Next up, the Whites

Soon I'll be on Moosilauke, elevation 4,802 feet, the highest of my hike so far. Yesterday it was cloud shrouded:














[Mt. Moosilauke, NH, the first of the White Mountains, Aug. 12]

My companion book tells me that snow, sleet and ice can strike the peaks in any season. After Moosilauke, we've got Mount Wolf [elev. 3,478 ft], North and South Kinsman Mountain [4,293 and 4,358, respectively] and the Presidential Range: Mt. Lincoln [5,089], Mt. Garfield [4,500], South Twin Mountain [4,902], Mt. Webster [3,910], Mt. Jackson [4,052], Mt. Pierce [4,312], Mt. Franklin [5,004] and the biggie, Mt. Washington [6,288]. Then Mt. Madison [5,366], Carter Dome [4,832] and Mt. Moriah [4,049].

All in all, it's 90 miles of mountain climbing bliss.

Unlike previous sections of the AT, camping in the Whites isn't as simple as picking from any shelter you come across.

Most shelters and campsites cost $8 per night. Caretakers stay in residence at each of them. And a lot of the Whites area has "forest protection areas" with a lot of rules about camping that include a] no camping above treeline [where trees are smaller than 8 feet tall], b] no camping within .25 miles of huts, shelters or campsites except at those places, and c] no camping within 200 feet of the trail.

Then there are the "huts."

The Appalachian Mountain Club has 8 mountaintop huts modeled after huts in the Alps. Each costs a lot of money - $74 to $90 - because there are tourists who will pay that much to stay in bunk beds, without showers.

The huts serve cheap bean soup and have water for thru-hikers during the day.

At all pay sites in the Whites, hikers can offer to work off their stays. It's very limited, though. I'm not sure how it's going to work when I roll through because, as you can see in the hostel posts below, there is a raft of northbound hikers entering the mountains this week.

To start off, there are a couple of free shelters. Some southbounders have passed the word along that stealth camping can be had at the "notches," or the valleys with road crossings between the mountains. I'd like to do work-for-stay at one of the huts.

Off to mountaineer,

JH