Lincoln NH

We're in Lincoln New Hampshire, and nearing civilization again, so i can blog.

Right, ok, don't be alarmed, but we saw a BEAR! It was about 5 days ago before climbing Mt. Madison and ascending onto the ridge that Mt. Washington is on. Bear just came strolling along the trail, while Nic and i were looking for a spot to cross a river. I was in an uncompromising position at the time (river crossings make me go to the toilet, i can't really explain it, but it happens every time!), and the bear just strolled past, turned towards the river and crossed in a flash. Before we could even get the camera. It got to within about 10ft of us. It was a beautiful 1 year old male, and pretty harmless to humans.

'The Whites' (Presidential Mountains including Franconia Ridge - awesome) were hard, but not as hard as Maine. Big ups and downs, but we have almost finished the hardest part of the trail. 20% of the distance, but 50% of the effort is complete, so they say. We had a Maximum gust of 91mph on top of Mt. Washington, the rain was horizontal and didn't even touch the ground, it was crazy (but pretty safe!) and so no pictures unfortunately, unless you like pictures of fog/cloud. Sun came out down the valley and all was good within a few 1000 ft. High winds are due to its position under the jet-stream, apparently. I would google that but i'm on a meter at the moment.

Now the pressure is on to complete higher mileage days as the trail gets flatter, but we intend to increase our distances gradually, and continue to enjoy the trail, and the good company along the way.

I had a birthday party in a place called the Mahoosuc Notch, slowest mile on the trail. Its a boulder field that you have to climb through. So we put our hiking poles away and got climbing, it was great. A few squeezes and a bit of crawling. There was still some ice down there from last Winter, the temperature drops dramatically in the Notch and you get an icy blast every now and then.

Met an American guy on the trail who knew all the words to the George Best song 'Georgie, Georgie, they call him the Belfast boy'. Got pictures, it was so random and funny. Met a few Brits recently and had a good moan about how we miss British food (Pies mostly), and discussed the weather, as you do.

Listened to the Northern Ireland game against Poland on the internet, was disappointed with the result of the next game, but thats just the way it goes.

We are off our original schedule for our trip, just because we have realized you can't really plan the trail to fine detail, because you have to get on it to realize whats its all about, what the terrain is like under foot etc. We have been lucky with the weather, but we were walking in mud for the first couple of weeks, due to heavy rain in June and July. We got the heat wave in Maine in August which dried out the trails for us in South Maine, and the trails are better/different as you get South in general anyway. We're still learning, so we just listen to what our bodies tell us we can do. Safest way to hike.

We are off to finish the White Mountains now, and to watch the leaves change colour, next town Glencliff, then we walk right through Hanover, our first true trail town, first of many, can't wait!

G