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 said he always ran with logs even in 2007 while stationed in England. (he was in the Air Force) When he was asked to hike with a cousin and some friends he decided to bring a log along. As soon as he started hiking he knew the log was an integral part of his training and decided to bring it on all of the 48 peaks. Larry was actually one of a few logs that Shawn used throughout his training. Another log he used was named Wilson, after Tom Hanks’ volley ball companion in Castaway. Shawn told me Wilson was slightly heavier
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:
