Now in Lyme, New Hampshire

We left the fire warden’s cabin/smarts mountain shelter and hiked into Lyme. Hitched a ride into town well ahead of our shuttle from a very nice retired couple.

Yesterday we hiked from Hexicube Shelter to Smarts Mountain. We stopped before the rain and waited out two inches of rainfall.

Beautiful shelter. With a working door and windows even.

Before that we finished the White Mountains and did Moosilauke and stayed at Hikers Welcome.

Moosilauke is the last of the Whites and has a fearsome reputation. However, it has stairs and iron and handrails and an alternative route to the top the locals use. Almost twenty of them at the summit.

And some more trail pictures:

And the last AMC shelter

Yes. I’ve been a while between updates.

But now I’m current to today in Lyme, New Hampshire where the weather is now beautiful.

In North Woodstock.

Snow last night. Melting today so we took a day off to avoid a difficult climb into ice.

Tomorrow we finish the White Mountains.

For some pictures.

And yes. The presidentials were hard. Mount Washington had wind and rain. Gusts to 80 mph.

Very little internet so I didn’t post.

So. We did the Wildcats. Now on to the presidentials.

What Rachel has been up to:

Why we caught a shuttle into town from Mt Washington:

Yes. Gusts to 80 mph, up on the mountain heavy rain hit at 1:45.

This wonderful couple gave us a ride into town.

We will take up on the trail tomorrow when it is supposed to be sunny and clear.

At Rattle River Hostel

Met some great people and Win is recovering her knee. Getting ready for the Whites.

Talking with Tailhook at breakfast.

And Odie:

Glad to be here.

Now, something else

When I worked our corporate policy was we were not allowed to give references.

When I retired that changed (I just was told I couldn’t hire anyone away).

So I thought I would review my paralegal, Eileen Prestel.

She isn’t looking for a job and does not need a reference but I just wanted to post about what a wonderful paralegal she was/is.

Diligent, thorough with attention to detail and with strong appellate and federal skills.

I am very grateful to have worked with her.

At Full Goose Shelter

We finally got through the Notch. No word about partial geese but but it is a good rest after a hard day.

We will have a short change of pace.

Full Goose:

Me in the Notch:

“Sunny and clear”.

Today and last night’s shelter:

Last night’s shelter:

Before that Grafton Notch to Old Spec.

Beautiful day:

Bald Pate:

West Bethel:

Human Nature Hostel and slack packing:

Our best trail day in Maine:

And we finally caught up with Lady Di.

We are into four weeks on the trail and finishing up Maine. It has been an adventure. Maine is so pretty and so difficult.

Headed to Bethel tomorrow

We had a great day today. Slackpacked to Grafton Notch from Andover to Andover and our second day at Human Nature hostel.

We’ve had some rain (over two inches the other night as we slept in a shelter) but today was beautiful and dry.

And Yesterday we finally met up with Lady Di. We hiked with her in the south and she takes incredible pictures.

Earlier we were making progress.

I’ve not been updating like I should.

But we’ve done 22 days on the trail and reached mile 256.9 going south. Doing well and averaging almost 12 trail miles a day.

Sometimes it takes a bit more walking to get the trail miles completed than just the trail distance.