The Whites and Hanover.

In chronological order:

The White Mountains. Technically they span 120-ish miles, but the famous presidential range (what most people think of when they hear about the whites) began for me at Pinkham Notch with a roughly 3,000 foot climb over a three mile stretch up to Mount Madison and ended 65-odd miles later after Mount Lafayette in the town of Lincoln, NH.

The views from up there are probably the most beautiful outdoor landscapes I have ever seen:

And I DEFINITELY lucked out with the weather. The majority of the presidential range is above treeline, which means that if bad weather sets in, you are completely exposed to the elements. The worst I got was on top of Mount Washington, which was foggy and a bit windy, but nothing too bad:

Interestingly enough, Mount Washington also has a railroad that runs from a hotel at the base to the visitor's center at the summit. They use an old steam engine though (from 1909 that still burns coal for power), and the visitor's center kind of ruins whatever inherent natural beauty the summit has to offer. But to be fair, the summit of Mount Washington has been a touristy place ever since they figured out that it COULD be on in the first place.

Oh and the trail crosses this railroad at one point. Which is not dangerous at all and a great idea in a place that can fog over in a moment's notice...

And following the same logic...here's a monument to one of the first people on record who happened to die up there:

...as well as a complete list of Mt.Washington fatalities posted in the visitor's center.

They DO have a novelty post office at the top of Mount Washington, though. It does have its own zip code, but "Post Closet" would be a better description than "Post Office."

I will say that navigation in the Whites proved to be challenging at some points. For instance, here's a sign post with two different trails, going completely opposite directions, yet both claiming to be the AT. Seeing as how the AT is supposed to only be one single pathway, this should be physically impossible.

But I did get through it, even though the trail did do some serious inclines and declines. Harsh terrain, but awesome views.

Side note: Work for stay and the AMC mountain huts.

Because the White Mountains are heavily used by day hikers, tourists, and avid outdoorsmen of all ages, managing traffic (and people) in the range becomes a daunting task. In order to make the job easier and cut down on environmental impact, however, the Appalachian Mountain Club maintains a license with the US Forest Service to operate shelters or "huts" in the mountains.

These huts are essentially bunk houses maintained by a full service crew (yet they insist that "croo" is the proper written spelling to refer to them, but they cannot specifically identify why) where people make reservations to stay for a night or two (like a hotel).

Reservations include a bunk, dinner and breakfast, bathroom facilities, and water. No hot water or showers, however, and anyone wishing to stay at them must hike in. Definitely pricey, however. It is $130 per person for non-Appalachian Mountain Club members, and $90 for standard AMC members to stay ONE night.

Lucky for thru-hikers though, we do not have to pay to stay at these huts. We would go flat broke just hiking through the Whites. Yet the "croos" understand that there are no other places to take shelter, so they permit us to stay at the huts if we perform an hour or two of work. In exchange for our service, we are given whatever leftovers there are from dinner and breakfast, and we are permitted to sleep in the main dining room area for the night. You don't want to hit a hut too early, though. If you show up at a hut any time before 4:00 pm, you run the risk of the hut croo telling you to move on. The assumption is that you have enough time to make it to the next one before dark, but that isn't always the case...

While the whole work for stay might seem like a bit of drag, it's honestly not that bad. Bunk rooms house maybe 30 people, so all it takes is one person who snores loudly to ruin sleep for an entire hiking party. Being on the floor in the main room, however, means that there is a large wall in between you and whoever snores. Not a small matter. It is not an uncommon site to see hikers who look well rested in the morning and paying guests who do not.

I stayed at 3 huts, and the hardest work I had to do was run/empty a wet-dry vac to help the croo during their weekly scrub-down/cleaning of their hut.

This is by far the most famous of the huts. The legendary "Lakes of the Clouds."

I was only able to stay at 3 huts, however, because I did  run into a bit of a snag the first day in the Whites. I did the 8 miles from the road up into the presidential range and up to Madison hut, but it was too early to stop at a hut and I was still feeling fresh and wanted to continue hiking. I asked one of the hut croo about an AMC camp site that was several miles away, but supposedly very nice and worth walking to, even though it was a bit off trail. She said that the site was indeed very nice, and that all I had to do was continue walking down the AT and I would see a side trail with a marked sign pointing me in the direction of the camp site. So I set off.

Several hours and miles later, I had still not seen the sign, and I only had about an hour or two of daylight. Yet I was still above tree line, and very much exposed to the elements. I really didn't want to set up my tent above tree line, but I was running out of options and time. I began to look for a suitable place to camp.

Miraculously, the trail happened to run right by a Col, or flat section between two mountains. Even luckier still, this Col had both a spring AND vegetation. I couldn't believe my luck. I figured I would surely find a place to set up my tent in there, so I headed off trail into the Col, following the path of a stream.

It was then that I came upon a completely flat patch of ground that had obviously been purposefully cleared out, and surrounded by large rocks on three sides that served as wind breaks. I couldn't believe my luck. Here, in the middle of the White Mountains, high above tree line, was an unmarked tent site WITH a water source and a natural wind break less than a stone's throw away from the trail. It was simply incredible.

I also came across the flattest section of trail I had ever seen in the Whites as well. Strange to think that a truly FLAT section of the trail would even exist in the first place, let alone in the mountains. Yet there was a section of trail that ran over an old rail road bed, and I was able to cover lots of ground in no time. The views from the mountains might be beautiful, but believe me, so is this trail.

And then finally I came upon the last official White Mountain, Mount Moosilauke. Strange that I could actually enjoy climbing mountains at this point, but it was fairly fun to climb.

 
A very steep but short uphill climb followed by a gradual above tree line walk and then a gradual down hill descent. Just the way I'd want to climb a mountain.

And after the Whites, it was just a few more days and a couple more mountain-top attractions later (such as this cool fire tower) into Hanover, New Hampshire, where I am right now.

There is no hostel in Hanover, but the town is VERY hiker friendly. And seeing as how the trail runs directly through it, it is only logical. Many places offer free food to thru hikers (the outfitter offers free snickers, and the pizza place offers a free slice), but there is sadly no real hiker hostel to stay at.

Lucky for me, I had previous connections. A couple that had started Katahdin the same day I did had friends that came out with them to give them a send off and hike with them for about a week. Therefore, we all ended up at the same camps together for the first week out, and they even played a role in giving me my nickname. They were from near Hanover, so they gave me their information and told me to call them once I got into town. Which is exactly what I did. And boy did they ever put me up right!

I got my own bed, ice cream, breakfast, dinner, shuttled to major outfitters AND they even said they would mail a package home for me since today is Sunday and the post offices are closed. Talk about trail magic. Big thank yous all around.

No plans to take a solid day off, though. Currently plan to stick around for a little while longer, grab lunch, and then head out for 6 miles down the trail (and into Vermont!) to the next shelter. Shouldn't be a long walk, but it will be good to stay moving. Now that I'm out of the hardest part, I just gotta stay focused and keep heading south...

And no, I still have not seen any bears or moose. But I did hear about an interesting "three strikes" law New Hampshire has for bears.Apparently, when a bear strays into close human contact, it is tranquilized, captured, given an ear tag, and taken a small distance into Maine and dropped off. If it makes its way back to its original territory, the same thing happens, but it is taken MUCH farther away into northern Maine and dropped off. If it STILL makes its way back after that, there is no third tag...the bear then becomes a public enemy and is shot on sight.

So if you're ever in New Hampshire and come across a bear with a tag in both ears...back away slowly and hope you don't smell delicious.