Big ups and big downs

Day 3 (105) Miles: 20.6 Mileage: 2,190.5 We started the morning before 7 a.m. with a big, long downhill to water. The air felt chilly but it didn’t take me long to start sweating, even on the downhill. The morning light trickled through the tall pines and made the forest glow green. At the creek […]

First full day back

Day 2 (104) Miles: 21.6 Mileage: 2,169.9 It was a lovely chilly night. Not cold, but cool enough to put on a long sleeve layer and slip into my sleeping bag leaving it unzipped. We woke up around 6:30, having fallen asleep around 8:30 p.m. Traveling takes it out of you. Slowly, trying to remember […]

From one adventure to the next

Day 1 (103; we left the trail last year after 102 days) Miles: 3.7 Mileage: 2,148.3 (This mile point is according to hiker Half Mile’s calculations and is the generally agreed upon mileage) Well, we’re back at it. After a lovely visit at our friend’s house in Bar Harbor, we flew back to our gear […]

We made it!

Day 55 Miles: 73 Mileage from start: 4,633! Our final day started as most mornings do: with a calorie load. We are coffee and bagels and yogurt and fruit and also snagged a pastry treat for the road.  We got going by 8:30, but it was already so hot and humid. We spent most of […]

To the coastline!

Day 54 Miles: 103 Mileage from start: 4,547 The heat returned in Maine and we spent the day soaked in sweat, draining our water bottles and dreaming of ice cream.  We left the campsite and got back on the route reasonably early for us. The heat made sure we never went too fast. By midday […]

The last long climb

Day 53 Miles: 108 Mileage from start: 4,444.4 The breakfast at the lodge was hearty and lasting. Coffee. Cornmeal pancakes sprinkled with coconut shavings. Fake bacon that tasted awesome.  After slowly negotiating the gravel access road back down to route 118, we had a little more up to do before the long down hill into […]

Biking for the ice cream

Day 52  Miles: 44 Mileage from start: 4,336 I have been dreaming of a particular day ever since Washington state. It goes thusly: We leave the farm after a bit of a lie in and a big breakfast. We bike up the Connecticut River to NH route 25 C. Just before we start the climb […]

Double zero

Days 50 and 51 Miles: 0 and 0 Mileage from start: 4,292 One zero of errands, helping with harvest at Sweetland Farm, visits with friends and cleaning muddy bikes turned into two zeroes.  We love it here so much we just needed another 24 dose: Reading and playing in swimming holes and eating food that […]

Into Vermont

Day 49 Miles: 98 Mileage from start: 4,292 The first ferry across Lake Champlain to Vermont went at 7 a.m. We woke up at 5:30 so we would have time to eat a big breakfast and pack up and ride the two miles to the ferry by 7. And it all worked perfectly.  We got […]

A nice day to be rescued

Day 48 Miles: 95 Mileage from start: 4,194 We aimed for another early start and did pretty well. It was a chilly night and a chilly morning, which doesn’t make it easy to motivate oneself from opening the sleeping bag and starting the day, but we warmed up once the sun came out from behind […]