This morning I woke up around 4:30 AM and did not want to get moving. I’ve gotten so little sleep the last few nights. I really didn’t fall asleep until after midnight. That’s because I got into the shelter around 10 PM and then it usually takes me a little while to eat and wind down. I could hear it raining outside as I packed up in the cabin. But had to get moving because my plan is to be in Hanover by this evening.
It was definitely one of those days where I could’ve stayed in the cabin or shelter all day long. I went outside to go pee before I left, and it was raining pretty hard. Fortunately, it’s not too cold today, which is great. Walking in the rain all day long can be fairly sustainable if the temperatures aren’t too low. It would’ve been so nice to lounge and not have to walk into the weather. But I’m so excited to take a day tomorrow, so I definitely want to get into town and set myself up for that.
I got moving and left the cabin around 6AM. Maybe a little bit before that. Then I had to walk a few hundred feet to get back to the trail. The first few miles of the day didn’t have very much elevation, which was great. But all of the rocks and roots were super slick from the rain, so I had to go slower than usual to avoid slipping and falling. Really early on the day I almost wiped out, just barely stepping onto a rock. After that, I was much more cautious for the rest of the day.
The trail brought me through a bunch of wide open fields today.
Fortunately the rain was light enough to where I didn’t get completely soaked immediately. Sometimes when it’s raining incredibly heavily, you can get soaking wet in a short amount of time. I was able to hike for at least a couple hours before my rain gear began to wet out. It’s not that my gear doesn’t keep me dry. It’s just a combination of sweating inside and getting wet outside the rain gear. After a while, the most expensive rain gear is going to be effectively useless if you’re hiking in pouring rain all day long.
It rained pretty heavily for most of the morning. Every now and then though it would let up a bit.
I do carry an umbrella, but they aren’t always ideal on the Appalachian trail. I spent so much time climbing around branches and downed trees all day long. Carrying an umbrella usually just makes that harder. They’re much more convenient on trails with road walking or in desert areas.
By the first few hours of the day I could tell that I wasn’t going as fast as usual. Which is unfortunate but also unavoidable in these conditions. There were a lot of obstacles on the trail and also many downed trees, similar to yesterday. So I really could just only go as quickly as the trail allowed.
I thought this tree was incredibly cool.
About 6 miles into the day I passed the road into Woodstock. Originally I was contemplating going into Woodstock today to avoid the rain. But it’s supposed to rain tomorrow too. So at that point, I feel like I’m sort of avoiding the inevitable. It made a little bit more sense to me to do a big day in the rain today so that I can take the day off tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s supposed to be a lot more cold than today. Hiking in the rain when the temps are in the 60s is not nearly as bad as hiking in freezing weather. So I simply went past the road to Woodstock and continued on. I’m going to be going past a lot of roads today and each road crossing marks the start of another climb. But it seems like the majority of the steeper climbs are in the earlier part of the day, which is great. And honestly, none of them were as long as the climbs yesterday evening. If they were particularly steep at least they didn’t last too long.
At times of dense fog rolled in over the trail. Other times there was actually a lot of smoke in the air, either from locals doing controlled burns or some kind of wildfire.
I was able to keep my rain gear on pretty much the majority of the day. There were a couple of times it felt like rain was going to let up. But after only maybe 20 or so minutes it would start back up again. While I walked I tried to eat as much as I could and drink a lot of water. I feel like I did a pretty decent job fueling myself with both yesterday, but definitely not as much as I should. Last night when I got to camp, I was really hungry. But I definitely didn’t have the energy to boil water and maybe a dehydrated meal. So I just ate some beef jerky and some snacks before bed.
The grass was so incredibly green and lost after the rain.
Sometimes when I’m heading to a town, I’ll neglect eating and drinking on my way. But this is not going to be one of my typical speedy 30 mile days. I could tell in the first handful of hours that I wasn’t making great time. So the day was going to drag on a little bit. When I got up to the top of this next climb, I began seeing some of the maple syrup fixtures. I don’t know what the technical name is, but I always like to see them. That’s the first time on this trail that I’ve seen any of those lines which connect the trees together and syphon syrup.
A misty afternoon on the trail.
