Bridget Kennerson

Day 111, 8/17/23 Hanover, NH 0 miles, mile 1,756 Wow was it good to wake up in my bed knowing I did not need to hike today. I had a slow morning, made breakfast and coffee and then headed over to my best friend Kate’s house. She just had a baby last week and I was able to go spend the whole day with her and holding her new baby all day on the couch. I missed spending time with her and now she is a Mom! ...

Day 115, 8/21/23 Ore Hill Trailhead to Kinsman Notch 14.4 miles, mile 1,808.8 Kevin and I drove ourselves today and left my car at Beaver Brook Trailhead, and then drove his car back to Ore Hill and left it there for the day, and then went back to get it when we hiked to Beaver Brook. The logistics can be a bit tricky to plan, but it is so worth the driving time to go home every night and slackpack. ...

Day 117, 8/23/23 I93 to Stealth Campsite 10.4 miles, mile 1,835.6 It’s my Birthday! And what a birthday it was being able to hike over the best part of the entire trail, Franconia Ridge. I am so lucky to live in NH, but living in NH does make the rest of the AT south of here seem pretty underwhelming when it comes to views. We slept in at home and didn’t start hiking until 10:30am. I planned a short mileage day because there is 5,300 feet of climbing crammed into 10.4 miles, ...

Day 119, 8/25/23 Crawford Notch 0 miles, mile 1,852.8 There was some rain coming through and I did not want to be above treeline in the Presidentials in bad weather. We took a zero day at home today, and celebrated my birthday with a great family dinner. My grandparents came and we had lobster, steak tips, zucchini corn fritters, and delicious vanilla cake with a strawberry rhubarb compote! My Mom went all out and it was beyond amazing. ...

Day 122, 8/28/23 Mt. Washington Summit to Pinkham Notch 13.5 miles, mile 1,878.8 I woke up at 5:30am today to get driving up to Pinkham Notch so we would have no chance of missing the shuttle back to where we left off yesterday at the summit of Mt. Washington. They only guarantee one shuttle from Pinkham to the summit and they will only send it if you call them right at 8:15am from Pinkham. We got there around 7:50am and right at 8:15am I called. ...

Day 123, 8/29/23 Pinkham Notch to Rt 2 20.8 miles, mile 1899.9 Today will be declared as the Pinkham Notch to Rt 2 death day. There was 7,120 feet of elevation gain today over six 4,000 footers, and man was it rough. We started around 8:30am and finished right at 7pm. The day started going up to the Wildcats, which is the steepest part of the entire Appalachian Trail! I felt like I was in elementary school running up the stairs on all fours, ...

Day 129, 9/4/23 ME Rt 17 to ME Rt 4 13.1 miles, mile 1,977.8 I slept in until around 8am today knowing we were only slackpacking a short distance and that it would be about 5 hours of hiking. I made coffee and Kevin made scrambled eggs for both of us while Dad did up some bacon and sausage. It feels so good to start the day with real food instead of dry cereal and a granola bar. ...

Day 134, 9/9/23 US Rt 201 0 miles, mile 2,047 Today was so much fun! Karen made a bomb breakfast bake casserole and a pot of coffee for everyone. She is a great cook. After hanging out for a bit, Ethan and I ventured to downtown Kingfield and explored around town. We went to Orchard Girls Cidery and got flights of ciders, some with very interesting flavors. We had to laugh at how in depth the description was for a lot of them and when we got to number 4, ...

Days 139-144, 9/13/23-9/18/23 Home! 0 miles, mile 2,083.7 That was a great break from the trail, although I wish we could have just gone right through to finish because now I don’t want to go back. Or course I am going back to finish, and am in the car to Monson now. The reason we went home was to avoid Hurricane Lee and the rain and high winds. There has been a lot of rain through the area and there are several road walks that add some decent mileage through the 100 mile wilderness because the rivers are impassable. ...

Day 145, 9/19/23 Mountain Rd to Stealth Campsite ~21 miles total, mile 2,113.9 Today was rough. The trail was a river, we went 3 miles in the wrong direction on a road walk to avoid a dangerous river crossing, I slipped and fell 3 times, talking with others about Katahdin logistics is frustrating when 20 people are planning to summit the same day, and it rained. We woke up at 5:30am today because it is an hour and a half drive to Monson from Kingfield, ...