Pictures

I have finally updated all of my pictures from the end of New Hampshire to Maine.

The End of The Trail

     Well I have really pushed some miles since the last blog I wrote. Once I finished with the White Mountains I arrived in Gorham, New Hampshire where I stayed at the White Mountain Lodge to rest up and get some laundry done. The next day I left the hostel to enter into my last state of the trail, Maine. Maine is one of the longest states on the trail with over 280 miles of very rough and beautiful terrain. I left for the trail Monday the 20th of August and something in my mind just made me want to really start pushing out some miles and get the trail finished. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I was just really ready to be home, or that I was curious to see what my body could handle.
     I finished the trail yesterday August 31st when I made my final climb up Mt. Katahdin. Therefore I finished the entire state of Maine in about 10 and a half days. This was pretty fast averaging about 28 miles a day. I went through the 100 mile wilderness in less than 72 hrs even. It has been really amazing to see what condition my body has finally made it into to allow me to do the kind of mileage that I did just these last couple of weeks. Maine was an incredibly beautiful state and even though I did go through it pretty fast I still got to see some great things and get some amazing pictures. I really want to come back another time and do some more hiking up in Maine when I feel like I am able to go slowly and not feel so eager to finish.
     This has been such a great journey and I have grown so much from being out on the trail. I really hope that everyone can get out and do something like this at least once in their lives. I am sorry that I am being a bit vague about my last few weeks on the trail but I want to leave you all a little curious my travels, that way when I see all of you we can have something to talk about still. I plan on putting up my pictures from the last few weeks but I will have to wait till I get home to my computer to upload them because my phone hasn't been uploading properly lately.
     Thank you to everyone who has been there for me on the trail and to all of you who have been following the blog, without your support and motivation I doubt I would have been able to make it.

-Turbo Zero

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

July 31

     Its been a little while since I got back on the trail from the wedding and I feel like a lot has happened. I had a really great time getting to take the to go back to Virginia to see a lot of my friends and family. My brother was awesome and came all the way up to pick Son and I up from Connecticut. The trip seemed to be pretty long but not too bad because we were able to stop off in New York and pick up the girl I was telling y'all about and take her with us. It was really nice getting to know her and all the time I spent with her added to the feeling of how special I think she is. The wedding turned out to be very beautiful and a really good time. It was really great to get to see a lot of you and talk a bit more about my experiences out here. Sadly for me however my time in civilization had to come to an end so that I could get back to the trail and get to Katahdin.
      It was pretty difficult getting back in to the swing of things from being off the trail for so long. I just kept thinking how everything was so much easier when I was back for the wedding and how nice it was to not be kind of alone and away from everyone. I think if it weren't for Son being out here with me when I got back on I don't know if I would have been able to make it through the transition of getting back onto the trail.
     After a few days of not so great weather and scenery not changing so much things started to get a little better. We started making climbs over 2000ft again allowing for some better views and also getting to see some nice waterfalls and brooks that ran along side the trail. Just after we got into Massachusetts there was a really cool spot along one of the brooks that looked like it could have been a really great spot to do a cliff jump, probably about 20ft high. I was really excited because this was going to be the first one I would be able to do on the trail so far. The water was pretty clear and looked like it was about 10 or 12 feet deep so I climbed up and gave my camera to Son to take a video. He said, "hey it not working man." So I went over and checked it out, sure enough my phone had frozen on the video screen so I had to restart it. I figured since it was restarting I might as well climb down there and make sure everything was alright down there before I jumped. So I swam in and that water was freezing cold and by some kind of optical illusion the water was only really about 4 feet deep. Man am I glad my phone crapped out on me there! Definitely checking the water personally now before I think about doing anything like that again.
     So the next couple of days were pretty nice and we got to see a couple of cool little small towns. One town in Salisbury, CT actually interviewed us for their town paper and said we were going to be in the issue that came out last Thursday. Massachusetts has been a pretty beautiful state to hike through with surprisingly a lot of really nice people here. Just a couple of days ago we went and stayed at a cabin that was maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club or AMC called Upper Goose Pond Cabin. The cabin is run by a volunteer caretakers who switch once a week. It was a very beautiful place to stay right on the pond. They allowed you to go out on their canoes and in the morning they made all the pancakes and coffee you could ever want.
     After leaving the cabin it started off like it was going to be a nice day, however around 10am that story changed. It started raining then and rained all day until we got to Dalton, MA. It was a pretty miserable day however we heard that a man named Tom Lavardi allowed you to camp at his house in town so we figured we would do that and go in and get a bite to eat to try and make the day a little better. To our surprise when we got to his house there were about 20 hikers at his house all just hanging out. As it turns out Tom goes above and beyond to help hikers. He completely opens his house up letting hikers sleep in the middle of the living room, he lets you use the.shower, does all of your laundry and will pretty much drive you wherever you want to go. ALL FOR FREE! He makes it so that his house is a bit of an Oasis for hikers. He doesn't mind how long you stay either. When we asked him if we could stay another day to.recuperate he said well the record is 47 days and your welcome to try and beat that if you want. Supposedly a hiker in the past ran out of money for the trail and Tom let him stay at the house while he got a job in town to make enough money to finish. Anyway we have been at his house for the last couple of days and I think I have finally gotten out of my funk from feeling the way I had after the wedding and am now ready to get back on the trail and experience the beautiful northern states. Be looking forward to some beautiful pictures because I know they will be coming!

