Were Thru with this Hike

We made it! Who would have thought that after starting our trip on Springer Mountain during one of the most rainy summers in recorded history and walking through many chronic injuries that 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days after we would be standing on Katahdin in Maine.


After finishing a late day of hiking when we left Stratton, Me (hitching apparently becomes more difficult late in the thru-hiker season) Stew ran into the Jersey guys on the North face of the Bigelow range and caught up before getting to camp at dark. The terrain after the Bigelows was much more moderate and low lying so we ended up camping on several lakes, ponds and rivers (beautiful spots) and passing several more. Despite the cold nights I even managed to go for a short freezing swim in a pond while doing what we thought was going to be our last load of laundry for the trip. The whole way through, we only caught a single day of light drizzle on our way to Monson, Me (the last stop before the hundred mile wilderness and Baxter Park). Although we only had about 6 days left till Big K, we decided that a pit stop with my old Alma Mater at Umaine would be an excellent last day off. Luckily my friend Mark was only a short drive away since he was visiting his home in Dover, Me, so we went from trail to dinner in a matter of minutes. When we arrived at school, we stayed with my buddies Matt and Luke for both nights and Matt was nice enough to drop us off at the foot of the wilderness with our last ressuply before the Mountain.

When you cross over into the Hundred Mile wilderness you are greeted with a scary sign that reads:

"CAUTION. IT IS 100 MILES SOUTH TO THE NEAREST TOWN AT MONSON. THERE ARE NO PLACES TO OBTAIN SUPPLIES OR HELP UNTIL MONSON. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS SECTION UNLESS YOU HAVE A MINIMUM OF 10 DAYS SUPPLIES AND ARE FULLY EQUIPPED. THIS IS THE LONGEST WILDERNESS SECTION OF THE ENTIRE AT AND ITS DIFFICULTY SHOULD NOT BE UNDERESTIMATED. GOOD HIKING! MATC"

Unfortunately, ten days of food for a thru hiker weighs about 25 pounds dry (which seems even heavier after over 2,000 miles) and Stew and I didn't really feel like hiking 10 mile days, ending our days before noon, so we ended up planning for about 4 days for us to go through the wilderness and then just a 10 mile walk to Abol Bridge and the Park. There were a few good climbs in the wilderness, and some great rocky summits early on, but the overall flatter terrain was very welcome on our tired, 22 turned 90 year-old knees. Unfortunately all of the views of Katahdin were clouded by fog the entire way through, so we never got to see the massif until entering Abol Bridge the day before summit day, but that just made it even more exciting to know that somewhere out there was the end of this journey. Overall the hiking was easy through the wilderness and the river fords (in reality there was just one real ford) were very manageable. It rained on and off during one of the days there which was very cold and we had a few nights that hovered around freezing, but at this point it's really impossible to complain about rain since we had lucked out for almost two whole states.

On summit day we met up with my father, uncle, sister, and friends from Umaine and all set out at about 8am for our final and largest climb of the trip (but hey only a ten mile day). After all the hype about the enormity of this mountain we expected to leave it feeling a bit let down, but all the hype proved well deserved; one of best on the trail by far. Although a class 3 day with multiple trail closures, the summit was clear. However once above treeline that mid- 60 degree weather day changed very rapidly with the wind and altitude with some snow and ice left over from the day before (good thing for the day off that stalled us one day). Although not every body had the time to summit that day, all of my family members were able to make it up (my sister climbing with strep throat we found out, what a trooper) along with my friends Matt and Brian. The day was soon coming to a close, so we gazed out briefly from the summit and trail terminus and headed down the great mountain. What a day. By this time we were greeted by Stew's parents who had the great foresight to bring some Long Trail beer for the end and we had our last talks with a few new members of the thru-hikers class of 2009.

Although the number of Trail Angels we met this trip were more numerous than we had ever expected, with out every person along the way, our long journey would have seemed like even more of an arduous task. I know I can speak for both Stew, Jeph, as well as all the other thru- hikers on the trail when I say that your help and especially your kindness was one of the greatest parts of this hike. There are very few people (I have not met one) that walk away from the AT without a renewed sense of humanity; we are no exception. So from all of us: thank you, for everything.


So, with our finish with one day left of our first summer after college we had taken a plane to Georgia, a train out of the city, a car to Springer Mt. walked on foot to 1900 miles to Maine, hitched in cars, on the backs of trucks, even clinging to boat trailers, taken a boat across the Kennebec River, eaten hundreds of gas station pastries donuts and fast food burgers, walked hundreds of miles through the most isolated section of the trail, most of the time alone and sometimes with friends, through rain, hail, lightning, wind, sun, cold, hot and fog, all to climb a single mountain in the middle of nowhere in Maine and take a long drive late in the night back home. After all that, I'm not sure what the hell is wrong with us, but I do know it was worth every moment.

Thanks again to our family and friends for supporting us so much on this trip. Even in the farthest stretches of the trail, you helped us feel a bit closer to home.

Maine, the way life just happens to be for 281.4 miles

Wow,

it's been too long since I've gotten a chance to update this thing. a lot has happened since I last posted in CT, but we're closing in on the end of this long journey very soon. After CT we took a few zero days off in Mass with friends and family then went straight through the Vermont rain in time to catch Alden and Bret at the Long Trail Brewing Factory in Rutland (awesome). After Vermont we met up with our friend Craig for a day of hiking and had great weather through New Hampshire aside from getting caught by the tropical storm Danny on Mt. Kinsman which forced an early zero day for us that week.

Unfortunately when we got to Mt. Laffeyette Jeph decided that he had had enough hiking, so he left us at Crawford Notch just before the presidentials. Stew and I both miss Jeph on this trip and the first several days were quite off without him. We also seemed to get out of camp earlier (just kidding Jeph, but seriously). After crawford notch we thought we would challenge ourselves by traversing the presidentials in a day, which we did, but not until after sunset that night. The climb into the Carter range the morning after was not nearly as easy as we were hoping, especially since we needed our full packs for the traverse. A day later we found ourselves in Maine and at the foot of the Mahoosics where we met up with my dad, Nick abnd Greene for some excellent hiking through the famed Mahoosic Notch (the hardest mile on the AT). Although I would not call it the hardest mile, it was certainly slower moving through the rock tumble, and it made for a fun afternoon. Since then Stew and I have been motoring through the state and have not let up on pace much at all. Today we summited Crocker Mt. and will finish our day somewhere over the Bigelows since it looks like the weather will hold. After that we cross the Kennebec River by Kayak and we can expect to finally be out of the highlands of Maine (which our knees will thank us for). It will be about 3 days for us to Monson,
Maine at the start of the hundred mile wilderness, and this will be our last resupply before ending up in Baxter Park. The hiking the past week and a half has been absolutely beautiful, rough but beautiful. I can't wait for the infamous river fordes that are coming up in the next few days, the dry weather has moderated a lot of the ones we have crossed so far.

Lastly, we got to see a few moose in the state. I was happy to finally see them after living 4 years here and not seeing a single buck.

I'll try to update just before the hundred mile wilderness, I can't wait to see everyone when we get back. Summit day so far is looking like Saturday September 19th. Wait... this thing ends?!

Tristate Takedown!

O.K, so since the mayor's house we experienced the rest of Jersey (which actually had some small, but scenic climbs) and went straight into New York for a couple days where we met up with Alden, Bret, and Neville! We got to stay at the luxurious Tuxedo Motel (there's actually a town named tuxedo, complete with it's own tuxedo police that we want to be a part of) and spent most of our zero day at Lake Tiatori. It was actually the first time this entire trip that we have gone swimming, very relaxing/ sad since our upper body strength has diminished quite a bit. After that we spent our last night with the folks at the Franciscan Monk Spiritual life softball field, and had them drop us off at Bear Mt. to restart our hike. It was quite a sight to see indigenous animals at the NY zoo the trail passes through, and more people than we have seen in one place in months! So far I think New Yorkers have the most entertaining reactions to where we have traveled from; everything from "Get-da [expletive] outta hear" to "why da hell you doin' that?!". One woman in Connecticut simply kissed Stewy's zombie foot and blessed it with the power of God for the rest of the trip (It's as odd as it sounds, you don't wanna kiss that foot man).

