A thru-hiker writing for The Trek has resurfaced after 50 days offline, and the update covers serious ground: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and into Pennsylvania — roughly the middle stretch of the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail.
New Hampshire's White Mountains came first, and they clearly left a mark. Franconia Ridge stood out as the highlight, hiked on what turned out to be the ridge's busiest day of the year — over 1,400 visitors. The effort cost the hiker a phone, which died on the ridge and had to be replaced in Lincoln. The recovery stop turned into a multi-day stay at the Old Colony Ski Club hostel, the writer's favourite on trail so far, thanks to cheap rooms and a big industrial kitchen where the group cooked four pounds of chicken tacos in one sitting.
After Mt. Moosilauke — with a panorama of the entire Whites behind them — came Vermont, where the terrain eased but a new annoyance appeared: PUDs, trail slang for "pointless ups and downs." Vermont's loft-and-bunk-style shelters got a thumbs-up. Massachusetts and Connecticut passed quickly, notable mostly for a cow pasture, a first porcupine sighting, a stay at the Maria McCabe house in Salisbury, and the start of the group's "deli blaze" — a running effort to hit every restaurant near the trail.
New York turned the deli blaze into an art form. Daily breakfast sandwiches, a chicken cutlet bacon egg and cheese from the Appalachian Trail Market, and a bacon-wrapped deep-fried burrito from American Burrito all got name-checks. There was rain too, including a Hudson River crossing at the Bear Mountain Bridge and the Bear Mountain stairs. In New Jersey the trail went flat, with a deli every 15 miles — the writer's kind of hiking.
Pennsylvania has now delivered its infamous rocky footing, earning its "Rocksylvania" nickname, though this group suspects the horror stories are exaggerated — what they call "NOBO propaganda." They've been logging consistent 20-mile days, slowed slightly after a member of the group broke his big toe on the rocks but refused to leave the trail. They're currently outside Hamburg, Pennsylvania, aiming to reach Maryland the following week. Trail-trail magic matters here: a local hiker named Bolt treated the group to lunch and a hotel room, and family visits in New Jersey brought fresh shoes after 200 miles on destroyed Topo footwear.
Why should a traveller care? Because this is a ground-level look at what the AT's mid-Atlantic sections actually feel like — brutal ridges in New Hampshire, gentle but monotonous rolling terrain in Vermont, and a social scene built around hostels, trail angels and roadside delis. Even if you never attempt a thru-hike, sections like Franconia Ridge, Mt. Moosilauke and Bear Mountain make excellent day or weekend hikes, and the hostel culture described here — Old Colony, the Maria McCabe house — gives day hikers and section hikers a genuine taste of thru-hiker life. Note that Franconia Ridge can draw 1,400 people on a peak summer day: go early or go off-season.
Via The Trek
