Live Free or Die

Hello world! The post title is the (awesome) slogan for the state I'm currently in, New Hampshire. I'm taking a much needed half day off to relax and visit with family in Littleton, NH. I'm at mile 1799.8, and have entered the White Mountains, which are supposed to be the toughest section of the trail.
I'll do a quick recap of my travels since the last post. I hiked over the highest peaks of New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The New Jersey high point was cool because that was the first state high peak I'd been to back in 2012 when me and Pop Tart did a week long trip of day hikes in the US which I think planted the seed for the thru hike of 2015. I also hit the lowest point on the trail, which was ironically a bear den at a public zoo in New York. I bet most hikers aren't too enthused to see the bears in captivity after spending so much time in the great outdoors. Poor bears.
I'd been hiking alone for a month before this past week when I finally caught up to some fellow May starters. From the log books I could tell that there was 5 hikers ahead of me that had started after me, who passed me when I was sick or at Bonnaroo. First I caught Burgular, a veteran hiker finishing his triple crown, then Diesel, a student from Louisville, Kentucky. I hiked with Diesel for a week which was great. We pushed 30 miles a day, peaking with a 35 miler, and got through Vermont in 5 days. We also had a really nice stop over at a hostel in Rutland, VT. The day out of Rutland I decided to try the Nutella challenge, which is eating only Nutella for one whole day. It hit me how crazy it was when I grabbed the Nutella jar from the shelf and though to myself Ok, I've got my groceries for tomorrow.  The challenge went pretty well, although I would pick a 32 mile, very hilly day to do it. I was pretty wobbly by the end. It's pretty crazy to think that I could've and probably should've eaten twice as much as the 4000 calories that I got. I was looking forward to breakfast the next day more than you'd ever believe.
We made it to ritzy Hanover, NH, which was very hiker friendly. There was like 4 houses doing trail magic on the 2 mile road walk into town and in town we got a free donut and piece of pizza. I parted with Diesel but I immediately met up with Sonic, a tiny girl from Colorado I'd been gunning for for months. She'd been hiking mostly with 2 guys who were ahead now. One of those guys started the same day as me, so I was starting to get nervous that he'd finish before me or I'd have to kill myself to catch him in the last 2 weeks. I was relieved to find out that they'd skipped a few parts of the trail, so I feel like we're not in the same category. Phew. I hiked with Sonic for a few days. She's super fast, faster than me. Hiking with her and Diesel, who are both trying to finish in 100 days, but are about 5 days ahead of me makes me a little nervous about my 100 day goal.
Because I'm kind of behind the 8 ball here to finish by my goal date, I decided to bite the bullet and make some gear improvements. I got new shoes (trail runners), an air mattress and a tent! I'm hoping these things will help with the things that are annoying me and slowing my down the most: toe pain (because I made the rookie mistake of buying hiking boots at my normal shoe size instead of going bigger and wider for perennially swollen feet... my feet were kiiilling me the past couple days...), bugs (especially at night), not sleeping well at night, stubbed toes, soggy feet and shoes (by going without Gortex to improve draining) and not having to worry about finding a perfect spot with two good trees to set up my tarp.
A couple random quick things before I hit the sack:
I hadn't showered (or brushed my hair) in a month, and my hair had turned into one big dread. I had to chop about half of it off. Way she goes I guess.
It's a weird coincidence that almost exactly a year to the day I was in this exact area doing a quick camping/day hiking trip.  
Pop Tart is at mile 1283 apparently. He's taking the weekend off to go to Osheaga in Montreal. I have no clue where Killer is lol.
I got into town today and got bombarded with big Blue Jays trade news... I'm still in shock... O baby! Another reason to keep motoring and get this trail done quick.
Thanks for reading... 389 miles to go!