Hot Springs, NC

This past weekend Mike, Mel, Lisa & Papa hiked from Max Patch, NC to Hot Springs, NC where Mimi, Amos & I were waiting with a warm cabin for them. I was supposed to join, but decided that I had nothing to prove to anyone & knew that I'd be absolutely miserable in the knee deep snow - so I bailed. Give me 100 degree temps & I'm one happy hiker / camper...none of this below freezing nonsense. (:

 

P O R T L A N D & B O S T O N

Well folks, the AT is OVER (: After our lovely time at Brock's cousin's lake house, we parted ways. Mike & I headed to Boston while Brock hung back with his family so he could catch a flight home for a wedding. Mike literally woke up in a state of panic our first morning in Boston, thinkin' we'd lost Brock. I can already tell this "recovery process" is going to be a long one. I wouldn't be one bit surprised if I wake up one morning in the near future to find Upstate & Loop in their tents in the back yard. Seriously.

Before we headed to Boston we took a few hours to explore Portland! Mike had never been & it's been such a long time since I have - we decided "why not?!". We loved it. [But then again, there are very few places that I've been and not loved...] It reminded us of an Eastern Seattle. The streets were lined with little shops, flavorful restaurants, fresh lobsters, gelato, and so much more. We'd slept late & eaten a late breakfast in hopes of catching up with some friends from SC who actually live in Portland for lunch. However, there was a slight miscommunication, so we ate lunch in town and caught a quick visit with them on our way out. Out of all of the delicious places to choose from to eat - can you guess where Mike chose to eat lunch?! Five Guys! Can't beat a Five Guys burger. [Oh, my little creature of habit (: ] We fairly scarfed down these burgers and headed to a park to catch JD on his way into work. After a few minutes of chatting we let him run in so he wouldn't be late & headed over to see his wife, Nicole & baby boy, Caleb. They were so sweet to take us to the coast to see a real live light house before we had to go! What a treat! We decided we'd take the "back way" from Portland to Boston - so we could avoid the tolls [don't get me started] and enjoy the scenery. We made it to Concord around 9 PM and quickly got settled into our cozy, comfy room at the Colonial Inn. We got a great deal & it was only a short drive to catch the T into Boston so we could avoid the traffic mess. After we threw our stuff down we lazed around watching movies 'til the wee hours of the morning.

We'd have loved to sleep in, but Boston was calling. We breakfasted at the Inn - yummy goodness in our bellies before heading out to catch the T. If you understand my love of travel and the fact that we don't have anything like the T where I live - you know I was pretty excited about it. Even if we had to pay $7 [which I know is cheap considering] for parking. I loved sitting on the T watching people who live there and others like ourselves hop on and off at the different stops while we waited not so patiently for the "Downtown Crossing" stop. Once off the T, we strolled around for a bit, soaking it all in. We knew we wanted to walk the Freedom Trail, visit the Union Oyster House - America's Oldest Restaurant [est. 1826] & the Green Dragon Tavern [est. 1654], but since the Red Sox [YUCK!] were out of town & we couldn't catch a game, that was about it. After wandering throughout the city for a while, we headed over to Union Oyster House, but kept on walkin' because it was a little expensive for lunch ... and very crowded. We quickly found the Green Dragon and decided it was perfect. Mike ordered a whopping platter of fish & chips while I had the Benjamin Franklin, "a  no nonsense burger served plain & simple." Delish. (: Since we'd probably consumed 1000+ calories in this one sitting, which is NOT okay since we aren't hikers any more, we decided we'd better start the Freedom Trail. Don't judge...we only did about half of it, because you had to cross a bridge to get to the other half & you know, after walking 1000+ miles, it just wasn't worth it. We have been told we picked the wrong half to skip. Oh well, we'll just have to go back! (: We did see Paul Revere's house, Copp's Hill burying ground, and the Old North Church. Other parts we saw from afar as we were busy shopping. We thoroughly enjoyed Boston. Mike & I agreed we both liked it better than NYC - it had more of a cozy feel [if you can say that of a big city]. There were several streets that cars didn't drive down, so I could stand in the middle of the street and take pictures (: and I LOVED Little Italy. It really, really reminded me of Italy. [go figure] I could've stayed there for days. We skipped out on dinner in the city mainly because we weren't sure of the T times and we were pretty exhausted. Plus, we were staying in historic Concord so we thought we'd better take advantage of that. We hit a local pizza joint...ehhh, the pizza was okay and the tiramisu was lack-luster. Oh well, live and learn. When you have legit Italian, don't leave it if you want legit pizza & tiramisu. By the time dinner was over, it'd started raining so we had to walk back to the Inn in the rain. At least we weren't walking to a shelter with our packs on (: Again, we watched movies galore - a simple pleasure - before finally going to sleep.

Our next stop was Betsy's house, in PearisburgMmmmmmmm I think I'm going to enroll in Betsy's School of Southern Cooking! [I wish] After dinner we got to hang out with Besty & Larry and entertain them with stories from the trail for a little while before zonking out. I almost had to carry Mike from the couch to the bed he was so tired! We slept and we slept and we slept [for about 12 hours]. When we finally drug ourselves out of bed Betsy had run to the store to pick up all the fixin's for breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon & some homemade sourdough bread with homemade peach preserves hit.the.spot. Yummm!! Betsy runs a hundred miles an hour, so while Mike & I sat at her bar, she was busy makin' pickles. She explained the process to us & got me really interested in canning - that'll be an adventure to take on this fall. We loved our time with Besty & told her to hold off on missing us because we'd be back in just a few short weeks for the family reunion. As it goes when you're traveling, you never know what other crazies on the road will be doing, so we ended up having a 2+ hour detour - making our 4 hour ride home about 7 hours. Blah -- but, it is good to be home! We're still enjoying our "early retirement" (: with a week at the beach and some good time at the lake with friends on the agenda. We'll be working our way out of this early retirement soon - but more on that later!

P O R T L A N D 

B O S T O N

P E A R I S B U R G

100 miles of wilderness, the final climb, and everything after

Folks at home!  Upstate here.  Where do I start??  Well, I reckon I'll start by saying "WE'RE DONE!!"  As a matter of fact, we've been done since Friday, August 5th at about 2pm.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your support--I can't imagine having done this without all of the help that we've received from you folks.  I've totally let the blogging slide over the past few days as we've been doing a whole lot of nothing.  Catch up time!

After spending a lovely zero day in Monson, Maine (Loop and the rest of the guys at the hostel splashed around the lake and ate the northern interpretation of Bar-B-Q while I spent the day laying around and puking up some lousy haddock-fish from the night before), Caboose slung us out at the Hwy15 parking area to take our first 29-mile chip out of the infamous "100 Miles of Wilderness."  Loop, Tiger and I paused momentarily (approx. half a mile into the woods) to read and reflect upon the sign that read something to the key of "DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE NEXT 100 MILES...CARRY 10 DAYS WORTH OF FOOD...VERY REMOTE...VERY DANGEROUS...GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL, ETC."  We took a few pictures (smiling like Cheshire Cats) shrugged and casually walked onward--not one of us carrying more than a few snack bars and about a liter of water (Loop actually elected to go completely au-natural with no pack whatsoever).  An onlooker might have thought, "wow, those guys are completely unprepared, mentally handicapped and will most likely die."  But, we knew something that other hikers whom we passed throughout the morning did not.  We had an ace in the hole (if you will)--a 4x4 vehicle and an incredibly capable support driver who could navigate logging roads, in some cases more than 30 miles from the nearest paved road, infiltrating the remotest part of the wilderness to bring us a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich.  Oh, Caboose, we salute you and your trusty, gas station $20 Maine atlas.  Your willingness to get out there and beat Edmund to a pulp is more than any mere wilderness can keep at bay.  Haha, seriously though--she was fantastic.  With her and the truck in the equation, we were able to carve the daunting 100 miles into 3 1/2 easily palatable days of walking.  The road support was an even bigger blessing when our last week of weather was stinking wet.  I may have just quit the whole trip if we'd been 5 days soaking wet with packs full of mildewy tents, sleeping bags, etc. That's only kindof a joke.  The weather is much less of a morale killer if your tents are set up and waiting for you when you roll in after dark in the rain.  So anyway, with Caboose's help, the wilderness went by as silently and peacefully as it came, and before we knew it we were emerging onto a dirt road with the whole thing behind us.  Initially, we had planned on hiking all the way to the foot of Katahdin on Thursday, leaving a short 5 mile climb up on Friday, but our hour-long break at the convenience store (after we popped out of the wilderness) provided us with more than enough time to rationalize why stopping early for the day was a good idea.  And you know, it actually ended up saving our hides.  Had we hiked the additional 10 miles into Baxter State Park to the base of Katahdin, we would have had to be dropped off at the park in the morning.  No big deal right?  WRONG!  Unbeknown to us, on an average summer morning with good weather, Baxter can easily reach capacity and start turning folks away at the gate by 7am!  We know this because our friend Kiddo had walked into the park the night before (like we had planned to) and was denied entry to the park on Friday morning.  This girl walked 2175 miles from Georgia, and was told to "come back tomorrow."  What a bummer!!  We, on the other hand, parked the truck just outside of the park, walked the ten miles into the park (Caboose included) and were able to summit Katahdin on the technicality that we didn't have a vehicle (I guess it's kindof hard to tell folks that just walked ten miles to turn around and go home).  I like to think that this blog is a fairly educational and scholarly source, so I'd like to point out the important lesson that is to be learned here:  procrastination and overall laziness CAN, just occasionally, work to your absolute advantage.  Sometimes the over-achievers get the raw deal.

So, up Katahdin we went.  True to form, we started about seven minutes before the cut off time.  Haha, most folks must start their ascent by 6:00am.  We calmly assured the ranger that we were in no danger of failing to be back down by 5:00pm with an 11:00am start.  Once again though, the day hiker clothes and absence of thru-hiker funky smell weren't helping our cause to convince the unknowing ranger of our qualifications.  "5 miles and 4,500ft," I thought, "Pffff, we can get on top of that in 2 hours."  (The signs at the park recommend allotting 5 or 6 hours one way?!?! Haha, I'm no superstar, but this estimate must have been made with the absolute worst case scenario in mind...oh, and the most arthritic and un-athletic 98-year-old hiker.)  The hike quickly turned into a rock-scrambly climb (sometimes surprisingly vertical and dangerous) and we realized with a strange satisfaction that ole Katahdin had no intentions of letting its reputation as the trail's most technical climb down.  I say that we were happy about this because when you reach the end of something so long, you almost want it to go out with a real BANG!  We weren't disappointed.  When hand and footholds weren't available, pieces of rebar had been soldered into the rock.  It reminded me of a jungle gym at times--so much fun!  Spirits were sky-high as we passed the crux of the climb.  The ground leveled-out considerably about two miles from the summit, and Loop and I enjoyed entertaining Caboose by re-enacting scenes from The Matrix as we strolled over the gradually inclining, barren rock leading to the tip-top.  I don't know why, but Keanu Reeves' acting prowess has been the mainstay of conversation (when time needs filling) for the many-month duration of this trip.  When the woods grew close around the trail, we had to simply settle for a husky-voiced, "I know Kung Fu."  But, when space permits, there's nothing quite so gratifying as role-playing the final fight scene where Neo comes back to life and pummels the agents.  Sorry, I totally geeked out there.  Geek out complete.

