Gettin' Muddy

(More blog entries from ryan)

Squish

Spring + New England = MUD

D and I are in the process of section hiking the Appalachian Trail. (Something you will no doubt hear more about throughout the summer.) It's spring in New England, so that means we're back at it. Spring in New England also means mud, or mud season as it is affectionately known. Actually, there is a bill before the New Hampshire legislature right now to officially change the name of this season from spring to mud season.*

Due to the recent snows from the Nor'easter, we knew it would be best to avoid the higher peaks of the Presidentials so as not to deal with deep snows and all the extra gear that goes along with them, i.e snowshoes, crampons and other traction devices. So we found ourselves in western NH hiking on the AT outside of Hanover. And it was muddy. It's not the fact that it was muddy that was so surprising, but it was the different types of mud. In the same way that snow can take on so many different forms, mud can do the same. It was impressive. Soft mud, squishy mud, gooey mud, dry mud, muddy mud, watery mud, splattering mud, frozen mud, almost-frozen mud, solid mud. At one point I heard a loud groan from in front of me (D always leads because she's the fit one), D had completely splattered her left leg...completely covered. I knew right where not to step. (It pays to be the not fit one.) At first we tried to avoid the mud, but after about 5 minutes we realized that was impossible. Maybe it all falls into one category: ubiquitous mud.

- Ryan

* not true.

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