Panch's Big Adventure

Sunday, June 30

New Hammy

Man I'm so pumped for the White Mountains in New Hampshire! Tomorrow I climb Mt Mooselauke, tallest mountain I've hiked in about 5 states. It's a 6 mile climb over 3,600 feet elevation... pretty intense but I hear the summit is well worth it. Tomorrow is also the 120th day on trail. This adventure has been everything I expected and much more! The end is nearing and I'm psyched to go home and finish but at the same time this has been an awesome lifestyle and I will be sad to see it come to an end. I've reunited with some guys I haven't hiked with since Tennessee. I'm with a very solid group and I think we will be together until the end. Tarzan is about a day ahead of me and I doubt I'll see him on the trail again. He is a cool dude to hike with but he linked up with Raider and they want to push big miles in the Whites. We just dipped under 400 miles left I can quite confidently say I'm going to be finished in about 20 to 25 days. Wow!

Hanover, New Hampshire - Dartmouth college

Thursday, June 27

2 More States

Vermont has been one of my favorite states to hike in so far. When we walked into Vermont the weather opened up and the sun came out for the first time in 3 days... the temperature was perfect! We're starting to climb some big mountains now, elevations we haven't seen since Virginia. Yesterday and today we got some serious rain, hardest I've walked in. Sunday Tarzan, Tosh, and I walked to Killington, Vermont because it was very close to the trail and there was an outfitter we needed to get stuff at. We ended up calling G's mom who lives near by and she offered to let us stay the night. We hiked with G for hundreds of miles through the smokies and to Tennessee until she had to get off the trail for a while due to an injury. We stayed in a renovated barn behind a cottage on a lake. It was so nice we took a zero the next day to relax:) G's mom and dad were such nice people and we ate the best food. I was super thankful they took us in for a couple days, it was one of the best days off I've had on the trip and a great experience. Today I am 5 miles away from the New Hampshire border!! That means 2 more states to walk through to get to Mt. Katahdin. The White Mountains are coming up so soon. This is a part of the trail that has been talked about since Georgia. The toughest part of the whole trail but also has the coolest scenery. I'm so excited to hike this section. Best part is when your done with The Whites your in Maine, and that's just super exciting. I'm looking forward to this part of the trip, I've got all the best sections right in front of me then I get to go home and see my friends and family.