Finally!

Greenwood Lake, NY  -  Mile 816.4

We gave in and took a zero day, and at long last I found a computer I can upload pictures from. We are staying in an awesome inn by the lake and enjoying not walking for a whole day!
So, here is a slideshow of our past few weeks...

A warning before climbing Moosilauke

 Up on Mt. Moosilauke we ran into rime ice, brrrrr! This was one of the coldest sections on our trip and for a few days we were worrying about winter.

But then, we came down off the mountain into our first field on the whole trip. And it was still summer...

Great trail! Vermont was fantastic and we had many good cruising days.

Tyrell keeping his feet dry. I like to go barefoot and wade right through.

 We have been seeing lots of cool lil critters. Not sure what they all are... quite a few frogs, snakes, turtles, salamanders, newts, and fuzzy catapillars. Also, many flocks of geese flying over. We hear them day and night.

 It has been a welcome change to be walking through farmland. What a great break for our legs. We also enjoy the change in scenery.

 This was somewhere in Vermont, one of the neatest shelters we have seen along the way. Has a great stone fireplace and everything, too bad we had to keep moving.

 Mountains... they have not been very impressive since leaving the whites, but still enough elevation gain and loss to wear us out.

                           
 Here we are on Mt. Greylock. Another one of those places where all of a sudden we pop out of the woods into civilization- tourist central.

 The tower on Greylock, first good views in several days. This was a high point in our trip. Was exciting after so many days of wandering around in the woods and hills to be able to look back and see how far we had come.

 In MA, CT, and NY we have been walking through several small towns, or "villages". Has been great for resupplying, and all the delis along the way provide delicious meals. This building was the library in Salisbury, CT. Unfortunately they were closed on Mondays!

 More of Salisbury... everybody is getting ready for Halloween. Pumpkins everywhere.

 One of the stranger landmarks along the way- giants thumb?

 Walking along the Housatonic River. This was the greatest stretch of trail so far, for about 4 miles. And then we were rock climbing again.

 Tyrell climbing up beside a massive rock face. Couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing.

 Our little Mountain Hardwear tent, we love it.

 We have walked miles on the these boardwalks now. A nice change of pace. We definitely appreciate all the volunteer work that has gone into the trail.

 There are a lot of stone walls along the trail. We are not sure what they are all from, farmers maybe? But there are some awesome structures.

 We are in New York! Bear Mountain Bridge across the Hudson River, very pretty area.
Still some fall colors here. Farther North most of the leaves have already fallen.

 Watched a couple sailboats cruise under the bridge. Sure sounds like a nice way to travel right now...
Just across the bridge we walked through the trailside zoo. Was a neat little sidetrip. A small zoo but fun to see the critters.

 And then on the other side of the zoo, we popped out into a throng of people headed to a NY Octoberfest! The trail took us right through the middle of the whole thing, was pretty exciting. We slowed down long enough to eat a bag of kettle corn and a hot dog. Still ended up hiking in the dark that night.

 At Fingerboard shelter we camped at exactly mile 800. Eight hundred miles in fifty-four days! Well over a third of the way done, and getting close to half. Halfway will be toward the end of PA and is still a few weeks away.

 Thought this was a funny sign. The AT is definitely not the easy way, and when in doubt the AT always goes up.

 Coming through the lemon squeezer! We got squeezed all right. For some reason it just makes me grumpy when you have to take your pack off...
New York has been interesting to hike through. It has a little bit of everything.

One of our few pictures with both of us in it. Peregrine falcons nest on the bridge.

Our day of rest was much needed. We were getting worn out on our 20 mile a day schedule. Tomorrow morning though we will be headed back out into the woods.

Hope you all enjoy our pics. I will try to keep updating more frequently, but hard to do.

Thank you to all who contributed to our last maildrop! The sheer quantity was painful, but it was all so delicious: ) Sitting in NY munching on Grandmas fresh cookies... what a world we live in.

Cheshire, MA - Mile 610.8

Into state number four!
We have been walking for over six weeks,  more than 600 miles, and still in the same pair of shoes we started in. We spent a week crossing the White Mountain range, during which we climbed about 20 peaks that were at least 4,000ft. The highest was Mt. Washington at 6,288ft. Mt. Moosilauke is the last mountain in the Whites range and it was cold up there! The trees were covered in rhime ice and it was blowin like crazy. Coming down off the mountain though we popped out into a green field- first one on the trip! We were thinking it was winter, and down in the valleys it was still sunny and warm.

