Into Vermont!

I'm still alive and walking! Currently at a hotel in Dalton MA resting feet and waiting out rain. I'm not going to write all the way up to now because it's already 1 AM and I've gotta hike tomorrow! I'll try to write more later though (hopefully without as long of a wait this time).

Day 34 (July 17): Back on trail

In the morning, Brightside drove me back to the trail and we started walking (he wound up backtracking because he left his trekking poles in the car). Within about 2 miles I found Pugs, Baby Bear, Speedo, Nemo, and Moose "stealth" camping on the side of the trail (It's not really stealth if I can see you...) I hung out with them a bit, then we climbed to the last hut in the Whites, the aptly named Lonesome Lake Hut.

Pugs, epic chilling at the top of South Kinsman Mountain

Baby Bear, chilling by the brook before Eliza Brook Shelter

View from Kinsman Mountain

Moose's pack broke. Her shoulder strap snapped, so only one shoulder worked. We sewed it together and wrapped it in duct tape. 0.2 miles later, it snapped again. This time, we waited for Brightside to catch up and used his fishing line (instead of thread) and zip ties instead of duct tape. It held for good.

We eventually stayed at a shelter which we'd heard a bear visited a week ago. Fortunately for us, there was no bear for us.

Stats:
Milage: 8.8 miles
Elevation change: 3500 feet up, 2500 feet down
Trail Conditions: really don't think this qualifies as a trail
Slept with: Camp Shoes, Double Dip, and a slight tinge of Bear fear

Day 35 (July 18): The Riddle Of Doom

We hiked. We met NoBos. The NoBos were complaining about how hard the terrain was. We take this as a good sign of things to come. We were also told there's a great sunrise at the shelter halfway up the final mountain in the Whites (Moosilauke).

This means I should go up in the rain right?

Camp Shoes, Double Dip, and I all decided to stop at the shelter after we got some rain (because mountain climbing in rain sucks), and waited out the storm. We met the West Virginians (Halfway and Sprinkles) who had the same plan. Speedo and Nemo went on, and Pugs, Baby Bear, and Moose went to town to go watch Finding Dory.

Easy hiking (not really)

In the shelter, a NoBo had left a Riddle because "SoBos can now think about something aside from where next to put their feet." The riddle was:

"There is an island with 100 villagers, who all worship the god Vanutu. One day, Vanutu comes down and tells them 'I have marked at least one of you on the forehead and await you in paradise. First, you must pass a test of faith: if you have the mark on your forehead and jump from the cliffs at noon, you will sprout wings and fly to paradise. If you do not, you will die.' The villagers all want to get to paradise, but don't trust anything other villagers say, and don't have any mirrors or reflective surfaces. By the third noon, all the marked villagers had jumped, and all the unmarked villagers had not. How?"

We were promised a hint at a shelter ~35 miles down the road, and the solution at the first two shelters in Vermont.

Gonna be a great sunrise tomorrow!

Stats:
Milage: 9 miles
Elevation change: 3500 feet up, 200 feet down
Trail condition: a mountain? Let's go up! It's a rock face you say? I'm sure the hikers will be fine.

Day 36 (July 19): Out of the Whites!

We awoke to a cloud. The promised sunrise was just a cloud and visibility was about 10 yards. Halfway and Sprinkles decided to hike. Camp Shoes, Double Dip, and I decided to be lazy and read Ender's Game and talk about riddles

Wasn't a great sunrise

After the third NoBo from the other side of the mountain visited the shelter, we were finally ashamed enough to start hiking ("hey, where'd you guys come from?" "Uhh... I haven't hiked today." "Oh.")

On the way up, NoBos constantly told us about a moose at the top of the trail which charged people. We didn't see it (though I later found out it charged Peaches when he climbed it an hour or so after us).

Hiking through the cloud with Double Dip bracing against the wind.

Once over the Mountain, the trail suddenly became an actual trail, and we were able to make good time... so we went to the nearby hostel and stayed there like the lazy bums we were. We figured we'd just do big miles tomorrow. Besides, they were showing the Lord of the Rings trilogy extended edition, and you don't just leave in the middle of that. Speedo, Nemo, Halfway, and Sprinkles also got sucked into staying there as with Camp Shoes, Double Dip, and me.

We waited out the clouds eventually to get a bit of a view

Meadows and hills on the opposite side of Moosilauke

Stats:
Milage: 7.8 miles
Elevation change: 1000 feet up, 4000 feet down
Trail condition: hey! It's actually a trail! I can run downhill!

Day 37 (July 20): Big miles?

We took a lazy morning at the hostel (Hikers Welcome was very welcoming), and Baby Bear, Pugs, and Moose caught up to us. After Moose got her new pack and Camp Shoes and Double Dip finished their work for stay, we hit the trail... at 12:45.

It's a Moose -- er -- a car I guess (caught in motion).

It's a trail! I haven't seen one of these in several hundred miles!

A "mountain" with a "view". Mostly glare.