-Turbo Zero

July 9

I was really hoping for the fact that when I got out of PA these darn rocks would ease up and give my feet a little break but they are at it again here in NJ. So far however everything about NJ has been pretty awesome. We have finally been getting some great scenery again with some awesome views. There seems to be a lot more creeks and water along the way as well. My plan when I got out of PA was to start doing 30 mile days until I had to go back for my sisters wedding but after the first one and the rocks still not letting up much, my feet just aren't going to be able to take it doing that kind of mileage. It also didn't help that yesterday we came across a nice lake to go swimming in for a while. We came down from what is known as the highest point in NJ yesterday to go throigh some bogs and farmland. Going through the bogs was probably one of my favorite portions of the trail so far. When you hike through them you walk on all these elevated boards so it kind of seems like walking through a rainforest all most. Well right now I'm sitting on the porch of the general store here in a little town called Unionville NY. This has been a really great little town to stay the night at. I got to meet a really cute girl yesterday and talk to her for a while. She seems to be the first girl I have met in a while that was really cute and I could be a bit interested in. She kind of comes off as one of those small town girls that is genuinely nice and I don't think realizes she is as pretty as she is. I really hope that I'll be able to see her again someday. I think its really awesome how one day I may be driving somewhere and pass through one of these small towns and know that I have had some kind of experience there. This kind of thing has been my favorite part of hiking so far.
-Turbo Zero

July 5th

     Well PA you did it, my feet really hurt. This entire last 80 or so miles has been completely filled with inescapable sharp rocks. I feel like I've had my best days on the trail and my worst days on the trail so far in this last week. The first stretch right after we left Boiling Springs the heat was just ridiculous. I had a really bad case of a heat rash that went all up and down my legs. It felt very similar to a very bad sunburn but would kind of go away if I went out of the heat for a while or put water on it. We spent a night in Duncannon  at the Doyle Hotel, normally a pretty gross hotel but really nice for hikers since the rooms were only $25 a night. The hole place was filled with hikers and it was pretty fun. After we left Duncannon we crossed the Susquehanna River and got up onto a ridge line where we would be hiking for the next hundred miles or so.
     We did our now longest day of hiking just a little while ago. We did a total of about 38 miles, 34 on the trail and another 4 coming in and out of town. I arrived at a really nice view at about 4:30am and decided to set up camp there on rock overlooking the PA countryside. The next morning however I had to get up really early at about 6:30 am because the sun was shining right down on my and starting to cook me on the rock. That day was pretty miserable, the rocks were horrible and I started to suffer from sleep exhaustion. I still ended up hiking about 17 miles that day however.
     I had one of the best 4th of Julys I have ever had out here on the trail. I hiked out of town up this mountain, which was one of the hardest climbs that I have had on the trail so far. I had to use my hands to climb the mountain and kind of did a little rock climbing, hikers call this a "rock scramble". After we got to the top of the mountain we had a couple mile walk along the ridge line of the mountain which didn't have any trees on it so we were able to see down into the valley the whole way. We came across this spot where we decided to camp that someone had made a bunch of seats out of the stone that was all laying around there as well as a fire pit. We set up there and were able to have a birds eye view of about 25 different firework shows all over the valley.
     The next day we hiked down into Wind Gap, PA and met up with the Dipaolos who hosted us last night and have been taking really good care of us here. We will be finally leaving PA today once we cross the Delaware River and will be getting into New Jersey.

-Turbo Zero