftovers from dinner & breakfast and a spot to set up our sleeping pads & bags on the floor of the dining room.  The tricky thing about earning the work-for-stay is that you have to get there at 4pm, no earlier and no later, and you have to hope that other hikers aren’t there trying to win the spot too.  In normal conditions these are coveted positions, but the recent rainstorms have just increased their popularity.

The Madison hut (we stayed the night at Mizpah & Zealand)

Even if you’re just passing through, you can stop in any of the huts throughout the day to get a hot drink or a dessert – I highly recommend the cinnamon buns.

While the guests are eating, the Work-for-Stays wait outside. But then you get to go in and eat leftover turkey dinner!

Overall, we didn’t think it was worth all the time and planning thru-hikers put into trying to secure the work-for-stay positions. We were happy to sleep in our tent and eat our own food the next night (when there wasn’t thunder and lightning 🙂 )

It has now been seven straight days of rain and the forecast for the rest of the week still looks a bit murky.

We had 70mph winds on the top of Moosilsuake.

Too bad we saw this sign after we already climbed the entire mountain…

Eating my rainy pb sandwich in the storm. We think these signs are painted on orange so you can see them in the typically foggy/rainy weather conditions.

But we are done with the Whites and are ready for some easier days ahead!  We celebrated tonight by taking the rental bikes into town for dinner at a local brewery.

The thru-hiker drinking the’Thru-hiker’ beer

We should be in State #3- Vermont- by this weekend 🙂

Thanks for following along- we love answering any questions about the Trail and life out here, and any & everyone is of course welcome to join us if you can!

 

*For some reason, it seems that the pictures are only turned correctly if you are reading the post from an iPhone/iPad. Because I write this on my phone though, I can’t see which ones need to be turned around. I’m sorry if it doesn’t look right to you!