Hello everyone. Today is Tuesday, July 18.  I am taking a zero day in Gorham, NH.  I climbed over Mt. Moosilauke, through Kinsaman Notch, and over the 2 Kinsman peaks (very difficult climb over the Kinsman's).  This was one of the best days on the trail because when I summited Moosilauke, it was the most awesome view and reminded me of just how spectacular the White Mountains truly are.  That climb reinvigorated me for the trek across the White's and gave me a huge psychological boost.  The weather has been consistently hot in the high 80"s and low 90's and muggy (sometimes it is breezy to cool things down a bit) thus making the hiking a little more difficult.  I had planned on only hiking 10-12 miles a day through New Hampshire, but have done some big mile days including a couple of 20 plus mile days.  From Crawford Notch to Pinkham Notch was a blast and a glorious trek across Mt's, Lafayette and Garfield.  It was sunny that day and I could see forever.  In the White Mountains the Appalachian Mountain Club owns and operates a system of Huts that is like a hotel system for hikers spread out through the mountain range.  Thruhikers may stay and sleep and eat for free in exchange for a little work (give a talk, wash dishes, etc).  I have stayed at two of the Huts ( Zealand Falls Hut and Mitzpah Hut).  It was fantastic, they fed use huge amounts of food including a turkey dinner one night, pasta dinner the next night, and eggs-sausage -pancakes-coffee-juice for breakfast. On Monday, July 16 I crossed over Mt Washington, Mt Jefferson, Mt Adams, and Mt Madison.  It was cloudy all morning, but the clouds kept breaking so I had some fantastic views climbing up Mt Washington. After lunch I headed across the rest of the range and had the most difficult stretch of hiking on the whole trail so far.  After climbing over Mt Jefferson I was on the western side of Mt Adams and a rain storm with 30 plus mile per hour winds came in and  beat me up all afternoon.  The mountain is nothing but a huge rock pile, and each step is from rock to rock, and hop to hop from boulder to boulder.  This becomes extremely taxing when the rocks are wet and slippery and the wind is pushing you in a different direction than you want to go.  Basically I got the SNOT KICKED OUT OF ME. I was never so happy to be done with a day of hiking and I was so sore from my toes to my hips that I couldn't fall asleep until after 1:00 AM that night because of the constant throbbing pain in my lower body.  However, I wouldn't change the challenge of that hike because it was a real test. I actually want to go back and hike that section in the opposite direction on a non windy, sunny, and  cool fall day.  Yesterday morning the group of us that had been hiking together since Crawford Notch (Scout, Doc Dave (from South Berwick), Switchback and SID (stands for Stuck In Drive)) all decided that we needed to get off the trail and recover from crossing over Mt's Adams and Madison.  So after a 2 hour hike out to Pinkham Notch we had breakfast and waited for our shuttle to come pick us up and bring us to the Hostel in Gorham NH.  Wise choice for all of us, because yesterday was filled with heavy rainstorm and severe thunderstorms.  Lightning, exposed mountain ridges, and hikers with metal hiking poles just don't mix well.  The rest of the group have taken off this morning to continue on and hike the next 21 miles across the Wildcat Mountains.  I have chosen to zero today.  Gorham NH is 21 miles from Pinkam Notch by road.  North of Pinkham notch, the AT goes right through Gorham, so hikers can jump off the trail in a couple of spots and come into Gorham on either side of Wildcat Mt.  The group of hikers that I have been hiking with for most of the trail are a day ahead of me and zeroed in Gorham today because of the weather, so we all got together last night for supper.  It was a blast and there were a dozen of us "hiker trash" thruhikers having dinner at Mr. Pizza (nice restaurant in Gorham) toasting our accomplishments and swapping stories (this is probably the last time I'll see mouse and dutchman unless I can catch up with them).  After I finish my hike Friday, July 20, I will only have 298 miles to the summit of Mt. Katahdin.  I will be in Maine next week.  At this rate I will complete the trail sometime between August 10 and August 15, God willing and the Creek Don't Rise, barring injury, illness, weather, or any other unforeseen event.  I am at a computer that has limited band width and can't upload pictures.  I will try to get to a library by this weekend and upload recent  pictures.