This coming week, I'll be heading out to New Hampshire to do some hiking with a friend. This is going to be interesting. I've heard/read that the trails are not that dissimilar from the Adirondacks in that they also are old and in many places just follow the fall line of the peak. We shall see how true that is. While this will be my first time hiking the Whites, my hiking companion has hiked some before, and this is her reciprocating hiking I took her on in the 'Daks last year.

So, what are our plans? Right now, we have 6 peaks on our list. She flies in on Saturday and that'll be a pure transit day with us driving from Albany to Lincoln area. At the moment, we plan on doing what may be the physically toughest hike on Sunday, although it will be one of the shorter hikes, Flume and Liberty. There is a stretch on Flume that is slab and scramble that supposedly makes it one of the tougher trails. I've seen video of it and thought it looked like the last mile up Algonquin... difficult, but not as bad as people make it seem. Next up will be the big hike which will be Cannon, the cannon balls, North and South Kinsman. This is just over 10 miles and 4600+ feet of elevation. Again, it looks like the hike up to Cannon will be the worst part as that's 2 miles of 1000 foot miles. We may break this into 2 hikes though, all depends on how we're feeling. Then we have an "easy" hike, Garfield. So that's 3 of the 4 days we have for hiking. We're going to play it by ear as to what we do that day, and which day that is (probably tuesday)

Thursday, we head on home and she flies out in the evening. We will try to get out early and go across the top of Vermont. This will put us on the ferry across Champlain, and from there, we may hit up a fire tower on the way home, depending on how we're doing time wise. It's going to be a fun week, but exhausting and I'll be looking forward to going back to work Friday.... well, not really.

What does this all mean for my hiking? Well, I've completed the original peak challenge with the ADK 46. I've completed the other big peak challenge in NY with the Catskill 3500. Combined, I've got 48 peaks over 4000 (46 in the 'Daks, 2 in the Cats, and yes, the 4 that are below 4000 in the 'Daks still count). There are 3 New England states that have similar challenges... Vermont has 5 over 4000, Maine has 14, and New Hampshire has 48. You add this all up and you get 111 peaks over 4000 feet. There is a challenge called the NE111 (North East 111) which requires you to climb 115 peaks. As I mentioned, the 4 46ers that are just below 4000 count. If I get these 6 peaks, I'll be at 54/115 and 6/48 for the NE and NH challenges. If I'll actually finish the 111 or 48, it will be an accomplishment. I'm happy with the 46 and 3500, and working to redline the high peaks wilderness. The 'Daks are my second home... but this is something that is possible, and will get me to a few spots over 6000 feet, which I cannot do in NY.