A New Fashion For Hikers

Since you last heard from us we've traversed all of New Hampshire and gotten a fair way into the lovely state of Maine. The White Mountains didn't smack us down, though our progress through them was rather slow with all of the tough peaks and "steps" that make the Great Wall of China steps look like they were specially designed for a retirement community. Nothing like placing your foot such that your knee is at about eye level!
Anyway, we summited Mt Washington of "the highest recorded land air speed anywhere" fame, and luckily it was only blowing hard enough to
knock over those under eight years old and to break T-toe's glasses in two. It was pure luck that we had crazy glue and black duct tape or we wouldn't have been able to get that new "faux hiker nerd" look we've been searching for. Fashion is so important on the trail.
We tackled others in the presidential range and stayed at two different huts which are like crosses between a B&B and a remote wilderness cabin. They have a full staff, bunk rooms, and normalish toilets. We stayed in the huts for free by doing a little work in exchange for food and lodging. Quite the sweet deal. In one, we even slept in a room called "the Dungeon" which is really an emergency shelter for idiots that are up there in the dead of winter.
Short of nearly getting run over by the cog train that leads down off of Washington and one day averaging a third of our normal speed, we really enjoyed the spectacular views and great weather in the Whites.
So, guess what happens on the AT after the Whites. Yes! You guessed it--Maine and more super-tough terrain! We stayed and resupplied right before Maine, catching up with some old friends, and proceeded to eventually hit the hardest mile on the AT which, as I'm sure you know, is called the Mahoosuc Notch (rhymes with flatoosick splotch). 2 hours and 15 minutes! On good terrain that's flat with the stars aligned, we can do that distance normally in 20 to 25 minutes. What we didn't know ahead of time was that this Mahoosuc fellow had a second part and an arm.
My shoes are starting to fall apart, and we're excited to be two weeks from finishing. We're in Rangeley, Maine now, getting T-toe's toe checked out (it's looking infected), so hopefully tomorrow the doctor will use her magic toe-wand to get us back on the trail to Katahdin. We split with Evergreen unfortunately because we needed to zero here, but we're at a great hostel that we have all to ourselves that's run out of this guy's house (it's like we're just chilling in someone's grandpa's family room right now). We made it here with the help of our new friend Scott who not only drove us the 10 miles to town, but drove me back to town to have dinner followed by driving back to the hostel after getting T-toe a large pizza. He called the hostel today to see how T-toe was doing. Don't worry, she easily finished the entire pizza.
That's the story. 220 miles left. The hardest part of.Maine nearly done. A refined ability to consume 3000 calories in 11 minutes. Let's knock this sucker out!
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