A view

A few hours and a couple hills later (because they really don't feel like mountains if they have switchbacks and don't require hands), Camp Shoes, Double Dip, and I arrived at the Hexacuba shelter. It was a hexagonal shelter with a pentagonal privy (complete with pentagram drawings and Satanist graffiti and ripped off door)

Stats:
Milage: 14.8 miles
Elevation change: 4000 feet up, 3000 feet down
Trail condition: Why do the NoBos look at me funny when I run up and down a mountain? Also they're complaining about the trail? Why?

In other news, this was "Scott Jurek day." As in, if we went at the speed Scott Jurek had when he went on the trail, we'd be finishing today. We were pretty close I guess: only 1775.6 miles short of his record. :P

Day 38 (July 21): Ice Cream and "Riddle hints"

Camp Shoes, Double Dip, Baby Bear, Pugs, and I all traveled in a group and played two truths and a lie on our hike today. I started ~75% of mine with "This one time, at band camp..." because I'm a nerd.

Fire Warden's tower at the top of Smarts mountain

View from the top of the tower

Can you see the fire tower?

(zooming in helps)

We made lunch at a firewarden's tower. Camp Shoes, Double Dip (both engineers) and I contemplated the physics of how the wood slats let in a breeze for ~1 hour. We scared away one NoBo and Moose during that time (though we caught up with Moose on our way to the next camp).

Near the end of our hike, we passed the Ice Cream Man's house: a guy who's regularly given Ice Cream and conversation to thru hikers for 10+ years. Unfortunately, he died in late May of this year. Fortunately, in his will, he asked his friends to keep his house stocked. It was a little odd, but I got free ice cream.

When starting our day, we picked the shelter we stopped at because it was supposed to have a hint to the riddle. It had nothing to help us solve it.

Stats:
Milage: 12.0 miles
Elevation Change: 3000 feet up, 2500 feet down
Trail Condition: Glorious

Day 39 (July 22): Farewell NH!

We left in the morning without filling water (like idiots) and went 8 miles to the next water source. On the way, we caught up with Peaches, who had don't big miles to catch us after getting Neurovirus at Mt. Washington. He'd hiked with some cool Virginian section hikers (Lead Dog, Slim Jim, and Tiny Pants).

We caught the Virginia gang at our water source, and all drank a couple liters of water. After talking a bit and eating lunch, we (Camp Shoes, Double Dip, Peaches, and I) decided to see how fast we could go. So we jogged for just under an hour (went 4.1 miles) before we found trail magic, which we drank (lemonade = bliss)

Upon entering Hanover, Double Dip was offered free food and a free stick (he looked really homeless), and we ate the free pizza for hikers, and bought more pizza.

Peaches and I went with the Virginia gang to a trail angel (someone who does nice things for thru hikers) house where we spent the night. Camp Shoes and Double Dip returned to the woods.

Stats:
Milage: 17.6 miles
Elevation change: 2500 feet up, 3500 feet down
Trail condition: runnable

Day 40 (July 23): Not a zero, I swear!

Taking shelter from the hail in a liquor store

We spent all day in town. Hanover has a bunch of free stuff for hikers, and we needed to resupply. Also, Camp Shoes, Double Dip, and I needed to solve a quandry: with Pokémon Go out, we didn't want to miss out on the fun, but there are no Pokémon in the forests, mountains, or tall grass, and our phone batteries need to last several days regardless, so we can't do that. So we arranged to get Gameboy Advances and Pokémon Crystal sent to us, and decided we'd play that in the woods instead. We even ordered a sync cable so we could battle each other. Totally worth the weight :P

Eventually, we hiked from Hanover to the neighboring town of Norwich, where there was a fair. So we stopped there. On our way out, we were warned about a coming storm. Then we saw a wall of black sky approaching. So we booked it to cover (a liquor store) and waited for it to pass.

Before leaving cuvilization, Camp Shoes and I ordered pizza... which took an hour to arrive and totally wasn't worth it. We made it to the shelter around 8:30 PM (just a little after sunset). But hey, it doesn't count as night hiking if you don't pull out your light right?

Totally not a night hike! Easily visible trail!

Stats:
Milage: 5.9 miles
Elevation change: 800 feet up, no downs
Trail condition: first 2.5 miles was literally sidewalk. Second 3.4 I could hike with my eyes closed (or at least, without significant light sources).

I've done more, but it's late and I should sleep. Suffice to say I'm doing more miles now (did 26.9 the other day), the terrain keeps getting easier and the views are getting worse. Currently I'm hiking on my own (West Virginians had a poorly timed meet up with one of their parents, Virginia Gang finished their section hike and went home, Kentucky Boys (Speedo and Nemo) are probs somewhere ahead, Pugs, Baby Bear, Peaches, and Moose are going slow so they can drink and party all the time, and Double Dip has giardia (to be fair, he was asking for it, since he's been 'filtering' his water by adding a few drops of Vodka to it... Russians), and Camp Shoes is sticking with Double Dip.

Blessings,
David

P.S. Did the formatting in the morning on the Inn I'm staying at's computer. Haven't started hiking yet and it's almost 1 PM, so I'll probably just go 3 miles today. Might draft another post. No promises though. Been hanging out with Aqua Man today (he's currently holed up at this hotel with giardia -- filter your water kids!), probably going to eat lunch in town.