Paul Burks <paulrburks@gmail.com>	6:10 AM (26 minutes ago)
to me

Aug 24-31, 2019 hike NH

Aug 14, 2019, So on August 14, 2019,we returned to the

 wild, though Hanover, NH,  isn’t that much a wilderness there.

 Home of Dartmouth, it’s quite an urbane college town. 

 picked up where we left off on trail on a main street 

in Hanover. It’s very civilized walking down the city street, 

and seeing the AT white blazes on the telephone poles.

After a couple of miles, we are out of town and into 

the woods again.

1. Aug 15-NH starts like a lamb, but then turns into a 
2. snarling lion-monster of a hike. I had read all about it
3. “you do 90% of the trail with 10% of the  effort and 
4. 10% of the trail (meaning the 160+ in NH and
5.  60 or so in Maine) with 90% of the effort. 
6. Yes! Absolutely true going through NH in 2019. 
7. Straight up mountains , no switch backs here. 
8. Rocks rocks rocks, 
9. And people complained about Pennsylvania rocks? 
10. NH makes 
11. PA look like a crushed gravel trail by comparison.
    

        

Aug 15-16- Hiked the mountains near Lyme, NH. 

Could only think of Lyme 

disease. Here the going gets tough- 

up rocks, climbing rebar and wooden steps 

sometimes nailed

 into stone, but sometimes missing. 

Aug 17-19-Tough climbs up and down and more rocks. 

Why am I here I ask myself, is this really fun?

Aug 20- Big day- Climbing Mt Moosalacki- 

this was a milestone mountain to climb. At 4800  feet, it 

was 2 mile climb up 3000+ feet.

 And straight up and straight down. 

But beautiful on top! 

Above tree line and we had a gorgeous day with 

stunning views. 

While it is the toughest hikes, it is the most scenic. 

I feel sorry for SOBOs as they will not get views

 like this again for a thousand miles. 

And then they have to peer through leafy trees. 

Coming down you parallel a waterfall for forever.

My Sweety was to meet us on this side and began 

to hike up to meet us. Poor thing! It was an 

incredibly hard 

hike up and it took her a while to meet us. 

Then she had to hike back down! Is

Certainly hard on the knees. 

There is a sign at the bottom that says,
 “Trail extremely tough, if you lack experience 

do not attempt.” Very true! We ran a 

cross a couple who were day hikers and not at all 

equipped to hike. 

I told them to turn back, not sure if they did.  

And quite a day! One I won’t forget. 

Aug 21-22. A two day hiking plan, but one that require

 us to outrun the weather-a rain storm expected 

about noon the first day. Off we went as early as we 

could from the motel, made decent progress,

 but as expected, the bottom fell out and we were 

drenched.

 Finally made it to the shelter-and 

to our surprise it was filled with about a dozen 

college kids 

on their freshman orientation hike and camping trip, 

getting them ready for the rigors of college life, 

I suppose. 

Or just trail bonding. 

Anyway, didn’t know what to expect here, 

no place for us 

to sleep and the grounds were a boggy mess.

 Later learned that they had to move out and l

eave the 

shelter for us hikers. Glad for their

 adherence to the rules. 

Next day hiked out and back to the hotel. 

August 23-25 The trip through Franconia!

This is definitely the crown jewel of the AT. 

But first straight up a several mile trail with

 plenty of rocks and a camping area on platforms. 

Luckily got 

there early to secure a spot. As it was all on a very 

serious slant! 

Slept well and 

Whenever they show a photo of the trail, this is it.

 5000 ft +, above

 tree line for miles and a ridge walk plus mountains 

that last an afternoon. 

Rocky, but beautiful and we lucked out in the e view. 

Just stunning. 

But there are many trails up to the top here.

 This mountain has been a climbing destination 

by the local

non native population for over 200 years. 

Since it was a pretty day and a Saturday, 

the top ridge was 

swarming with day hikers.

