Katah-done

Victory!

Sorry to leave you hanging, readers. By now you've probably assumed that we have either finished the trail or fallen to our doom off the side of a mountain. Don't worry, the former is the correct assumption. On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 at around 11:45 AM, we reached out and touched the sign we've been dreaming about ever since we left Springer Mountain, GA on April 3rd. On a windy, foggy day that will most likely go down in history as the most exciting Tuesday of my life, we stood atop Mount Katahdin with 2,184 miles of invaluable experiences, life lessons, and friendships behind us. I now type this post from an air-conditioned apartment in Chicago. I'm wearing a clean(ish) pair of jeans, have a neatly trimmed beard of socially acceptable length, and have showered every day for the past week. It's good to be back.



The Maine Attraction

The view from our campsite on Moxie Pond in Maine

In his last post, Guyline promised a report on the White Mountains and Maine, and by golly you're going to get one.   But first, a few words on where we are today:

We are on the homestretch, friends.   With 114 miles to go, all that stands between us and Katahdin is a great expanse of wood and lakes known as the 100 mile wilderness.   Tomorrow we will throw six days of food and fuel over our sagging shoulders and the next time you hear from us, we will (hopefully) be done with the whole affair.

The last 300 miles or so have been hands down the most physically challenging of our trip.  For northbounders, the White Mountains and southern Maine are built up over months of trail rumors and warnings from southbounders and section hikers.     Nearly everyone tells hikers that the White Mountains of New Hampshire are the hardest and most beautiful section of the AT.  Countless hikers have told us this is their favorite part of the trail.   Not so for Bearcub and Guyline.  I'm going to voice an opinion now that is a bit controversial in the AT community:   I don't like the Whites.   (I suppose that statement is controversial in many communities).

A Day in the Hike

The reward.

The hard work.

I know, I know...our posts are way too infrequent. We get it. I'm going to try to make up for it in this post by generically describing a typical day on the trail. But first I think I should give a quick update on what's going on in our lives. We recently finished the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and we are now about 30 miles into Maine. We have about 250 miles left and we're hoping to get it done in about 18 days, but who's counting? We are. We're so ready to be done. More on the White Mountains and a section of trail in Maine that is infamously known as the most difficult mile of the trail is "soon" to come in a later post, but for now I'll bore you with an example of a typical day on the trail. Maybe after reading this you'll be glad that we don't post more often.