Did some backpacking on the Appalachian Trail!

visiting the lovely Sebago Lake for the night on my way up to the White Mountains

Hello!!!!  Once again it has been a WHILE since I've been blogging...  I guess I get caught up in life.  I can't believe I never blogged out about my excellent Puerto Rico trip back in February, I will have to catch up on that!  Anyway folks, all is well here in Maine.  I am enjoying the tail end of what was a wonderful summer & plugging away at my schooling.  Over the summer my two best friends got married and I attended their weddings in Wisconsin & California (AWESOME), I had been in summer school (DECENT) and over my two week break from school I went on a solo backpacking trip, about a week on the Appalachian Trail (AT) through the White Mountains of New Hampshire (EPIC!!).  It was so fabulous I'd like to tell you about it.  

This post is dedicated to my sister who had a birthday yesterday & pestered me about not updating my blog.  (I took your zip drive advice, so there sister, good idea, happy birthday :)

here is an ok general map of the region, I was in those "White Mts.", about a 2.5h drive from Portland, Maine.

Also this one, small I know, basically I hiked from near that major looking highway in the center to the pink smaller highway on the right.  From Kinsman Notch to Pinkham Notch, about 65 miles.

So, I have done a lot of backpacking, I consider myself a black belt backpacker, I thought... ho hum, the Appalachian Trail, lets see what it's all about since I live out east now...  I had estimated I could hike at least 10 miles a day because, well, these mountains are low elevation (as compared to the Sierras, my apparent base of comparison for everything)!  I mean, people out here make a go of bagging all the 4,000 ft. peaks as compared to the 14,000 footers out west.  Basically, I am just setting this up to let you know I overestimated my abilities and I underestimated the difficulty of the trail.

In prepping, I had compiled all my 15 year old gear (note to self, get all new gear), went food shopping & packaged up more than enough vegan delights to feed one person for 8 days, loaded up my first aid kit with molefoam, athletic tape & NSAIDS and set out.  My first mission as I drove into the Whites was to leave a food resupply for myself in Crawford Notch state park.  Then, I drove to North Woodstock, got some local info and ended up leaving my car by the police station/town hall in Lincoln & taking a hiker shuttle up to the trailhead at Kinsman Notch.  I planned on sporting a hiking dress for this trip, had heard that they are easy breezy for longer trips.  My pack was heinously heavy, I will admit.  A heaviness that left me preferring to be able to set the pack down on something about waist high to be able to "board" the pack rather than having to heft it up (ughhh) from ground level.  I had overpacked, what's new?  I would often get the comment, "that looks like a heavy pack" umm... yes.

setting out, looking rather fresh!  this was the one & only time I wore that "sun hat".  ha ha, not so sunny.

I immediately ran across several Appalachian Trail "through hikers", meaning hiking the whole length of the trail.  These people were identifiable by their speed, fit legs, beards, small packs, trail running shoes, short shorts, etc.  This was about the time that through hikers would be passing through the Whites on their way north to the end of the trail at Mt. Kathadin in northern Maine.  It was so humid, I was immediately sweating buckets.  It was so steep, I was immediately tired.  I realized... I'm in for it.

here is a nice view of Franconia Ridge, where I'd be in a couple days.  I met a nice AT through hiker at this vista that gave me some good tips about camping on the trail, etiquette, etc.  He was making his dinner up here & hiking into camp late in hopes of seeing a moose.  He had a stove he had fashioned of a huge Foster's beer can sitting on top of a half cat food can using a wind shield fashioned out of other beer cans, light & effective!  His trail name was Moonlover.  He told me that the White Mountains section of the AT is known to be the hardest section of the entire trail.  Whoa!! :)

I rolled into camp that first night as it was getting dark, there were loads of people there.  Exhausted, I managed to find myself a tent spot, ate some food & crashed.  In the morning I was probably the last one to hit the trail...  The trip was off to a strong start!

lots of scenes like this

And lots MORE scenes like this!  This is the trail.  This is looking back up what I had just come down. 