I can't describe the feeling that I had (I'm sure it was pretty similar for Loop and Caboose) when I caught sight of the sign sitting on top of the Mountain that I've been pursuing for the past 5 months.  I'd like to write something really poetic, but the reality is that it felt mostly like finishing a task and ending a chapter.  I could almost feel the trip and the last 5 months slide away.  Wild.  Everything we know is fleeting.  Even the most difficult, the most crooked and the seemingly-never-ending are only here for a little while.  I don't mean this to sound melancholy, because the truth is that I'm glad to be through with this adventure, but it does have a bittersweet taste.  It's just hard to imagine, when it's raining and 33 degrees and you're wet and cold and hungry and you've got 1800 miles to go, that you'll blink and be standing at the end of your journey with the sun on your face, looking back on weeks and weeks of just pushing-on.  Do I even need to point out the lesson to be learned here?  Life's awfully short folks.  And we can sure spend a lot of the time we've been given here wishing that we were in a different situation.  Be very careful though--it's only here for a little while.

We high-fived and hugged and laughed (surprisingly, no tears were shed) and took a bunch of pictures and hugged some more and called home and coated each other with the contents of an insanely cheap bottle of champagne, and then we walked down and left the mountain behind us.  It felt good and right and complete to finally be walking away from Mt. Katahdin.  Kiddo really won the gold star friend award by driving our truck around to the front gate of the park so that we could hitch an easy ride out of the park and back to Edmund after hiking down.  Thanks again Kiddo, and congrats on knocking out those 2,181 miles!

It was right around 5:00 by the time Loop, Tiger, Caboose and I made it to the truck (what with hiking down, sitting around, hitching a 5-mile ride @ 20mph out of the park, etc.), so we loaded up quickly and made a B-line to hwy 95.  We were mainly eager to pay lots of tolls, but also eager to grab some food in Bangor (approx. 70 miles south) and get on down to the Portland area to drop Tiger off and head toward Little Ossipee Lake for a few days with Loop's family.  Quick quiz:  What did the hikers choose as a celebration meal?  Was it A)Top quality seafood from a coastal region? B)Juicy Steaks at a Porterhouse? or C)Lots and lots and lots of chips and salsa and burritos and rice and beans at a Mexican joint?  If you guessed A or B, you haven't been following this blog at all!  We got in too late to hang out on Friday night, but had a blast with Loop's cousins on Saturday and Sunday, dock-sitting, steak eating, skiing, kayaking, swimming, movie-watching, rummy-playing, etc. Thank you again Ed, Jeanne, Kerry and Missy for letting us crash your place!  Every thru-hike should unwind this way!!

That catches you folks up.  Caboose and I parted ways with Loophole on Monday morning and drove back into Portland to explore the town a bit.  We got to see some friends from home, Jonathan and Nicole and Caleb Davis (JD is working out his residency at the Maine Medical Center in Portland) for a few minutes before we hit the road again to head south to Concord, Mass.  We're currently holed-up in a historic Inn, enjoying more air conditioning and a comfy bed.  We spent the day in Boston today, and will be taking our time making our way home with the remainder of the week.  What a journey this has been.  All glory to our Lord and Savior, for we know that ALL good things come straight from Him.  Have I already said "Thank You?"  Thank you, folks at home, friends and family that helped us along the way, food sponsors, and everyone else who's had a part in supporting us on our trek.  We're so blessed to have had you alongside us throughout this trip.  May God bless each of you for your generosity towards us.  Thank you, and thanks again.  You stay classy, we'll keep the adventures coming.  This is Upstate, signing out.  VIVA LA MONKEY TRIBE!

Road Support 

Upstate & Tiger walkin' into the woods for what was supposed to be the last 27 miles...

our "cabin" the last night

with Kathy, Kiddo, Upstate, Loop, Tiger & myself

we're pumped to get on the trail to Katahdin (:

here we go...

Upstate, me & Loop 

The Monkey Tribe 

The Monkey Tribe & Tiger

Can you believe we only have 5.2 miles to the end?! I can't!

