Alex McCafferty

9/2 – Day 125 10.4 miles from Top Notch Inn to Middle Carter Peak   After a lazy morning, we packed up and stopped at White Mountain Café for some tasty breakfast sandwiches. Spout went to a local gear store to replace her broken trekking poles. Afterwards, we hitched back to the trail and began … Read more

8/27 – Day 119 17.0 miles from Hikers Welcome Hostel to Eliza Brook Shelter   Spout came to my bunk and shook me awake at 6:30am. The entire bunkroom of hikers was ready stirring. We packed up, payed for the half dozen soft drinks we consumed, then set off down the road towards the trail. … Read more

8/21 – Day 113 17.6 miles from Chateauguay Rd to Thistle Hill Shelter   We slept past 9:00am, feeling exceptionally sluggish. When we got moving it was obvious before much longer that it was going to be an all headphones kind of day. I have been refusing to write the common acronym, PUDS (pointless ups-and-downs), … Read more

8/13 – Day 105 15.9 miles from Seth Warner Shelter to Porcupine Lookout We talked with the SOBO Fuzzy Duck in the morning as we packed up our tent, got our food out of the bear box, and dug out some breakfast. We talked about the screeching bird we heard overnight, told each other what … Read more

8/8 – Day 100 13.5 miles from Great Barrington to North Mount Wilcox Shelter We enjoyed our final few minutes of the cool, dry motel air before grabbing some McGriddles for the road and hitching back to trail around 11:30am. At the trailhead, two ladies were excitedly dumping drinks and bags of ice in a … Read more

8/1 – Day 93 18.8 miles from Graymoor Spiritual Life Center to RPH Shelter   We have found that the recipe for a strong day of hiking includes some sort of town food about fifteen miles into the day, preferably with limited business hours. This forces us into breaking down camp before 9:00am, ensures we … Read more

7/25 – Day 86 20.2 miles from Raccoon Ridge to Bridgeville From our campsite, the ridge walking continued for several miles. The terrain was littered with large rocks and dead birch leaves that made us feel like we were hiking in the peak of fall. The heat wave was beginning to wind down and an … Read more

7/18 – Day 79 18.6 miles from Hertline Campsite to Port Clinton We were rocked by a heavy thunderstorm through the night and woke up to significant water pooling in the tent floor. The Ziploc freezer bag I use for my electronics was compromised and most of everything Spout or I owned was at least … Read more

Spout is fired. She was supposed to be journaling the last four days but instead used her limited leisure time on things like “looking at the map” and “catching up with family”. It’s unacceptable really. Here’s some retrospective journaling from my boring POV.   7/11- Day 72 19.9 miles from Tagg Run to Carlisle Quality … Read more

7/4 – Day 65 23.8 miles from Jim & Molly Denton Shelter to Buzzard Hill   Following two neros and a zero, it was time to stop being lazy hikers and put in an honest day’s work. We hit the trail at 8:20am and it was only an hour later that Spout began complaining she was … Read more