A note about the trail...  The trail is crazy!  People had warned me that it was steep, they weren't kidding!  I am used to switchbacks & nicely graded trails, not to be found in the Whites.  These trails are hella steep, full of rocks, boulders and roots, often slippery due to humidity, mist, rain, muddy.  I was glad I had some climbing & bouldering skills, my hiking poles & some confidence.  Not for the meek, my friends.  Many times I would be hiking uphill & taking some big steps & have the thing happen where you do not shift your weight forward with enough momentum & the weight of your pack starts pulling you backward.  This was an exercise in mastering dynamics.  Overall, I fell about 3 times on the trail, sustained mere flesh wounds and bruises, no big deal.  Although I was alone there were a lot of people on the trail so I never felt I'd be in danger if I actually had gotten injured.  (got that, Mom? :)

this was a beauty, Lonesome Lake, where there was an AMC hut

Through this stretch of the AT through the Whites there are about 9 (?) AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) Huts where you can choose to stay & be fed yummy meals & sleep in bunk rooms.  This is super poplular.  The huts were nice for me because you can always go in & get clean water & use the bathroom, simple pleasures.  Also they have hot beverages & yummy cakes available all day for hikers that stop in.  It is usually a cool, social interlude scene and the huts themselves are adorable.

I chose to camp out in my old, compromised tent, 6 out of 7 nights.  There was a lot of rain & it turned out that the tent had some leaks requiring extra vigilance of wetness monitoring.  But...  all my gear became wet at some point.  Note to self to not bring a down sleeping bag next time, synthetic would have been better.  Some of my things got wet & never seemed to get any drier than a nice light damp.

this was some summit, i had a lot of summit views like this, off into the clouds.  i enjoyed thinking to myself,  "oh, I could be anywhere..."

sometimes the steepness required things like these stair insets or ladder type things.  

here was a gorgeous view coming up from Franconia Notch.  trees stunted by harsh weather like this are showing "Krumholtz formation"

Unfortunately on this day I lost my water filter...  It was in a side pocket of my pack & must have blown out or been bumped out when the wind blew me over on a ridge.  I had just got this cool thing called a Life Straw, it was dvpd for use in 3rd world countries with poor water supplies.  You can basically stick it into any body of water & suck water straight up through the filtration straw.  It was working pretty good until I lost it.  I was worried about water now but figured I could borrow at the campsites or get water from the huts until I figured something out.

near the greenleaf hut

on the way up to Franconia ridge, huge cairns are all over the place.  they seemed like overkill until I actually had to rely on them for guidance

ah yes, this looks about right, arriving in the mist...

this is probably the summit of Mt. Lafayette, pretty great view! 

fortunately, the clouds part sometimes

saw a lot of "indian pipe"

this was probably my least gourmet meal, a fancy ramen.   i packed too much food, i ate a lot because the food was heavy.  a combination of food anxiety & poor planning.

trying to dry my things, they actually got wetter being out in the humid air... :-/

I was thinking I would be able to camp independently (meaning find a site for myself around some water any old place along the trail) more often.  Not so.  The terrain is often so steep & heavily vegetated there is no possible way to find a campsite.  Also, water sources were less common than I had imagined or been used to.  So, they've got these campsites with tent platforms and sometimes shelters (a 3 sided deal where you'd sleep, with others, without your tent).  At this particular site I camped about 7 feet away from a pair of ladies I'd met on the trail earlier & had doctored a HUGE blister for one of them.  So, even if I'm camping by myself I was still hanging out with these ladies all night because, how could I not being in such close proximity?  These ladies were awesome though & lent me their water purifier.  Score!  Water anxiety problem solved.  I mailed it back just yesterday.

looking back at Franconia Ridge 

pano view from South Twin Mtn

Nice posse of folks on the summit & rare clear view.  Shared a wee spot of whiskey with the dudes on the left.   :)

Then there were a couple of days I didn't take any photos.  You see, I had purchased this tiny solar charger I thought would be super awesome to charge my phone for photo taking & music & podcast listening.  I about killed my battery on the first couple of days listening to music all day on the trail only to realize that... the solar charger was not going to be very effective.  The solar  panel was relatively tiny, it really had to be pointed directly at the full sun for about 4+ hours to charge up AND... I was in the forest most of the time AND... it was overcast most of the time.  So I was trying to conserve the last speck of battery power to take a summit pic on Mt. Washington.  

