On our way to katahdin

Today we woke up early at Shaws hostel to a giant breakfast. It was very tasty! It was nice to have a large scrumptious meal before the last week of our trip.



As we were eating the infamous trek walked in. I was delighted to see he seemed like a nice chipper old man, until he completely ignored all of us. He was an ass. As we were leaving, we were getting pictures with Gil and dawn and asked if trek would like to get in. He said no, and then dawn said he doesn't like his picture taken, and he responded - from 5 feet away - there are plenty of pictures of me, I'm just doing my laundry now.



Whatever, we couldn't care less about him. So we left the hostel and started up for the trail. Gil told us about a side road he took to follow train tracks for a while and that it was really nice, so we did that to get back to the trail. It was gorgeous when we left and when we were on the tracks, but after we got back on the trail, it started raining on and off. When it wasn't raining, the bugs were out in full force.



Before our shelter, we had to ford a river that had a rope hanging over it because it was fairly deep and moving pretty quickly. That was fun, and once we got to the shelter, we set up camp and relaxed. It has been raining on and off, and a lot of thunder. There was one crack of thunder that actually scared the daylights out of Andy and I. Not to long after, we heard a large tree fall not too far away.



Today, two trail saying came to mind - hike your own hike and, its not about the miles, its about the smiles. We realized to stay out of other peoples hikes as everyone has a different experience, and no one can comment on another hikers trip unless they are there with them.



We talked to Nikki, andys friend who is picking us up at katahdin, and set everything up. We are excited to lop the head off this dragon!

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Almost there

Well last night was hard, but we are almost there. We will be venturing into the hundred mile wilderness tomorrow and finish up this journey soon enough.

We are in a hostel with a south bounder. Its an interesting feeling seeing someone who has just started as we are just about to finish. He is a cool guy and we gave him some information of people who helped us along the way.

The last week begins tomorrow.
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How to describe our feelings right now..

We are mentally strained to the point of insanity. Its like we are in prison locked up with the key dangling in front of us. We are on the brink of going crazy that it actually begins to physically hurt.

Right now we are doing anything we can do to finish as quickly as possible. We are in Maine now and we are going as quick and hard as possible to get this finished.

The hundred mile wilderness is the last hump. That is a hundred miles of dense forest away from any sort of town. Once we complete that we will be 10 miles from the end, but we still have a few days to get to that. Service is spotty out here, but I will do my best to update you guys. Hopefully we be done soon. We can't stand too much longer of this!

The only thing harder than being out here alone, is being Andy and knowing his new girlfriend Danielle is waiting. What a crazy trip.
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What a day

Well we woke up on top of a 5200 foot mountain to rain and the tent violently shaking from the wind. We started walking and made it a couple hours through the raw rain, drenched to the bone, and we decided to go into town as all our clothing was wet and we were freezing. the slippery rocks, my fall, and a rock to andys face helped facilitate that decision as well.

We got down to the road, and a park ranger helped us to town. We are doing our laundry and sleeping in a warm dry room tonight.

Last night was an eventful night. We had a long talk as we were both feeling tired mentally. We both decided that while we need to enjoy this trip, its time for it to end. so, we are going to put our heads down, tighten our boots, and hit the trail as hard as we can. We are going to wake up earlier, go to bed later, and truck as many miles as we can until we finish. We are going to try to finish around the 15th rather than the 20th now, which means about 4 more miles a day. So, I may not post often for the next few days until we are in Maine as I will be too tired.

We will see you in Maine.

Ps congrats on Andy and Danielles rekindled relationship - another outcome of last night.


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Mt lafayette

Well today there was lots of climbing. We woke up and made our way to the trail and luckily didn't have any problems finding it. We knew we had a 4000 foot climb today, so we were a bit apprehensive as to how it would pan out. The thing about the whites is you're never really on a ridge line, so you are going up and down on some really steep mountains; but, to say the least, it is gorgeous.

The climb was tough, and there were some scary steep parts, but on a whole it went well. Before the first of three peaks we went over today, we met and older couple named mr and Mrs going home. They have hiked the trail 2.5 times and are planning to do it again for Mr going homes 80th birthday! They were very nice and we talked to them for a little before starting up to the summit.

When we got to the first summit, we were just under two miles to Lafayette, and for those two miles we were on an exposed ridge line - it was awesome. We could see what we were going to climb before hand, and it was just a nice change of scenery.

