The Whites are so amazing! We are thoroughly enjoying our time here. These mountains have proven to be the most strenuous and the most exciting trails we've encountered thus far. Our cumulative mileage is 1840 and I can almost smell and taste Mt. Katahdin.
The trails here are an amalgamation of just about all conditions we've experienced including plain dirt treadways, mud, creekbeds for trail, slickrock/rock climbing and rock scrambling. There are times when the trekking poles save me from falling and there are times when I chuck them up/down the trail ahead of me because they get in the way.
Today is the first cloudy day since we started the Whites and I now understand the reasoning behind their appellation. We hiked into Lakes of the Clouds Hut inside a cloud, and most of the mountain peaks we summited today were socked in. We had beautiful vistas from every mountain peak replete with blue skies... until today. We were told that weather here is usually poor so we definitely felt lucky for all our good weather.
The food situation isn't quite what we expected... I think its because we are here at the end of the hut season. SOBOs and former thru-hikers told us that we would be able to buy soup and bread for $3 at the huts, however only some huts sell soup for lunch and only one hut had bread to go with it. We also heard that work-for-stays (where we conduct chores in exchange for food and a night's stay) were easy to get. All SOBOs told us they carried minimal amounts of food - like enough for 2 days - and didn't need to eat their own food. So, we brought 4-5 days' worth and called ourselves prepared. The hut croos (aka crew) give thru-hikers the leftovers after the paying guests have eaten. We appreciate this very much because they aren't obligated to give us the food,... however, we do earn our stay and food in my humble opinion and sometimes we aren't warmly received by the croos. Having said that, some croos make sure the hikers get enough to eat (thanks Lizzy at Zealand Falls Hut for the awesome tortellini!). Okay, I'm gonna wrap the food soapbox talk up by saying that we should have brought more lunch food because we had several days without enough calories (thus we were getting a little 'testy' with one another).
The chores haven't been bad. Most often they involve washing/putting away dishes or cleaning the bunkrooms. This chore is interesting... We get to sweep out each bunk and wash the mattresses with bleach water, refold all the blankets, and sweep the floors. They tell us they have 2 hours worth of stuff to do, but there are 5 of us traveling together so we get a lot of work done quickly. It isn't bad and we like the exchange (dinner, hot cocoa, tea, and breakfast in the morning).
Okay, enough for this email. Happy hiking!
Steph
www.hikingat.com
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