Want to see some real American heroes?

[Xipe Totec]

Here they are, Bogie and Bacall:



These are Apalachian tru-hickers; hiking the ENTIRE Appalachian mountain trail, from Springer Mountain, Georgia, to Katahdin Maine.

I met them on Mt Madison in the White Mountains New Hampshire, FIVE months into their SIX-month trek.

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Madison! Great views from the ridge around the hut.

The summit was so windy the day that I summited that it was most unpleasant -- cold and hard to stay upright! The hut still had an icepack under it too -- this was in June in a year with late snows.

Bogie and Bacall have some hard hiking ahead of them in Maine. Best wishes to them.

[Xipe Totec]

2. They said the Whites was the roughest part so-far

the wind was 50mph, gusting to 65mph.

It dang near killed me!

[Gormy Cuss]

3. That's the way it was when I was on Madison.

My group was planning to go over the Jefferson Ravine but it still had a snowfield with lots of ice and we didn't have winter gear.

The Mahoosuc range (Grafton Notch area) stretch does in through hikers on a regular basis.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. Years ago, my mom and I were hiking part of the trail in Shenandoah NP, and

we met two brothers, both in their 80s, who'd hiked from GA. They were hoping to do the whole trail, but had decided they'd best call it quits at Harper's Ferry, WV. Amazing gents...