At one point I also saw five trail runners. They looked like they were having an absolute blast in the rain! One of the guys didn’t even have a shirt on and they certainly didn’t have rain gear one. As they got closer one of the guys sort of cheered toward me, hyping me up. It’s always rare to see anyone out “getting after it” when it’s raining. And when they went past me one guy said, “Are you doing the triple crown?“ I was pretty surprised when I heard that.
The guy said that he had just gone by some trail magic not too long ago, which said it was for someone doing the triple crown. Obviously I was pretty confused as to what he was talking about. No one has reached out saying that they left trail magic anywhere. But he said they had gone by a road maybe six or so miles back. And there had been some kind of magic there for me!That was pretty exciting news and gave me something to look forward to. On a rainy day like today, it was nice to have some kind of a goal.
Surprise trail magic this afternoon!
I kept going after that and definitely had a pep in my step. I got up to the top of that next climb and then the trail was fairly gradual for a few miles. Plus I knew I only had one or two more climbs to go for the day. Once I was closer to Hanover, I decided to figure everything out for town. Because it’s raining it’s pretty hard to use my phone and do everything. I talked to my dad yesterday and he told me to just reach out to him when I was closer to town so that he could do all the coordinating and everything for me. Which was nice because I wanted to call the hotel and ask about getting a shuttle. If I recall, Ubers are hard to come by in Hanover. And it was a pretty tough hitch to West Lebanon from there.
Also, I knew I was going relatively slow for the day and really didn’t want to waste any extra time coordinating. When I’m using my phone, it definitely slows me down a lot because I’m worried about slipping and falling. My dad definitely saved me from having to worry about that! It’s always so nice to have people in your corner when you’re doing a trek like this. It was a huge relief to have everything coordinated for me behind the scenes while I just continued hiking. Once everything was figured out I could just keep on hiking and knew I had a place to stay for the night!
Maybe two hours after I had seen those trail runners, I wound up going past the next road. at first, I figured that the trail magic had been left at the following road, which was much busier . I was so excited to see a plastic container sitting there just before the dirt road. It said my name on it and also said calendar year triple crown trail magic. That was so incredibly exciting! At this point, the rain had led up a little bit, which was such a relief. I still had my rain gear on, but at least wasn’t getting poured on anymore.
The plastic container had a couple bottles of Smartwater, some soda, and a bag full of snacks and other goodies. That puts such a huge smile on my face after a really tough morning. The rain definitely could’ve been worse, and it wasn’t actually that cold out. But it’s still always tough walking in the rain for hours on and getting soaking wet. I actually needed to get water pretty soon so I wound up taking both bottles of water and drinking the soda. Then ate some of the snacks after I got up to the top of the next climb. Thank you so much if you’re reading this and it was you who left that bin there! I know your phone number was on the container and I’m going to reach out to let you know that I got the trail magic.
Nothing quite like drinking a soda while I hike.
The next hour or so went by pretty quickly. Other than a couple of small hills, the trail was mostly all downhill. The trail was about to drop down to another road and go through yet another small town. This next town doesn’t really have any amenities in it. Though there is a local house that allows hikers to tent in the yard. But I just passed through, hiking along the road until the trail picked back up into the woods eventually.
I was actually so excited for that next climb. Because I knew it would be the last climb of the day. The climb was fairly gradual and at this point it had completely stopped raining. I took all my rain gear off and was finally just comfortably hiking in my clothes. I’m so glad that it didn’t rain for the entire day.
Once the rain finally let up I was actually able to enjoy the rest of the day through the forest.
That final client went on for a couple of miles. But it wasn’t all uphill. I got so reprieve here there as I made my way up. And after I completed this climb, it was mostly downhill for the rest of the day. Though it’s still the Appalachian Trail, so it’s never all downhill.
I liked the curve of this tree which was right by the trail.
After another couple of miles, I got some service and decided to call my mom. We ended up talking on the phone for the rest of the day until just before I crossed into Hanover, New Hampshire. That really helps to pass the time by and it’s always so nice to catch up. The last four or five days have been pretty crazy. It feels like a lot has happened and I feel a little bad for my parents. I know that they’ve been nervous about the trail conditions, snow, and the crazy situation that happened with that man at the shelter the other day.
Entering into New Hampshire, the 15th state of the year.
I just feel like I’ve definitely stressed them out a lot. And personally, I feel pretty exhausted by all of the circumstances as well. I miss the days of hiking 10 to 12 hours a day. Hiking 15 to 16 hours a day is definitely not the most sustainable thing. If the trail conditions were different then it would be a completely different story. But hiking through snow and stuff like that is just more exhausting than regular walking. That’s one of the main reasons that I’m going to be taking a zero day tomorrow. I definitely have to assess the trail conditions ahead and make an intelligent decision moving forward. At this rate, I would be up by Canada as soon as May 14. Obviously if snow conditions are bad that would slow me down a lot. But even if I got to slow down, it seems like I’m going to be getting to Katahdin well before it is open. It would be nice to have tonight and tomorrow to make some decisions.
I walked here from Key West, baby!
After I got off the phone with my mom, I crossed out of Vermont and into New Hampshire! The 15th state of the year. Then I walked through Hanover and went to grab something to eat. I remembered there being a boba place on the main street, so I went there first. I got a Thai tea and a taro tea, just because I could. Then was walking to grab a slice of pizza when I passed by an Indian restaurant. At this point, I was going to be Uber-ing to West Lebanon to the hotel for the night. So I figured I’d grab some food to go and bring it back with me.
Double fisting bubble tea.
Once I got food, I tried to call an Uber, but they just kept canceling. Then I had a flashbulb memory to being in Hanover previously. I remembered that even when the Ubers were accepting our ride, they would just never come. I’m not sure what the point of it was, but the driver would just never get closer, but also would never cancel the ride. I sat around this time for a bit trying to figure it out. But then wound up being able to get a shuttle from the hotel. That was absolutely perfect.
Right when I got picked up, it was starting to pour rain. And then I got to the hotel and got checked in for the night. The fireside and suites in West Lebanon is one of the nicest hotels that I’ve ever stayed at. And it’s pretty affordable considering how nice it is. There’s an indoor pool and hot tub, a really big continental breakfast spread, And it’s just overall incredibly nice place.
The hotel reminds me of the rainforest Café. I feel like the hotel is the mountain version of the rainforest Café. It’s hard to explain, but if you saw the lobby you would understand. Once I got into the room, I laid all of my stuff out to dry. Then propped my shoes in my backpack in front of the heater as well. I ate my Indian food and immediately started getting some writing and video work done. I wanted to at least get a video and blog post up quickly.
After I got some work done I went down and spent some time in the hot tub.
The rest of the day I just lounge at the room, got tons of work done, and prepared to do more chores tonight and tomorrow. Honestly, the most productive part of my evening was with my future planning. Finally, after almost a week of indecision I have made a pretty big choice. I’m gonna fly out to California and hike on the PCT for at least the next 3–4 weeks. That way I can do the desert section of the trail before it gets too hot. And I can give New Hampshire and Maine an opportunity to begin thawing out. Those are two of my favorite states on the Appalachian Trail and I would really like to be able to enjoy them. And it’s very clear that even if I keep going, I’ll have to get off the East Coast before I reach the Canadian border. The only way to avoid that would require me going very slow for the next few weeks.
This is a dream!
I think the more intelligent choice is to head out to California. Then I can actually enjoy myself and have some leisurely uncomfortable hiking. I’d also much rather get the desert portion out of the way when the temperatures are still fairly moderate. My loose plan for now is to come back out to the Appalachian Trail in a little bit less than a month. But obviously my plan could change depending on snow conditions in the Sierra mountains of California and here on the East Coast. I really wanted to maintain a continuous path across the entire East Coast. But whether I flip today or flip in a week or so, it’s happening either way.
Just a brief visual showing how much the snow has cut my legs up recently. My legs look like this all over.
I felt so incredibly relieved after I made all this decisions. Then I just spent the rest of the night getting tons of writing in video work done. While simultaneously lounging comfortably in bed. I have a ton of things I need to do between the rest of tonight and tomorrow. But there’s plenty of time for me to get everything done. I think this choice is going to be the smartest possible one. I want to enjoy this year as much as humanly possible. There’s no need to suffer unnecessarily through snow out here. I’d rather pay a little bit of extra money for a flight, than suffer anymore through the snow.
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