Gorham, NH

Okay this post is going to be pretty brief, I just felt like I had to post something. I'm currently taking a zero in Monson, ME only about 6 days from finishing. This will only be up to Gorham, NH 

In the last post I had only just gotten to New Hampshire, now I'm only about 20 miles from the Maine state line. Had a few long boring days coming out of Hanover but was soon met with the Whites. Slowley summited  Moosilake (the first mountain in the Whites) around 8:30am and was very excited to be above tree line for the first time since the Roan Highlands, even if it was just for a little bit. Tented at the last available free shelter in the Whites after a 16 mile day that felt much longer. Passed a guy going southbound early the next morning trying to break the speed record for the entire AT. Hitched into Lincoln for resupply and ended up staying the night in a small hotel room with 5 other thru hikers... not the best smelling evening. Was very surprised the next afternoon (it took a long time getting out of Lincoln, like usual with towns) once on top of Franconia Ridge and just how amazing it was. Did my first work for stay at Greenleaf Hut which is one of the 8 AMC run huts located in the whites available to hikers. Guests normally pay around $125 a night to stay at one of these huts but for less than an hour of a work per night I was able to stay at 3 of them. Thankfully this was possible due to me still being ahead of the major thru hiker bubble by a few weeks. The rest of the Whites were equally challenging as well as beautiful.  Overall the White Mountains were by far my favorite section and plan to do them again in the future. The only time I had poor weather (which was only windy and rainy) was coming over Mt. Washington into Gorham at Pikman Notch. Stopped in Gorham earlier than I originally anticipated due to an apparent storm blowing in and me just me cold and wet. Stayed at the Hiker Paradise which wasn't terrible, just unkempt and a little dirty. Thankfully I missed out the overnight storm and was back on the trail early the next morning. Takeled the Wildcats which were not nearly as bad as they were rumoured to be and arrived at the shelter 2 miles before the second road to Gorham (19 miles) . Arrived in Gorham once again after a short strole to the road. Neroed at White Mountain Lodge and Hostel which was a great improvement over the last hostel and probaly one of my favorites on the trail.