First of all, I am so sorry to leave you guys hanging. Thankful Tom has had enough service on the trail to drop you all information on his progress. Service and WIFI have been very limited, so I have had a hard time finishing my class and as you have noticed, the blog has been lacking. I will have to do a big photo drop at the end. Gosh, the last time I posted we still had five states to go and now we are in the last one. 

Connecticut was a quick state to hike through with only 52 miles. Then Massachusetts with 92 miles and they climbed Mount Greylock at 3,491 feet. After that was Vermont and the most recent is New Hampshire. Generally, all of them have been really wet hikes. There has consistently been a lot of rain. We have been in the areas that have gotten hit with all of the flooding. One day in Vermont I was driving to pick the guys up and came upon a spot where a bridge was out. Luck for us, it was a through road, so I turned around and drove and hour and a half the other way. It is not often that the guys have to wait for me. Thank goodness there was another way to get to them. The service is so poor that it makes communication between us impossible. Tom does have a device that can send me text messages but if I don't have service, I am unable to get the messages. We now come up with back up plans. Overall, the technology has been so helpful. We use an app called Farout to follow the trail. It can help me navigate to the pickup and drop off spots. It also helps them stay on trail. Sometimes the trail has not been marked well and they have taken "detours."

New Hampshire, oh boy, where do I start?
 
​It is an interesting state. Their state motto is “live life or die.” I think that many of them may be dying... There are so many rules, so many speed changes, and so many over “safe” people. I have gotten 2 speeding tickets in a matter of three weeks of being in this state. If anyone has driven with me, you know that I may have a bit of a lead foot…Well, I was trying to behave and still missed the decrease of speed sign. Oh, well. On the other hand, the guys are cruising right along on the trail.  The Whites (White Mountains) are full of rocks so the milage per day has slowed a bit, but they are doing awesome. Both Dustin and Tom were excited to finally get into the Whites so they could have some great views rather than getting to the top of a mountain just to go back down. Hikers call those PUDS (pointless ups and downs.) They even lucked out and had a full view on top of Washington Mountain.

I was able to stay at two national forest campgrounds in the area. Both were amazing with super friendly camp hosts. The first was called Wildwood Campground. There I met Byron. He and I could have talked for days. He has defiantly lived an interested life and we had a lot of interests in common. I sure hope to run into him in the future. Then I moved on to Dolly Copp campground. Everyone was so nice there as well. I took some walks in the area and discovered chanterelle mushrooms. Boy are they tasty. I am trying to make some chanterelle rum from a recipe that I found.

​Yesterday, I moved to Grafton Notch Campground near Bethel, ME. The lady that owns this campground is so knowledgeable of the area and trails. She is so great, and we have made fast friends. The guys also hit Maine on the trail yesterday. There are only 282 miles of the Appalachian trail in Maine ending at Mount Katahdin. They have been out on the trail for two nights. I plan to pick them up on Grafton Notch night.

We are so close to the end. I am so proud of the guys for everything they have accomplished!