Likely we'll have spottier tracking in the Whites, and really from here on out. Someone should lend him an inReach tracker! Seems like the buffering isn't working well with this newer tracker.
Tracker shows him just past Beaver Brook, probably made it to Lost River Rd (112). About 2 days + 10 miles ahead. 57 miles from Mt Washington.
Here's where it gets interesting. Tuesday night into Wednesday looks like terrible weather--heavy rain, thunderstorms and winds up to 70mph. Thursday is windy but clear. The smart move would be to push tomorrow as late and far as he can, and hunker down Wednesday and even take a zero if it's bad all day. Then up and over Mt Washington on Thursday. Adjust as needed if the forecast changes. Backseat driving from someone who's never been to NH. Stringbean did 27.9, 25.5, and 31.8 in this section.
The last thing he needs is to be blown off the white mountains. Dudes been mechanical to this point hasn’t he, and seems skilled enough to know his limits
Just watched a bit of facebook live as he's going up Mt. Lafayette. A little tired but moving well--22 miles already by 10:45! He says he wants to make it through the Whites without injury, and once he gets to Maine he knows there is still some difficult terrain but thinks he'll be able to smell the barn. He says this is probably his favorite section, and the good weather so far has helped. If he said anything specific about weather and plans for tomorrow I missed it. The forecast no longer says heavy rains and winds are slightly diminished--35-50mph with 65mph gusts.
A few weeks ago I hiked to the top of Mt. Washington with my son. We were planning on doing it on the Saturday but the summit forecast was nasty and had the word tornadic in it. So we bailed on Saturday and went up Sunday. Saturday's weather turned out fine so you just never know up there.
Early start this morning after early end yesterday. I'd guess he'll gun for Crawford Notch, which would be a 45 mile day in the heart of the Whites! And he'd be cued up for the Presi Traverse tomorrow. Wind & rain - classic White Mtns!
He’s up mt Jackson, staying at the hut over there maybe? Awesome day
The tracker just went over Mt. Washington!
Fog, south wind gusting to 44. He’s going fast!
I show that Stringbean stayed at "Saco River site", which looks to be immediately after the US 302 crossing, about 4 miles short of Mt Jackson. So isn't the lead 3 days + 4 miles? Stringbean did 31.8 this day from Saco River.
And so much for my thought of a light or rest day to let the weather pass. Up and over Mt Washington! Still has a few more presidents to traverse but that's huge!
This is better than cable tv!
Jefferson, Adams, and Madison done!
His lead had been gradually and consistently increasing to the point he had a lead of 2.33 days as of the beginning of the day yesterday. Then yesterday he almost doubled Stringbean's performance though that section, hiking 1.87 days worth of trail, increasing his lead to 3.21 days in just one day. To get a feel for how much of an outlier yesterday's "hike" was, check out the graph of his lead by day.
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Looks like he was trying to get a jump on the weather, which is supposed to go from bad to terrible this afternoon. I wonder if he'll continue past Pinkham Notch today? I think we can safely say the White Mtns are not slowing Karel down one bit!
Another way to look at the data is to plot his daily performance instead of his lead. For the math geeks, this graph is essentially the slope (derivative) of the one above. The one above is the area (integral) of this one. Again it shows how beyond the norm yesterdays hike was. You see that that previously he only had 4 days that he failed to match SB (lowest day was 0.92 days). Before yesterday, his best day was 1.30 days.
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Wowza! Looks like he could make it to Gorham today.
Unless something crazy happens, he's got the record - now it's just a question of by how much.
It's all good in the woods.