I did some great hiking between Mt. Garfield and Crawford Notch, one day about 12 miles.  One evening I was camping solo in a cool site along a river & able to hang out all my stuff to actually get dry!  In the evening I walked over to a gorgeous waterfall, Thoreau Falls, and had some blissful moments to ponder life.  In town I get so caught up in stress & busyness, it was SO fantastic to just be out in the wild, totally by myself, completely entertained by nature, a good book & looking at maps, satisfied and content with my simple foods, a hot cocoa, sleeping in a dry tent...  At that moment I felt like I never wanted to return to civilization, nice to have times like that.  Life can be simple.  I was happy :) :)

one of the Lakes of the Clouds, up near Mt. Washington.  thank you Instagram :)

I had picked up my food resupply & made some decisions.  I had too much food & too much gear I wasn't using so I repacked the box I left for myself & decided to hitch up to the AMC Highland Center to leave it there for myself to pick up in a few days.  I also assessed my route, figured I had 3 nights left & decided to treat myself to staying at the Lakes of the Clouds hut at the foot of Mt. Washington because it made the most sense for my route.  There are few places to camp below treeline, close to the AT on the stretch of the trail through the Presidential Range.   After taking care of these logistics I hit the trail again (cutting out about 5 miles of the AT) with a MUCH LIGHTER PACK!  Hallelujah, I really did myself a favor, my knees & hips thanked me.  Just that day I had onset of some terrible right knee pain.  I was no stranger to this pain, it has happened a lot on other bpacking trips.  I gave myself some high doses of vitamin I & Naproxen, applied a crappy knee brace & powered on, for better or worse.  I had initially planned to hike a bit further overall but due to my knee pain & my underestimation of mileage I'd hike & difficulty I figured I'd cut myself a break & end @ Pinkham Notch.

Lakes of the Clouds & AMC hut

Staying at the hut was really fun & I met some great people.  I'm not sure what I was thinking though, about sleeping in a small bunk room with about 15 other people...  I should have had earplugs & an eye mask.  Not much sleep was had.  There was a big group of AT hikers staying at the hut, they did a little Q&A for guests as an after dinner program.  These were folks I had been seeing off & on on the trail for the past week & had gotten to know a little bit.  They were so inspiring, most were in their 20s but I did meet several through hikers in their 50's & 60's.  My AT friends had trail names (a hiking name given to you on the trail, usually you'd go by just this trail name while on the AT) like:

Sunshine

Kaleidescope

Wildcat

Mantis

Keychain

Cornsilk

Neon

Hats

Crusty

Spider

Freebird

and Machine

they were awesome :)  I wish to do a long trail one day...  

on the way up to Mt. Washington, in the clouds

clear views in one direction

crazy cloud bank hovering over the mountains

Yay!  Hurrah!  Made it!  I had a fabulous photo montage up here with some funny friends I had made.  Wished for my wolf pack BFFs to have been with me to celebrate.  I also scored a phone charger from a youth & was able to charge up the phone for a moment.  :)

Mt. Washington is the highest mountain around, it is a pretty big deal!  Strange because you can actually take a train up to the summit or even drive up.  There is a weather observatory there (supposedly the worst weather & highest recorded wind speeds in the world) a snack bar, gift shops, a museum, bit of a weird scene.  A cat lives in the observatory but I didn't get to see it.  At times I felt like a celeb with people asking me... you HIKED up here?  Yeah, no biggie :)

a bit of sunset from the hut where I made some friends to play Euchre!!

On the last big hiking day I did the "presidential traverse" through the presidential range.  This was meant to be a big highlight with the potential to hike the summits of 4 big mountains.  Unfortunately, the weather was crazy terrible that day... I hit 2 of the 4 summits, probably would have been unsafe to try for more.  There weren't many hikers out & I hiked alone for hours through some really awful rain, wind, hail, low vis...  It was really slippery, really challenging.  I resorted to talking to myself in Irish accent, Australian accent, Gollum voice...  really seemed like I was on a quest through middle earth at times.  Anything to keep my wits about me :)  I was so happy to see the Madison Hut to take some shelter & have a nice piece of cake.  The trail down from the mountains was SO STEEP, my knee was killing me, I decided to camp about 6 miles from my final destination rather than push on to save my knee.  My final night I feasted on vegan mac & "chreese" (?) and it stormed ALL night.

The last day I finished the hike feeling super satisfied with myself :)  I met some other hikers that gave me a ride to the Highland Center to retrieve my package.  I had a salad & a beer @ the Highland Center.  I took a shuttle back to Franconia State Park.  I met another hiker & shared a hiker connection shuttle back to my car.  I put on my flip flops, letting those aching feet breathe and drove on home to Portland.  Since then I've slipped right back into my schedule of jobs, school, fitness, etc.  It was only one week ago but as I reflect on the trip it seems already almost like a figment of my imagination.  I feel so lucky to be able to have experiences like these in my life.  My knee still hurts on the stairs & I like that it reminds me of my backpacking trip.

Thanks for reading, I love you :)
xo