 Shod with flip flops and thin summer clothes, 

they were quite the contrast to me in my 

long distance 

hiking attire. 

After a long day we reached our camping

 shelter for the

 night and while eating dinner met 

Beast, a thru hiker from NY. Very nice guy and 

we shared 

stories as we often do with fellow travelers 

of the trail. 

Aug 25- hiking down from Franconia was crazy! 

For the

 first time 

I had to hike 

down a waterfall, coming off 

Mt Garfield. I had heard a hiker talk about how difficult 

Garfield was 

going up. 

I went down and it was definitely nuts.

 It was an 11 mile hike off of Franconia to get to our 

stoping place 

for the night -Galehead Hut. 

A place for dinner and a restful night-our first hut of the trip. 

Huts are nice/ they are hiker hostels with dinner 

and breakfast. Expensive but very comfortable after a long day 

hiking. 

They dinner would be served at 6 pm 

and don’t be late. We scurried down the mountain at the end of the 

day rushing to make dinner time. 

I was starving! We are just past 6 and I will say it was one of the top

 ten meals I ever had in my life! 

Maybe it was hiking 11 miles or just super hungry-it was a pasta 

dinner 

with the best red sauce! Yum yum!!

Aug  26-A good night sleep-aching knees as usual, but they were fine 

by morning and then a very pleasant 

(unusually so) and uneventful 8 mile almost flat hike out to the road to 

be picked up. An amazing 4 day stretch! 

1. Aug 28-29- After a zero day staying at the wonderful 
2. Eagle Mountain Inn in Jackson, NH, and enjoying 
3. the local creek, we headed out for our last big
4.  adventure for this year-hiking down Mt Washington- 
5. Southbound! We have always headed north, 
6. being very traditional in our hiking ways. 
7. But Mt Washington is notorious for killing people. 
8. Worse weather in America, they say, 
9. at only 6200 feet in elevation. 
10. Cold and windy on top year round, 
11. and rain and snow anytime. 
12. They have a big wall poster at the top giving 
13. the names of all that have died on the mountain. 
14. A dubious honor for sure. Most of exposure or 
15. cardiac arrest. 
16. I was determined to try not to tempt the fates- so, 
17. with rain predicted, let’s hike down, 
18. not up, and cover the south side this year and 
19. north side 
20. next time out. 
21. This we did. And only because there is a private auto 
22. road that goes to the top! 
23. It was first constructed around 1860.

They said something like, “leave in the base of the mountain in 

summer and arrive on top in November.” And

 they are correct.

We left the bottom at about 70+ degrees in the early morning, 

my Sweety drove us to the top on a 

fairly treacherous road, and we got out to 50 degrees and

 high winds! Ran to the tippy top for a photo,

 then headed down southbound. And it was no easy downhill.

 Like a moonscape.

 Above tree line and a billion rocks all around.  

My Sweety 

was such a trooper she decided to hike with us

 part way, and went down the mike and a half to the 

famous

 Lake Of The Clouds Hut.

 We paused there a a break-she went back up 

with only cairns to 

light you way and we headed on down, 

which is definitely a misnomer as I felt we were going up 

more than down. 

Only a 6 mile day for us, but it was long and hard.

 Made it to hike to our Mizpah Spring Hut by 

mid day and then the rains came. -

A nice place to be inside, but not as good a dinner

 as before. 

Still, very nice to be dry and warm. 

Next morning, out to finish our hike down to 

Crawford Notch 

and if was not easy. 

Had to navigate the Webster Cliffs, a series of ledges going 

down that I was sure I was going to fall off! 

Took all day to get off the mountain, but finished our 

two week adventure

Did not go as far as hoped, only did 109 miles in two 

weeks and was hoping to complete NH.

But it was very tough each and every day.

The rest of NH will have to await another year and 

in the meantime 

we will stay at the top of Mt Washington in our minds!

Completed to Mile 1860!