Since the Whites the trail conditions have vastly improved. We spent the last few days wandering around and through the woods and hills of Vermont. Pointless ups and downs they call them. We are now in the Green "Mountains". I think of them as rolling hills. They do take us up to 3500ft occasionally, but very gently and gradually. Not like any mountains I've ever seen. When we do get good views we see a lot of farm land, rolling pastures, a lot more towns, roads, and people. The trail winds right through some farms, we climb over fences, pass by horses and cows, and cross fields. Was also cool to see the Maple sap collecting systems. It has been a pleasant change in scenery.
The Green Mountain Club does maintain some awesome shelters. Instead of just a three-sided lean-to, some of the ones we have seen recently have had doors, wood stoves, bunk beds, and even lofts. They look pretty nice for waiting out a storm in.

We had a minor setback in the last town we were waiting out the rain in. The morning we up early getting ready to leave, we discovered that two guys who had left in the middle of the night also left with a bunch of other peoples gear. Our gear items were easily replaced at the local outfitters, but they also ran off with our cellphone so we were bummed to lose all of our contact info. Ironically enough, a few days later we picked up a cellphone laying in the trail, but we will be sending that one back to its home.

In Killington, VT we picked up a resupply box; was so nice to have a selection of good food and treats again. A little over a 100 miles down the trail we will be picking up another box, only this will have mostly warmer gear. The nights have been chilly, down in the 30's and we have been seeing frost in the mornings. During the day it usually warms up into the 50's or 60's, as long as the sun is shining. We are starting to worry a little bit about the Great Smoky Mountains down in N.C. and Tennessee. There are long sections of trail up above 5,000ft, and by the time we get down there in Dec or Jan we will be well into winter. So, we will have to see how that goes, may have to do some bouncing around to get through snow.

Recently, our average miles per day has been sky-rocketing. With great trails and dry sunny weather we have easily been doing 20+ miles a day. Oct 11th is our current personal best at 26.2 miles. The length of a marathon! It is pretty exciting to see how far we can walk in a day. Yesterday, from up on Mt. Greylock, which is MA's highest peak, we could look back and see sooooo far away to where we had been just 51hrs and 52 miles ago. Crazy.
Our bodies are holding up well. Knees, shoulders, feet, and ankles are all toughening up. We are being transformed into lean, mean walking machines. We are still surprised sometimes by how much stronger we are now than we started. A few days ago we caught up to a day-hiker who very stubbornly would not let us pass, even though he was having to run down the hills to stay ahead us. Kinda changed our perspective on how far we've really come in the last 6 weeks.

I have a bunch of pictures I would love to put on here, but this computer is not doing what I want it to do. Too slow of a connection maybe. So, that will have to wait till the next town...
Until then, you know we will be walking...

Mile 500!

Day #39 today.  Much easier going now that we are out of the "Big" mountains.  We have traded the long exposed ridge lines and icy mornings of the White Mountains for the rolling pastures and switch-backed grades of the Greens.  Still getting some awesome views though, we had lunch at the ski resort on top of Killington Mountain today.  Most people rode the gondola up, yeah, we walked.  It is neat how the trail feels quite wilderness-ish most of the time, but then all of a sudden we break out into a ski resort.

We are doing better about food now.  It is easier to eat more when we can resupply every few days.  We still carry the same amount, we just don't have to make it last as long.  We have been walking through some small towns the last few days and they all have a deli... it is awesome.

Sorry about the lack of pictures.  I am updating this from our new phone.  Which is cool since we are camped out on the side of a mountain right now, but I do not have it all figured out yet.  My lack of ability with this contraption (I cannot figure out how to go back and edit once I type - I have no curser) could have something to do with the fact that I haven't operated a piece of technology more complicated than a bic lighter in some time.  Wish me luck...
Still walking.
Tyrell

Breakfast of Champions, Mount Washington Style

There was an awesome video playing at the Mount Washington Observatory demonstrating how windy it gets on the summit.  It is worth YouTubing.  The only version I could find was listed under the search string "breakfast fail mt. washington."  It isn't that great of quality, but it is still funny. If you can find a better version, let me know.