NH Man Summited 115 Tallest Peaks in the Northeast With His Trusty Companion ‘Larry the Log’
Climbing all 48 of the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire is no easy feat. And when I saw that a dude named Shawn Mahoney accomplished this in five short weeks while carrying a 25 pound log named Larry, I thought "boy, are you crazy?!" It turns out the answer is yes! Kidding, of course. Crazy isn't the right word; determined, persistent, tenacious and tough are more accurate!
It turned out that Shawn was training for the "World's Toughest Tough Mudder" in Las Vegas (which he has since completed ) and he was hiking the Whites as part of his training. He documented his adventures in the Hike the 4000 footers of NH! Facebook group and other hikers became invested in his journey. He even ran into a few on the trails and OF COURSE they asked for a photo with Larry since he is basically a celebrity:
So why the log?
Shawn and Larry have had many triumphant moments together. Here are a few:
Shawn messaged me back in mid October to inform me that he Larry's journey went beyond the NH 48. He and Larry summitted the NE111 which in the hiking world means the 115- 4K footers of NY, VT, ME, and NH! The Adirondack mountains (46 peaks) took 23 days and the NE111 took 13 weeks.
NH Chronicle got wind of Shawn and Larry's story and did a feature on them last night:
How cool is that?!
After checking so much off their bucket list, what do the dynamic duo have in store for the future? By the looks of things, Winter hikes and frosty beards: