The White Mountains and Southern Maine

Updates from the Mountains

Episode #14: Oh My God! Ouch My Quads!

“The Hardest Part of the Trail”

I made it through the White Mountains! And boy did they take my breath away… metaphorically and literally. Then the fun continued into southern Maine :)

The last few weeks have been amazing, albeit tough. I’ve seen some spectacular views, climbed some awesome mountains, run into old trail friends, obliterated my quads and knees, had some gear malfunctions, and made it to my last state of the trail. It’s been a wild ride, but I’ve been loving the northern section of the trail. Even though everyone says New Hampshire and southern Maine are the “hardest” parts of the trail, at this point I just take whatever the trail throws at me. And it sure has an arsenal of obstacles.

Let me try to summarize the last few weeks and share some of my favorite pictures.

Entering the White Mountains was nerve racking. Many hikers see it as one final obstacle before the “home stretch” of the trail; If you can make it through the Whites, you’re home free. The whole state of New Hampshire is nutritious for its difficult hiking, with lots of steep inclines and rock scrambles and long stretches of alpine. But I learned the Whites were not to be feared. In fact, I LOVED the scrambles and the alpine hiking. Nothing beats climbing rocks and 360° windy views. That doesn’t mean the hiking was easy, though. With steep inclines comes steep descents. My quads were burning going up and my knees were aching going down. I’ve fallen more in the last two weeks on trail than probably the entire rest of the trail… and now I’m sporting some gnarly scrapes and bruises on my legs.

Our milage decreased in the Whites because there was hardly ever a “smooth” mile. The elevation and terrain are sure to slow anyone down. But you also WANT to slow down. Eitan and I spent 3 hours at the top of Mt Washington. For those of you who aren’t familiar, you know those bumper stickers that say “This car climbed Mount Washington”? Yeah, THIS BODY climbed Mount Washington. And it actually wasn’t that bad. In fact it was amazing. The whole Presidential range and Franconia Ridge were amazing. I can’t even describe how beautiful it all was. So worth the climbs. We were SUPER lucky with the weather, too. Clear skies led to amazing views from the top of many 4,000ft peaks and ridge lines. Here are some highlights:

Our last day in the Whites was not as spectacular. We decided the crappy weather meant we should slackpack the last range: the wildcats. We left our stuff at a hostel and took only food, water, and med kits over 21 miles of some of the hardest hiking on the trail, including the steepest mile. It was a long day. But not carrying everything while going up and over those mountains in the rain sure made my knees a lot happier than they would have been otherwise. We didn’t get back to the hostel until 7:30pm, but it was nice to get that last stretch of the Whites over with all at once.

Then we entered southern Maine. We’re running into a lot of SOBOs (southbounders) now, and they LOVE to fear monger about how difficult southern Maine is. It’s not that bad. Sure, it has some tall mountains and lots of muddy bogs, but it’s nothing we can’t handle after 1900 miles. The most fear-mongered part of the trail is the Mahoosuc Notch and the Mahoosuc Arm. The notch is a mile of giant boulders that you have to climb over and under and through, known as the slowest mile of the trail. Then the “arm” is a mile long, very steep ascent. Mostly just a good leg workout. Quads and calves? Burning. The notch was a BLAST. So fun. Amazing. Eitan and I were having a great time zooming though there and climbing all the rocks. Sometimes we had to crawl through “caves” and take our packs off to shove them through crevices. I had too much fun though, and busted my knee. It’s all good, but I’ll probably have a scar from the Mahoosuc Notch. I call it a souvenir.

Besides that, the trail in Maine is 50% rocks, 25% bog boards, and 25% just bog (no boards. Just mud). Feet get soggy, shoes and socks smell nasty, we hop along rocks and logs, we climb up ladders and rebar, we slowly inch down rocky descents, and I stop every 2 seconds to take pictures of everything.

Actually, I stop a lot for a lot of things… Pretty view? Stop. Snack break? Stop. Cool mushroom? Stop. Need to filter more water? Stop. Just tired? Stop. Another hiker to chat with? Stop. It’s a miracle I ever get where I’m going. But alas, I’m still moving forward. And running into old friends!

One of the exciting parts of the trail lately is that people I haven’t seen in a while are showing up again in unexpected places. At one hostel, we ran into Adam and his dog, Evie, who we hiked with the first few weeks of the trail! We ran into a guy we camped with for a night in Georgia on the top of a mountain in the Whites (wild!). Recently, we ran into our friend Marathon again, who we haven’t seen since maybe New Jersey. And we’ve caught back up with Chappy, Hawaii, and Red Maple who we last saw when we all went canoeing in Massachusetts! Plus I’ve run into a couple of people who I met going north early on who have since flipped and are heading south. It’s oh so lovely so see familiar friendly faces again!!

However with many many miles on the trail comes some gear failures. My sleeping pad is leaking. Like a lot. I love waking up on the ground. My water filter bag was leaking so I bought a new one, but it didn’t fit my filter so Eitan gave me his which leaks like CRAZY, so I just get soaked whenever I filter water. My power bank stopped working for a couple days and I thought I had to get a new one. Luckily, that one fixed itself. I ripped (another) hole in my shirt by falling into a tree. I ripped a hole in my foam pad and my pack cover from falling. My socks are permanently crusty no matter how much I wash them. And everything I have and my body look like they’ve been through the wringer. BUT IM ALMOST THERE!! Less than 200 miles to go and I can’t wait :)