The rest of NY was quite nice, with some decent climbs and very well maintained trails, actually less road walking than PA if you can believe it. CT has surprised all of us with some very good climbs, and some of the first real views we have seen since Virginia really. Today we stopped in the very expensive town of Salisbury to grab some overpriced food for our last ressuply (aside from lunch in Dalton, Ma) to Mt. Greylock near North Adams, Ma where we plan to meet with Jeff's folks after a longer 28 mile day. So some of you may be seeing us as soon as this Friday when we drive back east for the weekend (I know, two days off, crazy stuff). We are finally stepping down our miles a bit since we are finally in a safe place for scheduling and I have to admit it has been nice being able to sit for more than ten minutes after eating before falling asleep.

Hope to see as many of you as possible when we head east! Your support for us has been one of the few constants (aside from hiking) this entire trip! Thank you so much.

PS: Thanks again to Stew's parents for the maps and food when we got to Bear Mt. and thank you Sam for the Biscotti

Knock 'em Down

Hey everyone!

we made it through the Maryland Challenge just fine; 42 miles. The day started bright and early at 4am and we took a taxi from our hotel room back to the Patomac River to the border. We made good time thoughout the day while still taking our time to have breaks at 16.5, 28, and 36 miles into the day before the finish. On our last break we saw a single black bear in the state before hitting PenMar park, and getting hit by a thunderstorm for the last few hours before Pennsylvania (good way to end a long day). Surprisingly, it didn't seem like our hardest day, just long. After walking into the state of PA, we discovered it was getting dark and that 42 miles tires you out a bit, so we decided not to hike 5 more miles to the shelter and went back into the park where we slept on an empty ampitheator during the rest of the storm (another great hobo moment).

The first section of PA was realy nice; extremely well maintained and the shelters were some of the best we've seen on the trail. After the halfway point (temporary) sign at an old civil war jail ruin we all tried our luck at the Half gallon challenge in Pinegrove state park where you eat a half gallon of icecream to celebrate the halfway mark. Jeph got close (Moosetrack) but was stopped by a solid wall of chocolate. Stewy ate about half, but was eating very very well early in the day and didn't have the normal hunger he usually does (strawberry twirl) and I completed my cherry jubilee in 22 minutes (thinking about a gallon challenge at Katahdin).

The hiking after that was very flat with lots of field walking (beautiful) and road walking (lame-o). Still we made fiarly good time through the state waiting for the "bad" PA rocks to begin. It turns out the lore of the infamous rocks is mostly myth until the last 100 miles where the rocks get MUCH more consistant and pointy. It didn't help that we had our longest days in that section, with a few 30 mile days and a 35 mile day. The whole time in the state we caught 1.5 days of sun and the rest was rain and storms. The last storm slowed us down by a day and we had to stay in a cheap motel to dry our things since the night before we all pretty much slept completely waterlogged (I slept in my boots to keep my toes warm, funky). Some weekenders decided it would be to much to squeeze jeph and I into the 6 person shelter with the 3 of them (next time we will not be as cordial). After that though we had luck with an 8 person shelter when we fit 11 of us including a family into it to stay out of the rain. We missed most of the few views we would have seen because of the storms, but ran into lots of Rattlesnakes along the way (not many other animals because of the lax hunting laws in PA). Still out of PA in 10 days isn't bad.

At Delaware water gap we stayed in a church hostel and ate authentic philly cheesesteaks that were huge and delicious at the town's diner. We had our last 31 miles day for a while to start out NJ where it also rained the whole time. The rocks from PA did not stop there, and only yesterday decided to start letting up to normal levels. Also, most of the trails were flooded out by storms, and we spent most of our time wading through mud and tall grass becuase of the poorly maintained trails. Luckily we got word from a southbounder that a small section of trail was blowndown by a tornado that hit Unionville and we managed to avoid it by walking down the "old" AT which ran parrallel to the trail down a rural NJ road.

