Glencliff, NH to Rutland, VT

The end of July finds us taking a short break from the trail in Sidney, New York at Garrett’s house.

We had good hiking from Hanover, NH through to the middle of VT (Rutland) where the Long Trail intersects with the AT (The LT is a trail that runs the vertical length of VT and the AT follows it for the its bottom half).

We had been talking about taking a break to go to Sidney when we reach the end of Vermont but decided to go a little early when we reached Rutland that had an Amtrak station. We took a train to Albany and then a taxi to the bus station and a bus to Oneonta, where Garrett’s mom works at Hartwick College. She then took us back to his house where we’ve been resting, eating a lot and reorganizing for 3 days. Garrett's parents have been cooking LOTS of delicious food for us. Last night we went out to Pine Lake and visited with Kathy and Andy (Garrett's friends from college) and that was really nice.

Hanover was exciting because it was our first town that is actually on the trail in that the trail took us right down the main street and by Dartmouth’s campus. We got free slices of cheese and cheese-less pizza at Brick and Brew (free for thru-hikers), had a fancy dinner at a Thai restaurant, saw the Prairie Home Companion movie, had some Ben and Jerry’s because we were almost in Vermont, visited EMS (Garrett got a much-needed rain jacket on sale and I got a new hiking shirt) and spent a good hour wandering down the aisles of the local grocery store (our favorite thing to do).

Hanover didn’t have any good hostels so we had to hike back out to the edge of the woods to set up our tent. We were planning on leaving the next day but it was raining hard. We found some north bounders who were also waiting out the rain (Master Plan, Nifty and Patches) and ended up staying another night on the porch of some kind people.

We love the trails in Vermont! They are all packed dirt or pine needles. Very few rocks and the mud has really dried up. We’re hoping to do our first 20 mile day as we move toward Bennington. So far we’ve been doing 15-18 mile days and feeling pretty good.

One of the interesting experiences of hiking the AT is staying at the various hostels that kind people set up in the trail towns. In Rutland we stayed the most interesting one yet. It was a Twelve Tribes community that ran a cafe and bakery with a hostel for hikers above. We bagged freshly-baked bread for our stay and they served us delicious dinner and breakfast and sat around visiting with all of us hikers. We finally met up with Carlos, Book and Chunky Monkey (people we'd met/ had been hiking with in Maine) at the hostel. This hostel is known on the trail as the "religious commune in Rutland" and has a great reputation for kind people, good beds (men and women sleep in seperate quarters) and good food. They reminded me of a hippie Amish community.

We also had another surprise in Rutland when we were walking down the street and Garrett ran into his neighbor Nelson from Pine Lake (the environmental campus of Hartwick where he lived during college). Nelson lives 30 miles south of Rutland and was up for the day. He drove us around on a few errands and then back to his house for a few hours.

We’ve posted all our pictures up to Hanover on Webshots. You can see them by going here: http://community.webshots.com/album/552369668gFwWrh
We’ve switched over to disposable cameras now because the digital got a little wet.

We're off in a few hours to catch a train back to Rutland. We'll be in Bennington by Friday the 4th and then it won't be but another day and we'll be in Mass.

We hope everyone is well! We've figured out that we're about a quarter through the hike. Sometimes it feels like we've been out here for years and then other times feels like we started last week.

peace,
buster and bluebird

Gorham to Glencliff, NH

We are now in Glencliff, NH, just on out of the White Mtns. It's been an eventful and tiring week and a half in the big rocky mountains and we are quite glad to be on this side.

It has taken us longer to get here than we had originally thought because after leaving Gorham, after 1.8 miles, we were camping at Rattle River Shelter and Anna fell, straining some muscles in her calf, and the next morning we headed back to the road and got a ride from "Bear" from The Cabin in Andover, ME. For the additional two days in Gorham, we stayed at The Barn, by far the best lodging for the price in Gorham, and were met by Anna's friend Tom, who had come to hike five days in the Whites with us.

So the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club).... they have quite a monopoly on the White Mountains, The huts are extremely luxurious camps which cater to the city folk who are willing to pay up to $80 per person for a bunk with breakfast and dinner prepared for them. The AMC takes two thru-hikers per night on work for stay terms, meaning they do 1 hour or work in exchange for being allowed to sleep in their quarters, most often in the dinning room, on a table or on the floor. We are grateful we were able to take these work for stay opportunities, however we were upset that in order to get some sleep at night, we would have to stay up until 11:00 when all the guests had gone to bed, only to be awoken just before 6:00 when the AMC Hut Croo's had to set the tables for breakfast. To their credit, the food was delicious, and the croo's were mostly very friendly. Anna knew one of the croo members at Lakes of the Clouds, the busies hut with 97 guests that night, because she had been an '05 grad of Bryn Mawr.

The first three presidential mountains, Madison, Adams, and Jefferson, were incredible and we had perfect weather to hike them. Once we got to Washington the weather had turned and clouded over, and as we waited two and a half hours at the top, it began to rain for our hike down to Lakes of the Clouds. Hiking the next day down out of the presidential range was foggy and we had few views of more than a mile, though the following day we went up to hike onto Franconia Ridge which was impresive and we have many great pictures to develop. The rocky steep climbs that charactize the White Mountains really began in mid-Maine just after Stratton. We've climbed over 10 mountains that had sections (up to 8 miles stretches) above treeline.

