Chad DeVoe has made it to the northern end of the Appalachian Trail. Using MotionX-GPS to guide him over the last 4 months he successfully hiked the entire length of the trail from Georgia to Maine. Along the way he had a number of friends join him and with some support for slack packing on various treks he made very good time. The trail is approximately 2,175 miles. Chad hiked it in 122 days for an average of 17.83 miles per day. That is amazing!

Yesterday was the hardest day so far. Courtney came last night to slackpack us so I was on the trail at 5:45am. It was one of those days where the only people hiking were thru-hikers. It was pouring and cold as I left. The trail has become overgrown and extremely muddy, rocky, and full of roots. Every time I hit a branch, a night’s worth of accumulated rainfall would fall on me. The shortest option for the slackpack was 31 miles because there were no other road crossings – not even a dirt forest service road. That in itself, especially with several big climbs, is a big day.

However, I also had to do Mahoosuc Notch, the hardest mile on the whole AT in slick conditions. It wasn’t too bad with just a daypack though and it was a pretty cool area. It was a mile between 2 cliffs where large boulders have fallen over the last couple thousand years. I had to climb over, around, and under these large boulders and there was even ice still in some of the crevices. I finally got done at 9:15 and gladly took my soaked shoes off. Today we’re slackpacking another 20 miles.

I’m writing this from the place with the worst weather in the world, Mt Washington. This is the highest point in the Northeast and holds the land speed wind record of some 280 miles per hour. This picture is of the trail leading to the top. The vegetation, mostly shrubs, grasses, and lichens, are only found on a few mountaintops in the lower 48 and hundreds of miles north in the arctic tundra. The weather today is cloudy, windy, and in the lower 50s. The average summer high is 51 and and average winter high is 15.

Posted by Mr. DeVoe on 21 July 2009

Hello,

Mr. DeVoe uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G and is sharing with you the following track:

Click on this link to display the track in Google Maps. This link will be valid until Aug 20, 2009 9:59 AM PDT.

Here is the view from yesterday’s first peak of the Whites. This was probably the best view of the whole AT so far. These mountains are tough but very rewarding. They remind me a lot of the Adirondacks.

Here is a picture of Maine Junction, the place where the Long Trail and AT split. We continued east after here and are heading toward New Hampshire. We’ve been fortunate enough to slackpack for a few days now and are covering over 20 miles a day. Mr Giroux is still here and holding up well.

Mr. DeVoe uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G and is sharing with you the following track:

Click on this link to display the track in Google Maps. This link will be valid until Aug 13, 2009 10:59 AM PDT.

Here is Chad DeVoe’s latest track using MotionX-GPS. They recently passed the 1500 mile mark on the Appalachian Trail – an incredible feat.

In the last three weeks, Chad Devoe, Kevin and Lucy (the dog) have covered about 350 miles. They are now entering New York State and are feeling very confident that they will reach their goal before the end of summer.

“After a 35 mile slackpack we finished New Jersey in only 2 days. The 2nd half was much better than the first. The trail was marked and maintained much better. We hiked through some very nice parts of NJ including a National Wildlife Refuge and a sweet boardwalk with lots of good waterfowl to observe. Lucy enjoyed the slackpack too.” –Chad

“Today we hit the 9th state, my home state of New York. I haven’t been here in nearly 3 months so it was nice. Mr Barry, my former host teacher from Homer, sent me a compact fishing pole that I used for the first time today. All I caught was a small Northern Pike which was too small to cook up.” –Chad

Coal Mine in Virginia

Mr DeVoe’s latest track from MotionX-GPS:

Hello,

Mr. DeVoe uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone 3G and is sharing with you the following track:

Click on this link to display the track in Google Maps. This link will be valid until Jul 7, 2009 12:23 PM PDT.

We are now hiking through our second National Park. Shenandoah National Park includes 300 square miles of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the southern Appalachians with tens of thousands of living creatures including white tail deer, black bear and 36 fish species that live within the park’s streams. The Appalachian Trail covers around 75 miles within the slender park that runs North-South through Northern Virginia.