We're in NY for the next couple hours at the ex-mayor's house which I can only explain as one of the most refreshing experiences we have had out here. Hot shower, laundry (which we didn't get a chance to do), pasta, dessert, Budweizer, and breakfast in the morning were all we needed to feel human again after a long week and a half of trudging. There is a lot to say about the operation here and it is all hard to fit into words, but basically the old mayor decided to statt taking in hikers a few years ago to honor his wife that died some years ago. Apparently when we was mayor he recalled running into these strange quiet people that smelled and looked like hell, but seemed happier than ever and his wife said "wouldn't it be nice if we were broken down on the side of the road and someone stopped to help us out". Wouldn't it be nice? It is in honor of this notion that he decided to host over 1500 thru hikers the past two years into his home and take respite from the trail.

More to come later! We will be meeting alden and the guys at Bear Mt. in NY tommorow afternoon for our zero day.

PS-slackpacking is where you basically hike a section without your normal backpack, just the simple fod and water stuff.

Zero Day in Harpers Ferry

So we're back in the ATC center in Harpers Ferry, WV about to get our photos taken for the class of 2009 thru- hikers' register. Last night we stayed at the Northgate Inn in Charlestown WV, and plan on staying there again tonight so that we can get some decent sleep for our hiker tommorow. It looks like the Maryland Challenge, or 4 state challenge (crossing through four states in a day) is going to be about 44-47 miles depending on whether we decide to push to the first shelter in PA, or just crash on the border. Either way I think we're going to be on trail at about 5am and getting in to camp maybe around 8pm (that's a total guess, I have no clue how long 44 miles takes to hike). Oh yeah, in the register we are the 694,695 and 695th thru-hikers to reach Harpers Ferry this year, although that includes section hikers and a few folks that we know yellow-blazed from Damascus where we last passed them (shame). Apparently we still have some hurdles to climb though since about 337 northbounders made it all the way yesterday. Still, I'm pretty psyched to have 50% odds against us at this point and not 80% against us when we started in Georgia. Surprisingly, the time has flown by, and the miles have gone even quicker.

The Shanandoahs were a very different experience for us since it included about 100 miles of trail with several wayside food kiosks, gas stations and day tourists. The trail also interesects with the road 23 times and follows alongside it for several miles. Actually aside from being satiated all time from the fresh wayside burgers, the Shanandoahs were not our favorite hiking. Most of the best views are actually roadside and not on the trail (which is normally 20 feet to one side of the road). However we did get to see 11 bear in the Shanandoahs and a crazy amount of very people friendly deer (or at least not people phobic). Actually one deer near camp our third night in was trying to pick a fight with stew, but realized it was probably a bad choice (we're often hungry). We also had our first 30 mile day in the range and we were actually able to celebrate with some nice cold beer hiked in from the Skyline drive parkway at the end of the day. Our last night in the Shanandoahs after the 30 mile day was possibly our oddest yet. When coming into camp for the evening we discovered we had a cute shelter cat (Mufasa) to drive away the mice. The cat looked well fed (probably from hikers) and clean, so we all thought it was great, until the cat died later that night next to stewy's head. We have not idea why, possibly a snake bite. Either way, it made for an odd breakfast the next day when I had to dispose of it, but we honored the cat by changing the shelter's name from Gravel Springs Hut to Mufasa Springs Hut. RIP mufasa.

Right after the Shanandoahs we met up with Stews parents Mr. and Mrs. Stewy at Front Royal where we were able to resupply mostly off of the extra food we brought with us to Stews relatives house in Georgia (Thanks for bringing it up to NC!)

Apparently, Virginia is not only for lovers, but also for TONS of black berries and raspberries. The last 150 miles of the state (especially the last 50) had enough berries to pick them on the fly while hiking. Snacks hav never been better.



Currently we are headed off to the outfitter for some new shoes for Stew since the ones he has right now are the bane of his existance and to try out my new superfeet insoles which hopefully I won't have to duct tape every day to keep from wearing through. Thanks for the package mom! Also, that spam is going to be the cats pajamas after a month of noodles.

Virginia...CHECK!

This is just a quick location update, but we went over the infamous viginia "rollercoaster" this morning (actually not really that bad at all, just viewless and annoying) and got into Harpers Ferry West Virginia a little before 2pm. Although we were not always hiking together today, all of us decided to run the last few miles after seeing the "Harpers Ferry National Park" sign. Now we're sitting cool in the ATC headquarters and probably off to some kind (any kind) of food! I will post up tommorow during our zero day about the rest of Virginia and what we've done in town.

