Lincoln, New Hampshire

I am now in Lincoln, New Hampshire and almost finished with the White Mountains! The Whites have been absolutely beautiful. I climbed up to Mt. Washington two days ago and had a clear day over all of the presidential range. The wind chill was 20 degrees with gusts up to 70 mph but it was so beautifully clear!

This is the Presidential range behind me

This the summit of Mount Washington.

There are huts in the White mountains where people pay about 120$ to stay the night. That includes a supper and breakfast. The huts are run by college aged people. The thru-hikers obviously are not going to pay that much money to stay but in some places the only shelter is the huts. They offer the thru-hikers a work for stay where we get to sleep on the dining room tables and eat the left-overs. It is a pretty sweet deal actually. I spent the last three nights in the huts doing work for stay. The first two huts I gave a thru-hiker program to the paying guests. They asked me questions about the trail and why I was doing it and such. It was pretty cool and actually pretty fun. My last night in one of the huts I did dishes after supper and breakfast. The huts have been a great experience and I can say that I have not eaten better on the trail than the last three days! Here is one of the huts we stayed at and that is my sleeping bag on the right table.

After getting through the Presidential range we moved on to Franconia Ridge which has been one of my favorite places so far. I was walking with a new face to all of you named Deep Dish. Me and Deep Dish were going to try and push 20 miles over the ridge to get to town the day before yesterday. We started up Mt. Lafayete and had been above the tree line for about an hour when we heard the first thunder. Then we saw this moving towards us.We had about five minutes to throw a tarp down and take cover in some boulders. We rode the storm out for about an hour and a half. It might have been absolutely incredible to be in the middle of a storm above the tree line on a ridge. This is me and Deep Dish taking shelter under our tarp. When the storm let up we continued on up the mountain and made it to shelter after about another hour. Visiblity was at about 10ft the rest of the evening. The great thing was the next day was the clearest day we have had the entire time on the trail and we got this picture.

This is another picture up on the ridge.

This is just one of my favorite picture so far. I took this from the Imp Shelter right outside of Gorham, NH.

We are doing well and I am hoping to meet back up with Mike today! It will be good to see his pretty face for the first time in a few days. I love you all so much and am reminded of you each day. God is moving in me in ways that He never has before. I am daily being broken and rebuilt by Him and am so thankful for it. Psalms 46 check it out!

Walking south,

Addison (Reset)

Thank you Maine! Hello New Hampshire!

Hello from New Hampshire!
We have finished the 281.4 miles of trail in Maine and are resting in Gorham, New Hampshire at the moment. Maine was beautiful and a blast. I have posted all of my pictures from Maine go to http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=26517859&aid=2244306&s=20&hash=93a17affea48ed83d6db04338dd63187#!/album.php?id=26517859&aid=2244306&s=0&hash=8c3884768cb05bfe25a4ff094cdf1cec I have learned a few things while being here on the trail. One of them being never eat a 780 calorie whoopie pie for breakfast then go walk 23 miles. This will lead you to a day filled with storms, rain, and running out of water followed by three guys in a two person tent eating McDonalds cheeseburgers. Me plug and dread decided to walk 23 to the road right outside of Gorham in order to wake up and hitch directly into town the next day. We had six miles to go at about 5:00 when the rain began. We were supposed to pass a brook a mile from the road to get water for the night and when I walked out into the parking lot I might have been a little sad and out of water. We did not have water but were going to just ride the night out until the next morning. When we walked out to the road we saw another hiker and he told us he was hitching into town to grab cheeseburgers and then coming back out. We got excited and decided to send Dread to grab us some. Three and a half hours later Dread gets dropped off soaking wet with 8 cheeseburgers haha. It worked out finally and we slept what little we could then we hitched in early the next morning and went straight to McDonalds. It was a great night and out first in New Hampshire.
We are about to hit the White Mountains and get out butts kicked. I am excited about it! Send all mail to North Woodstock, N.H. P.O 03262.
Thank you all for everything!
Walking south,
Addison (Reset)

Sorry so short! Getting kicked off the computer in the public library!!

Hello from Andover!

