Day 167

Lyme Dorchester to hidden parking area, 6.9 miles. Yellow blaze to Hikers Welcome Hostel. We went up Smarts Mountain, a steepish climb and got to go up the fire tower for nice 360 views. There is a wildfire in Canada so things are hazy, but we could still see the Whites and Presidentials looming in the distance 😬 We made the decision to bump up and skip about 10 miles to get to the hostel a day early. We have been on schedule so far but we know mileage is going to go down in the Whites and Maine, and we want to have a little more wiggle room to be able to be safe since our summit date is 9/11. Hikers Welcome is a lovely hostel, they are kind to help plan the next leg of the journey, have good resupply, great spaces and it was nice to have a lot of people there-Frickles, Wingit, Puck, ToGo, Mtn Dew. We also saw Tortoise and Bougie who we haven’t seen in ages!!