[fishmonger]

3 of us are looking to do the whole 50 miles next month. Anyone done it before? We're planning for 4 days, any tips would be appreciated

[EngineCo.2]

I haven't done it as a thru , but I've done most as sections. An excellent trip. The shelters are all spaced 6-12 miles apart, but the terrain is typically relative to the spacing. I.E. The Spiltoir tentsite to Crider shelter is 12 miles apart but it's alot of gravel road travel and about 5' of elev. gain. Whereas Foxbrook tent to General Washington shelter is 6.5 with the terrain being a little more rugged. One comment that seems to be prevalent is the bug factor. They killed me a few weeks ago! I think this would be a way cool overniter for winter campers. I've done most of the Sunappee on snowshoes and absolutely love it!
Ed

[fishmonger]

Alright, it wasn't easy, but we did the entire trail in two days, July 18th and 19th. We started off Friday night by having a nice dinner of salmon, asparagas and a few Guinness' while we loaded our packs. Our packs all ranged between 30-40 pounds, maybe a little heavy for a 2 day trip, but my two companions were still considering doing a yo-yo at that point so it was mostly food weight. Heavy rain poured down Friday night, nice to be sleeping indoors. Saturday morning was an early start, rising at 4:45, wiping away the cobwebs and having a full breakfast of eggs and some toast.

We parked on Old Troy Rd. in Dublin, which was the 4.0 mile mark of the trail (the three of us doing this crazy quest had hiked Monadnock enough times that we didn't feel bad skipping it), and hit the trail around 6 AM. We dodged most of the rain being in thick tree cover, but it only sprinkled for the first 2-3 hours anyway. We hiked at a pretty good clip through the morning, averaging between 2.5 and 3 miles an hour. We stopped for our first real break at Center Pond in Nelson and took an hour to eat some cheese, salami and fruit, dry out our socks and sit down for a while, as well as filter some water. The pond was beautiful, not a house or cottage in sight. We saw a couple trout rise to the surface. It was a perfect spot to take a break and recharge.

Soon after, we ran into our first person, a hiker who was doing the trail SOBO from Sunapee. He stayed at the Crider Shelter the night before and said the thunder was booming. I immediately felt better about my physical condition, this guy reeked of cigarettes and had a pronounced beer belly. At the same time, hiking this trail is a lot more mental than physical, and you have to give anyone respect that is doing it alone. We asked whether there were blueberries already on Pitcher Mountain (something I'd been looking forward to putting in my granola the next morning) and he said "no, but there are some on Hubbard Hill. But you gotta watch out for bears along that stretch, I saw a couple yesterday." This made me excited, I have never seen a black bear in the wild and was really hoping to run into one (from a distance of course).

We pushed on to Pitcher, which took a ton out of me personally. It was only a half mile ascent but it was straight up, and I was really beginning to feel fatigued at this time. We took a small break from the summit, checking out the new wind farm in Lempster, which was a very cool sight. We made it to the Fox Brook Campsite around 3 and had to decide whether to push on to General Washington, which was our original goal. We were all pretty beat at this point, having hiked 21+ miles today, but decided to soldier on. The next 7 miles were a beast, hitting Jackson Hill right off the bat. We saw the 3 mile mark to the general store and this made us really want to make it there before closing so we hit the road. About a mile from the store we started hitchhiking and a great gentleman let us hop into the bed of his truck for the final mile to the store. We laughed the whole ride as to how beat up we were, but stopping for a Gatorade and some dip was well worth the effort. In total, we did 28.4 miles that day, minus the mile or so ride we took, in about 12 hours.

Two other hikers joined us at the General Washington shelter that night, a mother and daughter duo named Brenda and Abby. Brenda worked in conservation and had hiked the Greenway numerous times. Abby had hiked her whole life and volunteered at the AMC huts in the Whites in the summer. It was nice to have some company. We ate our freeze dried dinners of Indian specialties and had a few swigs of whiskey. We all hit the tent around 9 that night, exhausted.

Sunday morning we grabbed a few bites of cheese and some bagels and hit the road for our final day around 9:30. We were all sore, but felt good enough to finish the trek. A stretch from Washington to Lucia's Lookout was 5 straight miles of hills, constantly ascending and descending. This took a real beating on our sore knees and ankles. We took our hour long break at Lucia's, which has some amazing views of the Whites, Green Mountains of Vermont, as well as all the neighboring peaks.

The final stretch to Sunapee was also very hilly, with some scrambles mixed in. We were fighting daylight at this point, so we really hauled. We took one final rest at Lake Solitude before our 1.1 mile ascent to Sunapee. Being on top of Sunapee was amazing to be able to look back at Monadnock, where we had just started the day before. We hiked straight down one of the chairlifts and found our way back to the car around 7 pm. Day two was about 17.5 miles total, in roughly 9 hours.

All in all a great trip. We saw lots of small wildlife (no bears uhfortunately), but a family of foxes and plenty of orange salamanders, snakes and toads. My body is just starting to feel normal again after 45+ miles in two days. But it can be done, and it was a physical challenge that I haven't tested myself with for years. I have one picture of us at the summit of Sunapee that I'll post when I have a chance.

[dudley]

28 plus miles, 40 pound packs,...one day ??
I never would have made it.

[fishmonger]

I wasn't sure I would either. The ride we caught helped tremendously, as every mile at the end of the day has a compounding effect on how sore you are.

What helped me a lot was the two people I hiked with her both in better shape than me, so it motivated me to push on and not fall behind. Definitely not something I could have done alone, and it would have been a lot harder with just two people. We all pushed each other at different times over the weekend.

All in all, pretty impressed with the effort though....

[3/4 time]

My gosh Fish... I've got sore feet just reading about what you did. That's a lot in a little time.

[RichNH]

My knees are destroyed after reading that....