This Body Climbed Mount Washington (and Mt. Madison, and Mt. Moosilauke, and Mt. Lafayette, etc...)

Well, we've done it. We've made it through New Hampshire's famed White Mountains and are now taking a relaxing zero day in Gorham. It certainly wasn't easy or fast, but the journey has been rewarding with every step.

Heading into the Whites, the difficulty of Mt. Moosilauke had been somewhat built up by other hikers (both this year's southbounders, and some northbounders from previous years). It's the first peak over 4000' in some time, and sports a ridiculously steep and potentially treacherous descent down the Beaver Brook trail on the Kinsman notch side. We completed the 10 mile hike in a little less than 6 hours on a cloudy, wettish day, and felt quite good about ourselves and the other mountain peaks looming to the northeast.

Then we got schooled.

The trail out of Kinsman Notch, though not particularly steep or long on the elevation profile, was some of the hardest we'd encountered since our out-of-shape days back in Georgia. It took us a whole day to get over the lowly (by comparison to other upcoming peaks) Mt. Wolf, and our usual pace of around 3mph was slowed to near 1 over slick rocks in our worn down trail runners. This would be the case throughout the Whites, our previous daily averages of 17 to 20+ miles were cut to around 10, and feet and knees were sore and tired at the end of each day.

Despite their unusual difficulty, the Whites afforded us some of the most spectacular views to date, and some of the most rewarding climbs. Even though the area is famed for it's notoriously poor and oft-changing weather, we walked in comfortable sunshine and enjoyed 100+ mile visibility for all but our first and last days, and our summit of Washington (which seems always to be covered in cloud, despite widespread sun throughout the rest of the region). And though the rocky, rooty, and often slick or muddy trails slowed us down quite a bit, they've prepared us well for southern Maine, which I understand is also no piece of cake.

I'll let K describe some of our adventures in more detail... as for me, it's only 17 miles to the Maine border, and only 300 miles to go!