We are tenting in the back yard of some nice folks here in Andover for the night. We are about 40 miles from being done with Maine!! We will be in Gorham, New Hampshire in about 4 days so send all mail there. I am not sure the P.O. number but it is online. No pictures this post but in Gorham I am going to post everything we covered from Stratton to the end of Maine. Thanks for all the prayers! Full post coming in a few days! Love you all!
Walking south,
Addison

Greetings from Stratton, Maine!

Greetings from Stratton, Maine!
We arrived in Stratton this morning around 10:30 after sleeping 8 miles away from town on a notch between two beautiful 4,000 foot peaks called the Bigelows. It was a great night even though a little cold and rainy. We are currently at mile 187.8 and about to hit one of the most beautiful sections of the trail through the Mahoosuc mountains of southern Maine and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. These mountains will also be the most challenging we will face! We are jazzed about it! Here are some pics since Monson.

This is me, Full Value, and Plug on top of Avery Peak (the highest mountain in the Bigelows)

This is me dying on the way up the mountain at the 2,000 mile marker...yes that is 2,000 more miles to go to Georgia.

This video is one that describes exactly what we do everyday since I have gotten so many questions asking well...what do you do every day.

Thank you all for everything! Send any mail to Andover, Maine P.O. 04216.
Walking South,
Addison

Katahdin and the 100 Mile Wilderness Done!

Howdy!

We are now through the 100 mile wilderness and resting comfortably in Monson, Maine. Ill give you a little recap of our journey. We hiked to the summit of Katahdin on July 8. It was cloudy and rainy on the summit but still great. It was 10 Mile round trip 4,000 feet up and then down.We left the Katahdin Stream campsite the next day and walked 10 miles to the Abol Bridge Campsite, the last stop before the 100 mile wilderness. Our miliage through the wilderness was 13, 15, 16, 11, 12.5, 11.7, and 16. We finished earlier than expected and walked out the last three miles to the road.Here are some highlights from the wilderness.

This was from our campsite at Cloud Pond Lean-to
This was our campsite at Rainbow Lake at sunset.
The last night when we were three miles out from the road I called from a buddies phone to get us a place to stay in town. An incredible lady named Rebekah answered the phone and said that she would make room for us to stay. I asked her if they had a shuttle service or if we needed to hitch a ride into town. She said that she would be able to pick me up then I told her that I was with three other guys. With relief in her voice she told me that at the trailhead there would be a red and silver pickup truck. She told me that the keys were in the ashtray and to just drive it into town and she would see us when we got to town. It was amazing haha.Here is the lovely truck and our crew loading up.

This is me and Brit walking up one of the mountians.

This was Mike and I enjoying our zero day at the Lakeshore House.

After two good days here at the Lakeshore House we are moving along and good news its starting to rain. haha. Everything is going great though and we are moving along. Our next stop will be in about a week in Stratton, Maine.
Send Mail to:
Stratton, Maine P.O. 04982
Thanks for everything!
Walking South,
Addison

Here We Go!

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010


Well, the day has finally come! This is me in the condo in Williamsburg, VA. My flight leaves in three hours from Richmond, VA and lands in Bangor, Maine later tonight. We will be crashing in a hotel tonight and then getting a ride the 80 or some odd miles to the base of Katahdin (the mountian that marks the northernmost point of the trail). We will begin the hike to the summit of Katahdin on Thursday. We will hike to the summit and then return back to camp in the same day then depart for our first leg of the trip on Friday. Our next stop will be Monson, Maine.


I will be posting Post Offices if anyone wants to send mail or things while we are on the trail. This is the proper way to address mail:





(Example of the first stop in Monson)


Addison Shock


Monson, Maine, P.O. 04464


Please hold for thru-hiker expected around July 18th or 19th


I will be posting other Post Office information along the hike!

I am not going on this adventure alone and I feel it is only fair to give some credit to my hiking partner Mikey baby Micheal W. T. Hop Hopkins a.k.a. Mike or Thunder.
I will be updating as much as I can. I am not sure of the internet access along the trail! Thank you for your prayers and thoughts!
Walking South,
Addison