Dutch man walking: August 2012

It's been a while since the last update. I've crossed two more state borders since the last time. From Vermont into New Hampshire and from New Hamshire into Maine, the last state on the trail.

Interesting way to make the trail safer...

I slept on top of an observation tower to catch the sunrise.
It was worth it.

Shoe?

Vermont surroundings

I've spend the last two weeks going through the hardest parts of the A.T. The whites. Of course for us who are going north this was not as hard as we have already done 1800 miles and have only 400 to complete the trail. There is a different system to the shelters in the whites. There are huts along the way, which are basically for dayhikers and families to stay in, they are very expensive to stay in. For us Thru hikers we can do work for stay at these places. I've done work for stay at two of the 7 huts in the Whites. One of the work for stay tasks was giving a talk to the guests about hiking the Appalachian Trail, which was a lot of fun to do.

The views in the whites are amazing, and make the hard hike well worth it every day. Here are some of the pictures from the whites.

After the whites we crossed the border into Maine, the last state. Which means from here on out it's only 260 miles to complete my journey. I'm really exited about the last strech of the trail and can't wait to be standing on top off Mount Katahdin (the finish point of the trail). There's not much more to say at this point, a lot of fooling around and meeting interesting people in the U.S. but nothing big besides what i've already said. This update is mainly about the pictures....so have a look below for more of them!

Moose!

Another long time since i've been able to update the blog. I've since crossed the states of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts and now find myself in Vermont, Manchester city to be exact. I've completed 1640 miles and only have 540 to go!

The weather has been really two sided in the last 2 weeks. After my last update we had a severe storm (with a tornado warning!), and rain...lot's of rain. Which means progress was slow, because nobody wants to hike in the rain. In Connecticut we found a really cool hostel. It's called the 'Bearded Woods Hostel'. Basically it's someone's basement, but it's much cooler and less creepy then it sounds, trust me! They pick you up from the trail, give you dinner and breakfast, take care of your laundry and let you take showers. The food especially was amazing. 'Hudson', a previous thru-hiker, and his wife 'Big Lu' run it and they are awesome people! After that day it sort of stopped raining and the last week has been perfect hiking weather, not hot but no rain either.

Slowfoot giving the thumbs up for the Bearded Woods hostel

This is what I do when I get bored, I build mazes for caterpillars.

Hikers taking shelter for the big storm

The oldest oak tree on the A.T.

Where the trail seemed to be getting a more solitary place in the mid Atlantic, it's now increasing in population again. This is mainly because of all the people that do the A.T. in the opposite direction. They all start at around the beginning of June so we are running into a lot of them now. This is a nice change, because we get to exchange information about the trail that lies ahead. Especially for us people going north it's an exciting time. In the next state (New Hampshire) we are going into the White mountains which should give some of the most spectacular views on the entire A.T.

Two Thirds and Badger enjoying the view on top of Bear Mountain, Connecticut.

Evening view with the moon

We have already been treated with a couple of nice views and I think the trail is definitely getting nicer and more challenging now. One of the shelters was particularly nice, it was called Upper Goose Pond Cabin. It was a shelter that was next to a huge pond where you could take kayaks out or go for a swim, it was awesome! There was also a caretaker that made pancakes in the morning. When I found out about the pancakes I was still 10 miles away and just about to put up my tent. But when I heard the word pancake I got my stuff and put in the extra miles! Well worth it!

View of Upper Goose Pond from the kayak

Here are some more pictures of the trail, I'm really looking forward to the last 500 miles of my great adventure, I hope I get to see more amazing stuff!