For the White Mtn. savvy, I have a few questions. My wife and I are pretty much "booked" to hike the white starting in Gorham, heading south starting August 28th. As an aside, we both simply cannot wait to enjoy those mountains! We know they are tough, and this is precisely one major reason we're looking forward to this AT section.
My questions:
1) how are the water sources in terms of clarity? I switched to using aquamira on my AT endeavors so far (GA->NY) and this works for me because of the high quality of the water along the AT (clarity wise). Can we expect this in the whites? I would think so, just making sure. The alternative is to switch back to using a Sawyer filter, a tad heavier and more time consuming.
2) nighttime temps: we are booked into huts for a couple nights (Mizpah and Greenleaf), plus nights on either end in hostels/hotels, but will have 4 nights in campsites or shelters of various altitudes, but less than 4000'. Would a good, conservatively rated 30 degree bag be sufficient for an average sleeper in a small shared tent? (30 deg for me, my wife is taking a good 20 deg WM).
3) seems like a dumb question, but I cannot seem to find out if the AMC huts will accept resupply packages, does anyone know for sure that they do (or don't)? How are snack food resupplies along the trail, like at the huts? We can carry our regular meals, but unless we start really heavy, we will need lots of trail food/snack resupplies, maybe we can just buy them all along the way. We don't want to divert off the trail though, we're hiking an aggressive time schedule (100 miles in 7 days, if weather cooperates reasonably).
4) we're trying to arrange a shuttle from the south end of the whites to Laconia (because Laconia has an Avis rental place, where I get a corporate deal). No one on the ATC shuttle list is returning my inquiries. Does anyone know a good shuttle person near the south end of the whites? We would need this shuttle on Friday morning, September 5th from the Glencliff, near the NH 25 AT crossing. I think the shuttle length would be about 50 miles.
Thanks in advance for any good info! Again, we're chomping at the bit and cannot wait. New England, here we come! (never been up there)