And just to the West — our New England Mountains and Coast folks crushed the highest, nastiest mountain in the Northeast today, roaring up and down Mt. Washington in near-record time. They sent in this shot from the summit — it may be sweltering at home in New Jersey, but it was a winter hat morning on the summit, with a fierce wind blowing and temps in the 40s.

Much, much farther to the West, our Northwest Explorers set off into the true backcountry of the North Cascades for six days today. We’ll hear from them on the flip side as they make their way over to their kayaking adventure in the San Juan islands.

Down the Coast, our Pacific Coasters are rolling through gorgeous, sea-side fields and up the nasty little creek beds (nasty because they’re deceivingly tough to climb out of, particularly after your tenth one…). We’re getting great reports from both groups, even as they are in areas with limited cell-phone receptivity over the next few days. Lidia sent in the first lovely little candid of several of her girls last night. Rachel and Sam just sent in the second shot of their gang checking out the scene in Arcata, CA this afternoon — having crushed their 40-plus miles before lunch.

And finally, with one and a half States to go, our intrepid ACC Conquerors continue their continental conquest as they work their way up and into Pine, Arizona today. So indomitable is this group that Cait picked up the phone when I called to check in this afternoon — breathless — because she was riding up a mountain. These people mean business! I don’t think the below picture made it into the blog over the last few days. It’s now ancient history, but it’s a great shot of the gang at the Continental Divide on Sunday morning.