Across the White Mountains of New Hampshire 7/8/09

A soggy, tired Sam checked in with us Sunday evening late. Yes, it's started raining again. "There are mudholes on top of the mountains!" Sam exclaimed. Sam, Sallie (5-yr old black lab mix) and Dustin (MSU buddy) are in the heart of New Hampshire near the village of Lincoln where the weather has been unkind to the hikers again. Several days of rain have resulted in some soggy socks and attitudes to go with them, but today there was sunshine and blue skies - so there is hope. Crossing the White Mountains in central New Hampshire, the trio has experienced their first real alpine ecosystem since starting out on their 5-million step journey. The elevations have all been above 3000 feet and for that part of the country, that is just above the tree line. The significance of that comes to light when Sam stated that they had experienced some fairly large hail and a real boomer of a thunderstorm the past couple of days. When you are above the tree line, shelter from a storm comes at a real premium, but the trio have remained unscathed so far.

As mentioned last week, food and supply are more of a focus since re-supply points are getting a little further apart. The diet has unchanged for past couple of weeks with Pop-Tarts and granola bars for breakfast, a couple of peanut butter filled flour tortillas for a mid-morning snack. Dried sausage, pepperoni, or jerky for lunch and a hot meal of soup, noodles, or rice, and sausage for dinner. The rain has made the hot meals more and more difficult, however. The past few days, Sam , Dustin, and Sallie have had the company of a young man from Connecticut, also on his way to Maine. The bonus for the trio is that he is a trained chef and has treated them to several sumptuous trail meals.

Everyone's feet are holding up. Unfortunately, Sam's new shoes - the Keen Targhees are beginning to fail in several places. They are less than a month old. You may remember that his first pair of shoes gave up after a little over a month. They were Keen Shellrocks. We've yet to hear back from Keen Footwear out in Portland about warranty replacements. It's been almost three weeks now. Sallie has stayed clear of the porcupines, but she did catch a rabbit the other day for her meal. Go Sallie!

As with any trail hike of appreciable distance, this hike has had its' share of stream crossings, most without the aid and convenience of a bridge or foot log. Recent rains have swollen small mountain brooks into serious whitewater and the group has had several crossings that were up to their waists and really cold. Safety is the keystone in any adventure and a hike of over 2000-miles will have many challenges along its' route. Sam and Dustin are extremely aware of the risks and back each other up when confronted with a situation.

The daytime temps at the higher elevations have been in the 60's and 70's while after dark, the mercury is dipping into the 40's. Quite a change from back home in Mississippi. As they head into the Presidential Mountain Range of Northeast New Hampshire, they expect to see temps drop into the upper 30's at night as they will start hitting summits at the 4500 to 5000-foot elevations.

From here, Sam, Dustin, and Sallie will bear northeasterly towards Mt. Washington, the tallest peak in the Northeast at 6288-feet. The temperature there on the 4th of July was 30-degrees. Then they will circle around the north and east sides of the mountain before crossing the Androscoggin River at Gorham, New Hampshire, their next mail stop. Sam is enjoying the emails he receives. He generally gets access to a dial-up connection to read his mail so his replies are limited. Shoot Sam and Sallie a note of encouragement to mclemoresam@yahoo.com. So long for now from the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire.