15 August – 1 September
| Destination: The Inn at Long Trail (1707.3) | Today’s Miles: 0.0 |
| Start Location: Pinkham Notch (1874.9) | Trip Miles: 148.3 |
The Whites are the most difficult section of the Appalachian Trail that I have completed to date. That is over 1,600 miles from Georgia north. Days of hiking under a mile an hour on steep ups and downs was tough on my knees. The reward for the difficulty is the views. Instead of getting two or three views during a day of hiking, there is one continuous view for hours while above treeline.
Good
- Best and longest views on the Appalachian Trail
- Hiking hut to hut allowed for lighter packs
- Hiking with a partner – Wedding Walker
- Hostels after Whites provided showers and laundry
- Hostel shuttles allowed slack packing and opportunity to do a steep climb instead of a steep descent
Bad
- Huts required reservations which locked us into a schedule
- Huts have no available electricity, showers or laundry
- Difficult terrain in the Whites
Some Links
- Mount Washington Observatory
- The Mount Washington Cog Railway
- Appalachian Mountain Club
- The Notch Hostel
- Hikers Welcome Hostel
- Hanover Adventure Tours Hostel
- Inn at Long Trail
Garmin Instinct GPS Info
Mileage and ascent for the first day is significantly low. I had set my watch to stop tracking when stopped. Our hiking speed over the difficult terrain was slow enough that the watch thought we were stopped! I reset the watch to not stop tracking when stopped. However, if you look at any day you will see that it only identifies a short time “moving”. Mileage and ascent was still tracked, moving time and stopped time are incorrect.
You can click on any of the numbers in the Day column to see a map and the statistics for that day.
| Date | Day | Start | End | Ascent | Miles | |
| 16-Aug | T | 1 | Pinkham Notch | Madison Spring Hut | 3,097 | 4.7 |
| 17-Aug | W | 2 | Madison Spring Hut | Lake of the Clouds Hut | 2,280 | 6.5 |
| 18-Aug | T | 3 | Lake of the Clouds Hut | Lake of the Clouds Hut | 0 | 0.0 |
| 19-Aug | F | 4 | Lake of the Clouds Hut | Highland Center | 604 | 7.1 |
| 19-Aug | F | 4 | Zealand Trail | Zealand Falls Hut | 614 | 2.8 |
| 20-Aug | S | 5 | Zealand Falls Hut | Galehead Hut | 2,841 | 6.6 |
| 21-Aug | S | 6 | Galehead Hut | Greenleaf Hut | 3,373 | 6.9 |
| 22-Aug | M | 7 | Greenleaf Hut | Lonesome Lake Hut | 3,053 | 10.7 |
| 23-Aug | T | 8 | Lonesome Lake Hut | Kinsman Notch/Notch Hostel | 72 | 4.1 |
| 24-Aug | W | 9 | Notch Hostel | Notch Hostel | 0 | 0.0 |
| 25-Aug | T | 10 | Notch Hostel | Hikers Welcome Hostel | 3,055 | 9.8 |
| 26-Aug | F | 11 | Hikers Welcome Hostel | NH 25A – Slack | 2,467 | 10.1 |
| 27-Aug | S | 12 | NH 25A | Smarts Mountain Shelter | 4,160 | 10.2 |
| 28-Aug | S | 13 | Smarts Mountain Shelter | Moose Mountain Shelter | 3,261 | 12.6 |
| 29-Aug | M | 14 | Moose Mountain Shelter | Norwich, VT | 1,640 | 11.5 |
| 30-Aug | T | 15 | Norwich, VT | Thistle Hill Shelter | 3,957 | 14.8 |
| 31-Aug | W | 16 | Thistle Hill Shelter | The Lookout | 4,921 | 16.1 |
| 1-Sep | T | 17 | The Lookout | Inn at Long Trail | 4,485 | 16.1 |
| Total | 43,880 | 150.5 |