PS: I wouldn't worry too much about low sodium (even though we sweat rediculously). Each one of those ramen packets has about a 1/3 daily value and 3 of those is usually a dinner. I'm pretty sure we get about 500% of the normal intake.

Journey to Waynes World!

hey everyone!



Sorry I have not been able to post in a while. Most of the towns we have been through in the past couple weeks are lucky to even have a post office within hitching distance of the trail. We have had a lot of "gas station ressupplies" which is actually alright since we have discovered a tastey 50 cent hunny bun treat that packs a whopping 680 calories. Our lunches these days consist of mostly pastries, gold fish and GORP since they actually are more calorie rich than ther expensive clif bar brand counterpart.



Anyway, our walk through Virginia has been mostly sunny with some very warm days. We were told they were in the 90's, but it hard to tell when you just sweat all the time as a normal part of the day. We've been rained on three times this entire state, some of which we had to walk through some nasty thunderstorms, but that is still about 2.5 less weeks of rain that we experienced through GA, N.C, and T.N. I think Virgnia has easily been our most enjoyable hiking yet. Despite the rumors from old thru hikers though, Virginia is very much NOT flat. Especially over the last three days we have seen some climbs that could give the whie mountains a run for their money (two days ago we had hiked a range that was only slightly less vertical change than the N.H. presidential range in the same distance). Early on there was certainly a lot more field walking which was nice since we spent most of the time in N.C and Georgia walking through tunnels of endless rodadendrons. The Grayson highlands were absolutely beautiful and we spent most of the time goofing around with wild ferrel ponies and cows (caution ponies DO bite). After that we spent most of early central virginia in viewless ridgeline walks (but easy) and this past week the terrain has been much more difficult with some significant rock scrambles (our boots have certainly noticed that change).

Another change in our planning has come in the form of all you can eat diners, which are what we plan our town trips around now so that we can keep our calorie intake high (stew and I lost a bit more weight, Jeff is a couple pounds less than Hot Springs). Our mileage has significantly jumped up however, and most days this week we have been averaging 24-27 miles a day. At the foot of the Shanandoahs in Waynesboro, VA we hope to average about the same milage (maybe more since the terrain is easy) and hopefully be in Front Royal in 4 days and in Harpers Ferry in about 6 days total (the 1,000 mile mark). From there we go through 41 miles of Maryland and we're hoping to do the "Maryland Challenge" by pushing through the state all in one day, so that we cross through three states to P.A. The first town in P.A. is also called Waynesboro, so we will be dubbing this section the Journey to Waynes World: Northern Edition.

The virginia bears have been much more scarce but existant, and the deer here seem to not mind our presence at all. For some reason though, the squirells here are paranoid as hell and take off running even if your quite far away (still can't figure out why). We have run into a few more large snakes since Damascus, but not really any more Rattlers to speak of.

In health news, we are all doing a bit better than before. Stew's shins seem to be slowly returning to normal (he is hiking 25 miles a day) and Jeff and I are in good health. Really the only persistant problem seems to be the foot pain the comes from hiking all the time in very bloated feet. In short I'm very gald we have our flip flops for camp when the swelling is at its peak. However, this is something we came to expect and is very common with thru-hikers, especially ones that make it this far.

It's really great to hear from all of you and don't hesistate to give us updates on what is happening back at home. We all miss our friends and family very much. Our first planned zero day should be in Harpers Ferry, and then again some time after Pennsylvania (New York?). It's crazy to be finally seeing the end of this continent (of virginia) very soon. It still seems like we just arrived in Abingdon.

Last night I think we came our closest to hobo-dom when we camped out behind the YMCA in town in our poncho-tarp shanties (it felt pretty sweet). Since we got in we have managed to hit up a reluctant all you can eat chinese resturant (I'm not sure they knew what they were in for) and a small town AYCE pancake diner which was excellent. Also, I'm not sure how many pictures I'll be able to upload on this tiny library computer, but I'm going to try and post up as many as I can while we are in town.

By the way, what's with all the B-list celebrities dying off this month. It's so odd to be out on the trail for this whole time than hear a random boy scout leader tell us of Billy Mays' death and other people we forgot to keep tabs on. Despite Americas loss however, we must press on. See you guys in hopefully less than a week!