We finally got to Lafayette and there was a little corner in what looks to be an old foundation and we decided to camp there. Technically its not legal, but its ok - were thru hikers! We walked down a steep side path to fill up on water after talking to a group of people out for the day. After we came back up, a guy walked over to us and asked if we wanted some carrot cake, so obviously we jumped at the offer. It was marks 50th birthday, and he was spending it on this gorgeous mountain. We talked to them for a while and another guy named Jeff gave us power bars and the rest chipped in with carrots and m&ms! So it was a good day. We also met a woman who was running a loop that is part of a local search and rescue team, and hopefully we won't need to see her soon!

This is by far the best campsite we have had. To our right we see Washington and where we will be going, and to our left we can see mooseilauke and where we came from and behind us is a raven nest.

As gorgeous as this is, we are feeling the length of this trip. We grow tired, but hopeful to finish well.
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So it begins!

Hiked today: 15.1
Hiked total: 1798.0
To katahdin: 373.3

Today we got a late start, but we had a good sleep and it was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny. Allie Matt and Victor left half hour before us to summit moosilauke but we caught up with them soon.

The accent was a 3500 foot accent in four miles. It got fairly steep at some parts, but for the most part it was pretty consistent. Andy was ahead of me, so we both hiked that section alone, I was only ten minutes behind at the end though. A few hundred feet before the summit, there was a very flat section, and I got really excited since I could see the top. It was memorial day, so there were tons of people on the trail, and I blew right passed them all! I met up with Andy at the top and boy was it windy! It was amazing. I had my poles in front of me going up hill so I wouldn't be blown over, it was insane! It was so exciting and beautiful though.

After half hour at the summit, we started our decent. We stopped at the shelter for a little to leave a note to the three we spent the night with, and met some new guys. We hung out with them for a while, and then started what's supposed to be the steepest 1.4 miles on the trail - that was interesting. There were logs bolted into the stone and metal bars as hand railing because it was so steep. It took us a full hour to go down it.

Once we were off, we went into town to resupply and get some food. Unfortunately, money is tight now, and we couldn't stuff our face at the diner like usual. So, we each got a chicken, macaroni/potato salad, bread, and juice to have for lunch. After re supplying for basically the rest of new Hampshire, we started to get back to the trail.

It took forever to get a hitch. We were right in front of this tourist place, and we saw our first bear! Unfortunately, it was in a pen for bear shows, but we did see one! Just as we were about to give up on a hitch for the night, a crazy guy picked us up. He was awesome. He was wolfman for the tourist place and looked the part! He dropped us off and we started to search for the trail. We couldn't find it. We walked all over looking, but had no idea as to where it was! About an hour goes by and its getting dark, and I pull up a map on my phone to see the trail being called the cascade brook trail. So we follow the signs to that, angrily telling the woods its the APPALACHIAN trail and to get it right on the signs.

We set up camp for the night and will resume tomorrow. Unfortunately, after tomorrow, there will be three days of heavy rain. We will be going over the presidentials. Who knows what that will be like - may be snow and ice at that altitude. We look forward to continuing the whites, but are wary of the weather.
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Welcome to the whites

Hiked today: 21.0
Hiked total: 1780.9
To katahdin: 397.4

This morning we woke up and packed up. We slept in again, as we have enjoyed doing lately, and slowly made our way to the trail.

The hike was a little crazy as it started raining like crazy and did so until noon. We were fairly wet and a little chilly. It was a fairly uneventful hike though. We needed to get some food, but didn't want resupply for a full 4 days because we didn't want to carry a full load over moosilauke. So we got one ride from a guy in a pick up truck to the main road. After walking a little while, a guy in a direct tv truck passed us then turned around and came to pick us up and being us into town.

While in town, we ate and got a days worth of food and went to get back on the trail. A guy offered to drive us to the trail. So we took his ride, and went to the trail.

When we got to the trail, we hiked a mile to the shelter. We set up and then went to a giant river near by where we were going to swim. However, it was freezing, and lots of mosquitoes, so we just filled up our water and left.

When we got back to the shelter, there were three people our age there; allie, Matt, and victor. They were out for a few days before they start summer jobs. It was funny because they were day students at a boarding school nmh used to play against, and they knew people from around andys area. So we hung out with them and victor and Andy played guitar and we had a good night.

Now we have just entered the whites, and tomorrow we have a very big climb. We are excited, but also bummed because my camera batteries died and the charger which I was supposed to get in Boston never made it there. So we have a disposable camera. Into the real mountaineering stuff tomorrow!
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