It was chilly last night!! Slept great and it was really tough to drag myself out of my sleeping bag this morning!!
We came to Zealand Falls hut at about 11 and loaded up with water. There were several thru hikers there, so they pulled out the leftovers from last nights dinner for us! Salad, green beans and marinated chicken breasts. Bonus!!!!
Not much climbing today, but a lot of descents. Knee buster day!! We did get about a mile of this today.
This is what heaven looks like on the trail. Totally flat, dry, rock and root free trail. Doesn't happen often so I thought it was definitely photo worthy.
New Hampshire is the land of Christmas trees. The smell here is just so incredible!
We hiked about 13 miles down to Crawford Notch. We were all pretty wiped out, but big climbs tomorrow, so we pushed on to get a few of those miles out of the way. ( a notch, by the way, is the same thing as a gap in the south. It's the space between two mountains and often times where the roads are. Notches are good when you are getting off at the road to head in to a town. Notches are not so good when you have to hike up out of them. Notoriously steep)
Anyway, we hiked up a few steep miles and ended the day at Webster Cliffs where we are stealth camping. Absolutely incredible views and a great place to end the day.
We got our tents set up in the woods behind the cliffs and then sat out on the rocks to have dinner.
This may be the best spot I've ended a day at on this whole trip, and there have been a lot of competitors. Looking out over the White Mountains that seem to go on forever.... tough to beat.
Tomorrow we climb over lots of mountains, the biggest of which is Mount Washington. It is the second highest point on the Appalachian Trail. It is also where the highest wind speed ever recorded on earth was. 231 mph!! Yowsa! It is similar to Pikes Peak in that there is a cog train that people can ride to the top. Where there are people...there are restaurants. That is motivation for tomorrow morning!!
Ended the day sitting on Webster Cliffs, watching the sunset. No complaints :)
Your photos are incredible! Those views from the top are amazing and the trail shots intimidating. You and your fellow hikers are rock stars. Be safe and keep having fun.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cyndy!! The whites are really beautiful and super challenging!! I am ready to be through them!!
DeleteJust caught up on your most recent post. You made it through the whites! Wow. Some of your descriptions of the way down the steep trail make my legs ache. (-: I check your blog every couple days and just realized it's part of my routine. Make some coffee....check Joanne's blog! I'm going to miss it when you finish. Can you slow down a bit? (-:
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