This challenge came about by being a gridiot. I have finished the NH grid and I am currently working on a New England 67 grid. I needed all 19 Maine and Vermont 4000 footers to grid the month of August. I had found an old record from 1993 of a fellow gridiot hiking all 17 ME and VT 4000 in 5 days. (Back then there was only 17 summits on the list.) This helped fuel the challenge. I planned to start the challenge on the last weekend of August which gave me 5 days to hike the the Maine and Vermont 4000 footers. I had aslo decided to take the rest of the week off for the 2nd part to the challenge which was to hike the NH 48 by labor day. The goal of this challenge was to hike the Maine and Vermont 4000 footers in 5 days or less and the NH 48 in the next 5 days. I was hoping to set the first speed record for hiking the New England 67.
The plan was to start in Baxter state park and work my way south through Maine, but reservation issues forced me to start elsewhere. I chose to start in southern Maine and work my way north. I started day one at 6:14am on Saturday August 27 with Old Speck. After Old Speck I made the 2 hour drive to the Saddlebacks. I finished out day one with the Bigelows which gave me 5 summits for 22 miles on day one.
After the Bigelows I drove over to Caribou Pond Rd and slept at the gate. I was up at 5am to start day 2 and met another hiker who had slept in his car too. After talking with him I found out he was doing the Carrabassett 6 as well. We had different plans on how to get from Abraham to Redington. I told him he could tag along if he can keep up to my pace since I already knew how to navigate the Herd Path, Clear Cut, and logging roads to Redington from previous trips. the day went well tagging 6 summits in 10 hours with 21 miles hiked. After eating some food I made the 3 hour drive to Millinocket where I slept in a motel parking lot.
I was up and at the Baxter gate for early enough to be first in line at the gate. once in the park I headed to the Abol trail for Katahdin and Hamlin. the weather was crappy but still made good time. Next up was North Brother. the weather was still crappy above tree line. I managed to make it in and out of Baxter in 10 hours. Maine was now complete with 26.5 miles hiked 26.5 hours on trail and 27,773 feet of elevation gain.
It was almost 5pm when I started my way to Vermont. After almost 5 hours of driving I made it to a friends house in NH where I spent the night. In the morning I made the 2 hour drive to Vermont. It was mid morning when I started the VT5. I started with Mansfield and worked my way south hiking all 5 mountains as individual hikes. I finished Killington at 5:28am taking 20 hours to complete the VT5 with 24.2 miles hiked and 11,543 feet of gain. I had now hiked all 19 Maine and Vermont 4000 footers in 4 days 23 hours and 13 mminutes to close out my August grid. I hiked 87.7 miles with 36 hours and 36 minutes of trail trime and had climed 39,316 feet.
It was now on to NH and the 48. I was feeling tired and exhausted making it hard to motivate. it was mid day by the time I started moosilauke. For my evening hike I was joined by friend and fellow gridiot Andrew Soares for the Hancocks. It was a slower day than I hoped for.
Day 6 started with the Osceola's for sunrise. Andrew joined me for the Osceola's than we spotted my truck at the Oliverian trailhead than we headed to Waterville Valley to hike Tecumseh. Andrew then dropped me off at the Livermore rd trailhead for a Sandwhich Range traverse. I was exhausted and my feet were sore Friday morning so I changed my plands and I did Cannon and the Kinsman's instead of a Pemi loop. I spent the rest of the day Friday soaking my sore body in Little River. At this point I knew I was behind schedule but I wasn't going to quit. I was going to keep pushing as much as my body would let me.
Saturday day 8 started with a early in the morning with a Presi Traverse. We moved pretty good finishing in 10 hours. After a dinner break I went and tagged Willey, Field, and Tom for a 10 summit 30 mile day. I was now half way through the 48. On Sunday I did Carrigain, Isolation, and Waumbek. On Carrigain I made my 1000th NH 4000 footer. My body felt pretty good today but my feet were still a little sore.
On Monday day 10 I did a WCM traverse. My feet were really sore after this hike and my body was tired so I went and soaked in the Peabody River for a while and got a little rest. When I started Tuesday morning I was over the time limit i set for myself but was going to keep hiking until I finished the list. At this point I decided I had to keep going and finish the list. I could still set an FKT since there wasn't one. I hiked Cabot, Hale and Owl's Head to leave me a 12 summit Pemi Loop to finish the 67.
Wednesday morning I headed in Lincoln Woods to start my last hike of the 67. This was a tough hike for me. My feet were fore and my climbs felt slow but I kept pushing. At 9:04pm I reached Bondcliff and my final summit of the 67. In true peak bagger form my time didn't stop until I made it out of the woods. After almost 17 hours of hiking my 12 summit Pemi Loop was complete. I had just hiked the entire New England 67 in 12 days 17 hours and 2 minutes. To the best of my knowledge I set the first known speed record for hiking the NE67. This was the most consecutive days of hiking that I've done. To complete this challenge I hiked 283.5 miles with 124:05 of trail time. I had 120,935 feet of ascent and 121,187 feet of descent. from door to door I drove 1,450 miles with about 43 hours in the driver's seat. I would like to send a special thanks to Andrew Soares for spending a few days with me tagging 16 summits. I would also like to thank everyone who cheered me on.
Here are my gps tracks minus the Osceola's. I accidentally deleted it after the hike but friend Andrew Soares was with me for the sunrise hike.
adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/griddiot/new-england-67/#.WAwVqI-cGP8