August 16th

     How beautiful is New Hampshire! Ever since I have arrived in this state it has been completely bitter sweet. The landscape and views have been just extraordinary but the hiking has been so hard with all the rain and steep climbs.
     As soon as we arrived in New Hampshire we walked right into the middle of Hanover, which is where Dartmouth College is. This was a really nice town and everyone there was extremely friendly towards hikers. There were lots of stores giving away free things such as a pizza place that gave hikers a slice of cheese pizza and a bagel place that gave hikers a free bagel of their choice with cream cheese. The town even had a list of a few different people that would put hikers up at their houses for the night. We stayed at Bill and Betsy's house who were very generous and came and picked us up and dropped us off from Hanover, gave us a shower, did our laundry and gave us a nice bed to sleep on.
     The next day we headed out of town after grabbing our resupply for the next few days at the grocery store and heard from a local that we would be getting some rain for the next three days or so. Well that was definitly true! We hiked over Smart mountain and Mt. Cube where we experienced rain both days until we arrived at Glencliff, NH. There we stayed at a hiker hostel so that I could pick up my cold weather sleeping bag the next morning that my parents sent for me to the post office there.
     After I got my bag Son and I headed up to Mt. Mousilauke to start our trek through the White Mountains. This was a pretty good climb for us since we were going to be going above 4000ft in elevation again for the first time in a while. However we didnt just go to 4000ft but went all the way to 4900ft to the summit of the mountain. It was a little disappointing getting to the top of Mousilauke because there were so many clouds that we couldn't get a view. Coming down from that mountain was the hardest and scariest hike that I have ever done in my life. We decended about 3000ft in the course of a mile and a half. The entire trail followed a waterfall and went down steep rocks that were completely wet from the rain earlier that morning. I actually slipped one time and was so glad that I had my large pack on my back because I landed right on my backpack on a sharp rock that probably could have seriously injured me. When I got to the bottom I saw a sign that I really wish I had taken a picture of but it said, "This is an extremely tough trail, do not attempt unless you are an experienced hiker." I hadn't realized at the time but this would be the start of a whole nother type of hiking that I would be doing from here on out.
     Everything is more difficult now and the next day after getting up Kinsman Mountain, Son and I were completly wiped out. We ended up only doing 11 miles that day finishing at the Liberty Spring campsite. We were beggining to think that this would be the kind of mileage that we would be doing for the rest of the Whites. When I got up the next morning I made it to the top of Mt. Lincoln and was completely taken back by the beauty of what was before my eyes. I felt like I was stopping every 2 minutes to take pictures and I think it took me 45 minutes to make it the half mile from Lincoln to the top of Mt. Lafayette. That day however Son and I were moving pretty fast it turns out. There were so many people on the trail that it was kind of fun going fast because it was motivating to pass people. I think we passed about 50 people that day on the trail and everyone was looking at us with amazement on how fast we were going and commenting on how small our packs were for people who were hiking the entire trail. We ended up doing about 25 miles that day since we knew if we made it to a certain area the Lovgrens would come and pick us up for a couple nice zero days in North Conway, NH. Gary was completely taken back when he picked us up by two things, one being that we were able to do 25 miles through the whites but mainly by how bad we smelled. I noticed that he was having a hard time with the way we smelled when we first got in the car and I said sorry I think we may smell a little bad and he said, "yeah you do could you roll the window down a bit." So I did and then he said, "Why don't you go ahead and roll it down the whole way." This kind of made me laugh a bit because it was the first time that we have really noticed that we had a true stink of a thru-hiker. I think it may have been because we had so many days out in the rain that it really made everything we had smell so much worse.
     Since we have been at the Lovgrens we have been having a blast! We have been here for 2 days already and even though they haven't been the most relaxing of zero days they definitly have been a couple of the best we have had. On Monday we got to go out with Gary and explore the town of North Conway. Then he took us to a natural waterslide that was made up of a river that funneled around an area of smoothed granite, when you sat down on the edge it would shoot you into the middle of the slide then down the river pretty fast. When we came back Gary, Son and I made a fire and had a beer and cigar while Holly finished up a lovely dinner for us. Everything she has made for us while we have been here has been so delicious. On our second zero here they took Son and I to Mt. Cranmore where they are both ski instructors during the winter and Gary guides the Segway tours durring the summer. They got permission for us to basicly do all the different activities that they had going on there durring the summer season. I got to ride a Segway for the first time in my life which was really a lot of fun, its really amazing the technology they have in those machines to allow them to react to your movements so easily. Probably my favorite part of the day was getting to go on the high ropes course that they have there and also to do their ziplines. I was really surprised by how difficult the ropes course was. It definitly gave me the upper body workout that I have been needing to go with the leg workout I've recieved throughout this entire trip.
     Our plan was to get back on the trail today however I'm not sure wheather that will be happening. It has been raining all morning and we Son and I are completly exhausted from our active rest days we have had here. Plus everything that we have is finally dry and clean that we dont want to get it soaked already on our first day out. When we do get back on we will have a 13 mile climb straight up to Mt. Washington which is the second highest peak on the Appalachian Trail. We would like to have a clear day to get some good views and pictures of those views. So we may end up staying the day today as well.
     Well it is only another 350 miles from here to Katahdin and we will be in Maine, our last state, in 65 miles. Everyone we have met on the trail recently have been saying, "So 350 miles, must feel nice to be almost done." All I can think of when they say that is, "Almost done? By that logic you were almost done with your hike before you even started then." I still have probably another 3 weeks on the trail. I'm really excited to get back home however because this is becoming a very long trip and its going to be nice to be home just to veg for a while. I will be posting some amazing pictures that I have taken over the last few days, if you are having trouble finding them what you want to do is click on the slideshow in the top corner of the blog and you will be redirected to the area where my pictures are posted to. Thanks for reading my long post I have finally been able to get to a computer to write this, sometimes it is difficult to write posts through my phone.
Hike        Hike
       Your
Live         Life

-Turbo Zero

August 6th

     Just after spending a bit of time in Dalton Massachusetts Son and I entered into the green tunnel of Vermont. Vermont has been a pretty nice hiking state. It feels like I'm finally back in the mountains again. We spent a night I Manchester Center VT and stayed at the Green Mountain House. This was a pretty nice hiker hostel. It was a pretty nice place, very modern and also came with a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.
     Its seemed like every time we get clean clothes after staying somewhere it rains the next day. Even though the trail in Vermont has been really beautiful the rain seems to have been making the trail pretty difficult. It gets really hard to hike when the rocks get wet and you start slipping all over the place.
     We have just recently started running into a lot of south bound hikers which has been pretty interesting. We are meeting all kinds of new people and the trail is starting to get a little more crowded again.
     Not too much more has really been happening, I am staying at a place called the Long Trail Inn in Killington VT right now. Seems like it would be a really cool place to come stay in the winter to go skiing if anyone is looking for a place to go for the winter. I should be in New Hampshire in the next couple days and the trail.should be looking pretty beautiful from there out.

-Turbo Zero