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...