Steep and Difficult Climbs

(Phone Message Transcribed by Bethany)

Today is Tuesday August 28, 2007.



It’s 11 o’clock in the morning, and Lauren and I are calling from the town of North Woodstock, New Hampshire. We just picked up the next 5 or 6 days worth of food which we will be carrying out shortly. Our climb this afternoon is up a steep ascent to the Franconia Ridge which is reported to be the highlight of the entire trail. So far in the Whites, our mileage has dropped quite a bit.

Yesterday it took a good 12 hours to cover right around 14 miles. Lauren and I hike just about the same pace on typical trail, but we’ve been climbing up miles of vertical rock shoots and vertical rock walls for hours at a time and it really slows her down. So we’ve been really just trying to take our time and adjust accordingly.



It looks like we’re just about 6 days away from Gorham, NH. Between now and then we’ve got some amazing trail and amazing scenery. At least for the next few days it looks like the weather is going to be quite cooperative. We can look forward to sunny blue skies, and I think traveling way up above tree lines is going to be quite enjoyable. Our packs are loaded down quite heavy with 6 days of food and all of our colder weather gear.



That’s about it for now. Over and Out.