Yesterday we climbed our last, Mt. Moosilauke. When we were on top of the mountain, we saw a message written in sticks, "Hi Anna." Additionally, on the way up, people were telling us that there was a message waiting for Bluebird at the Hikers Welcome hostel. When we made it down the mountain, we were suprized by Anna's parents who had driven up on their vacation to meet us in Glencliff. They had hiked up Mt. Moosilauke to meet us, but we did not pass through until two hours after they had began to hike down. We had a nice time in town with them, went out to dinner, had ice cream, and toured the town by CAR.

We have decided to take a zero day as a reward for making it out of the White Mountains and onto easier terrain. Doing so, we're taking a day to watch movies and sit around, first was Saving Silverman, now Troy, who knows what's next. We're looking forward to getting into Hannover, NH, the home of Dartmuth College the home of the first outing club, the Dartmuth Outing Club, who maintains the trails from Mt. Moosilauke into Vermont. We'll probably not take a zero day there as originally expected because the area doesn't have any cheap hostels or other stay options. From there we should have smooth sailing through Vermont as many have told us is very well maintained easy trail.

Just as a side note, we found a digital scale at Hikers Welcome and have been able to weigh our packs.

Here are the results (with 4 days food and water)
Anna's pack: 25 lbs.
Garrett's pack: 19.5 lbs.

398.5 miles behind us, just a few more to go to hit 2,175 on Springer!

Stratton, ME to Gorham, NH

Gorham for the Fourth!

We got up early on the 4th and hiked 7 miles into town (after a confusing bit on the Mahoosuc Trail- be prepared for a detour if you take it!) getting in around 10:30. Way up on the mountain that morning we had looked down and seen the little town and the carnival set up in the commons. It was a wonderful incentive to hurry down the mountain. We checked into Hikers "Paradise" and showered and got down town for the parade and carnival. We do not recommend the hostel we stayed in and in fact found it rather hostile. The holiday was nice because we got to spend part of it hiking and part of it relaxing. Gorham is the biggest town we've come to so far and it has way too many choices for fast food. Garrett got the Burger King special of 2 whoppers for 3 bucks and I got the veggie burger... this was just a prelude to carnival food! we went out for a birthday dinner later on at a Chinese buffet which was nice.

Gorham is surrounded on 3 sides by the towering White Mountains, the most formidable range on the AT. For the next 2 weeks or so we'll be climbing straight up and straight down the Presidentials (including Mt. Washington, which I believe has the fastest recorded wind speed in the world). A good portion of the hiking will be above tree line on rocks so we're hoping for good weather!

On July 3rd we had our first day in 10 with no rain. The days haven't been rainy all day but thunderstorms would pull up at inconvenient times and make us hustle to the nearest shelter, or just get wet. We had beautiful weather for every summit of the southern Maine mountains except for Saddleback, which has a three mile stretch above treeline. There were driving winds and rain that day (possibly the scariest and hardest 3 miles of the trail so far) and a thick fog all around. But we safely made it down with no major slips or falls and warmed up after the cold, wet adventure.

Two days ago on our way out of Maine (!!) we passed through Mahoosuc Notch, called the "hardest mile on the AT." It's a deep ravine between two steep mountains full of car-size boulders. The AT makes its way over, under and around the rocks sometimes with white blazes going through holes and caves (where there was still ice!) where no "trail" is discernable. It took us about 2.5 hours to make our way through the mile with a quick stop for lunch.

We hiked through the notch with a guy named Joe Dirt (or Diarte') who normally does 20-25 mile days but had slowed down to spend the holiday in Gorham and wanted company for the notch. Halfway through the notch we came across a shattered tomato stake that Garrett immediately recognized as the walking stick of E.T., of two Mennonite brothers from Lancaster PA we had hiked with 2 weeks early through the wilderness. We knew this was hard terrain when even E.T.'s stake broke. It was left there like a symbol of the perils of the notch.

Crossing into NH was a big milestone. We've now walked 297 miles.

The new and lighter backpack has been working great for me and we both really like our trail runners. Garrett just bought a new cooking pot that is more like a mug and is much lighter (titanium). Trekking poles have been holding up fine. I'll send home my winter sleeping bag after we get through the Whites.

We've already found 3 ticks just since we got into NH (the section from Gorham to the NH line is heavily overgrown). We were told to use flea collars around our ankles to help keep the ticks off. Blisters are all healed/healing; getting our knees a bit stronger is the only challenge now.

We are still hiking with Hansel and have caught up with a few more southbounders who were in front of us. Just today we met the second person the whole trip to have come from behind us and pass on by. One of my friends from the dancing community, Tom, is coming to join us for several days in the Whites.

It will be about 100 miles before our next re-supply in Glencliff, and a hard 100 miles at that. We'll post again from there!

Bluebird and Buster