Reflections on the Appalachian Trail pt I: New England

The fall foliage here in Lausanne Switzerland is just about peaking.  While I've been churning over a post about running through deciduous forests in the fall for a week or two now, the poplar and maple leaves keep dropping, providing a daily refreshed soundtrack to my afternoon runs.  I've even gone out and photographed a few of my favorite local routes where the accumulation is fresh and substantial.  However, I feel like I would be remiss if I did not make a mention of the late Southbound Appalachian hike that April and I did last fall, in which we experienced an absolutely amazing East Coast foliage season from a truly unique perspective.  Southbound extends the season, and we timed our start to get the foliage peak in Southern New Hampshire.  Day after day we woke up on trail to some of the freshest rawest uncrunched leaves in the world.  Thus it was I found myself trawling through old AT photos to post here, but naturally I had to start at the beginning ... Maine, September 6 2009.  Hope you enjoy my mental photo detour!  If you'd like to read some more of our hike the trailjournal can be found here.

Why you should (never) southbound the AT in the late season pt 1/3:  New England

The first step is the hardest ... especially so if it involves summiting Katahdin.

Distance hiking is the penultimate relationship building exercise, second only to simultaneous tooth brushing.

There is this really cool mountain in Maine

Good hair days start at dawn.

Mid September is a fine time for swimming

The trail through Maine is REALLY well constructed.

Pitchers plants!

The fords are more manageable this time of year ...

and if rains there's plenty of room in the tarptent,

though the mudpits are not to be trifled with.

When the sun does come back out again you might be able to experience some (gasp) dry socks.

It really doesn't rain all the time.

You never where you might run into the the Hiking Poles!  First time I met these kids was on the PCT in OR.

The hemlocks in Maine have extraordinary root systems.

Bring extra food on the second carry if the gf hogs all the food on the first.

The coffee in the 100m "wilderness" isn't half bad.

Maine has some unbelievable ridgeline routes ...

... which are particularly spectacular around sunset. 

Cooking on a homemade pop-can stove.

Viburnum's (hobblebush?) are the first to go.

If it rains so hard the the shelter wets from the bottom up, extremely large foodbags can become a flotation device ...

... and the sun comes out the next morning.

The deathtrap descent of Mahoosuc Notch.

Picking our way through Mahoosuc Notch.

The amount of work that went into this is obviously incredible, but any route that requires a mechanical engineering degree to build is at least a bit controversial.

That 1st state line is oh-so-sweet.

Quad-smashing gradients on Wildcat ridge on the way into the Whites, this trail rocks!

White Mtns ridgeline route on the AT.

Looking back on the ridgeline route of the AT thru the White Mtns

If the clouds start doing this there will probably be no fake cheese nachos waiting for you at the Mt Washington summit cafe but you may be able to work you fingers enough to zip into a sleeping bag in the rathole known as off-season Lake of Clouds dungeon (ask me about the time I begged hairtyes off April to cinch down ziplocs over my hands sometime).  Appropriate ultralight kits change rapidly in the shoulder seasons.

Frequent weather enhanced opportunities for foot care (which I actually quite enjoy).

But the companionship is great ...

 ... especially when the nights get cold.  Gf, can i borrow every single piece of clothing you have that you are not using, that sleeping bag upgrade should be at the next P.O.

Above treeline stretches on Mt Moosilauke make for happy (and cute) campers.

Meanwhile the foliage down low starts to get ridiculous ...

Ok so the lack of new material pretty clearly marks me as not having gone out for a long run for a while.  Tapering for road races is tough work!   I hope to get back to it after the Lausanne half next week and hopefully get around posting some thoughts about fall foliage, including the video of me postholing through thigh-deep Oak leaves in Central Virginia ...