A pair of Appalachian Trail thru-hikers recently gave a detailed account of their stay at The Libby Hostel in Gorham, New Hampshire — and it doubles as a useful scouting report for anyone planning their own White Mountains trek.
The Libby (formerly known as The Barn Hostel, for obvious reasons once you see the building) offers bunk space, outdoor showers, laundry service handled by the owners, and shuttles to nearby trailheads. Run by a husband-and-wife team, Ben and Lisa, it has become the kind of place where hikers take so-called zero days — full rest days — before pushing north. The couple even help guests plan slack packing: hiking long stretches with just a day pack, lunch and water while the hostel handles logistics. One guest couple knocked out an 18.6-mile day over the Carter and Moriah mountains that way, dropping packs and cruising past views of Mt. Washington that would normally cost two days of heavy carrying.
Gorham itself punches above its weight for a small trail town. There's a post office for resupply boxes (though one hiker's bear barrel spent weeks ping-ponging between unnamed facilities), a public library for catching up on life, and Nonna's Kitchen, a family-run Italian spot open Wednesday through Sunday, 4pm to 8pm, where everything from pasta to sauce is homemade. That last detail matters more than it sounds: one thru-hiker reported food poisoning from a local Chinese buffet, so choosing your dinner spot carefully is genuine trail wisdom.
Then there's the big logistical headache looming over any White Mountains hike: the famous hut system. Overnight spots in the huts can run up to $160 per person per night, and the popular ones require bookings months ahead — awkward for thru-hikers who can't predict where they'll be in three days. The workaround, as the Libby crew demonstrated, is to string together hostels like The Notch in North Woodstock that will shuttle you and support slack packs through sections of the Whites.
Not everything on the trail goes to plan, of course. The same hikers described an unsettling encounter near Mt. Moriah with a fast-moving stranger in all black, followed by two freak falls and a bent trekking pole — an episode they interpreted through their own spiritual framework. Whatever you make of it, it's a reminder that the Whites demand respect: remote, weather-prone, and sparsely populated, even on a well-travelled corridor.
Why does this matter to a traveller? Because Gorham is the classic launch pad for the Presidential Range and the Great Gulf Wilderness, whether you're a thru-hiker or a week-long section hiker. Affordable hostel-based slack packing lets you sample serious miles above treeline without committing to hut prices or a heavy pack — and with a proper home-cooked Italian dinner waiting back in town.
Original reporting: The Trek.