Loop gettin' his stretch on before the biggest climb ever

the Matrix .. if you only knew

THANK YOU (: 

Plankin' the sign..

Town Gut at it's finest

D O M I N A T E D 

loving life at the lake 

Grady, Brock & Me enjoyin' the boat ride! 

While the boys are hikin'

While the boys have been hikin' their butts off, I've gotten to really enjoy Maine [for the most part]. I've done some exploring, shopping, walkin' around, and even a little hiking. Let me just tell you - we are in the back woods of Maine. These little towns, if you can even call them that, aren't much of anything. There has been the rare gem in the mix - like Rangeley & Greenville...but other than that, it ain't much. I am so thankful for these last two weeks of this journey. They've definitely made me remember the joys of the trek & already I'm smiling on this adventure. We recently passed through Caratunk, Monson, & Greenville...and now I sit in Millinocket, ME once again taking advantage of the public library.

Let me take you through our last week on the trail, starting in Caratunk. First, I'm not sure how Caratunk even makes the map. This "town" makes Fountain Inn look like a booming metropolis. [I'm not hating, trust me..I love Ft. Inn, but I know it's not big!] There were maybe 12 houses & a P.O. that operated out of an old house, therefore it makes the map as a town. There wasn't even anywhere to re-supply! We called around looking for a place to stay, "on account of rain," of course & ended up at the Sterling Inn, a quaint B & B. We headed up the road for dinner at Northern Outdoors Resort - a one stop shop for everything you could want to do & more in the area. After dinner, we headed back to the inn for dessert with the gang: Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Ice Cream [dessert after every meal would be OK if I were hiking...I'm doomed when I come home!]. The boys & Kiddo got on the trail the next morning for a really big day...thirty-ish miles to be exact - to make it from Caratunk to Monson. Kathy [Kiddo's mom] & I  explored Monson [what there was to explore] and decided we'd check out Greenville because it was a much bigger town. However, we spent two hours trying to come up with lodging for the 6 of us & ended up back in Monson at the Lakeshore House. This was actually  a treat & we got a great deal for it because they had to make room for us! It was also a great spot for our last zero day. It was right on the lake - everyone but me & Mike enjoyed the water [he had food poisoning from the night before, so we watched movies & he slept for most of the day]. A zero was a must before entering the "100 miles of wilderness" - where they're having to hike high 20's - 30 miles a day to make the road crossings where I'm waiting. (:

After dropping the boys off at the 112 mile mark between Monson & Greenville, I headed to Greenville to enjoy one more afternoon of civilization before entering the "100 miles of wilderness" myself. Greenville really was a cute little town, right on Moosehead Lake. There were shops of every sort, with furniture, jellies & jams, t-shirts, and even moose antlers for sale. If these bad boys weren't so dang expensive I'd be bringin' some back with me for sure. Don't judge. After stopping by the local pharmacy for some Swedish Fish for Mike, I hopped in the car & headed to my first pick up point in the wilderness: Katahdin Iron Works road. Too bad there aren't any hostels in the wilderness. It rained for most of the evening, meaning we had to set up camp in the rain & that our hikers were wet when they made it in ... past dark. I remember all too well the unpleasantness of hiking wet & in the dark, so I was feeling really bad for them [and you should too -- it gets really cold here when it rains!]. We ate a late dinner of tortillas with rice, beans, & corn and went right to bed. Kiddo got out early the next AM - but the boys decided they'd rather get a little extra sleep since they got in so late - so I dropped them off at the trail around 9:30. My next stop wasn't but about 20 miles up the road, so I stopped for a cup of coffee before heading that way [again, in a "how does this town make the map" town]. When I got to the gate, it was closed down - typically you have to pay to drive down these logging roads, but I took advantage of no one being there & let myself in (: That meant that I spent most of the day in the car at the AT crossing, but I was able to get the tents to dry a little, got camp set up, & had a spaghetti dinner waiting for the boys when they finally tramped out of the woods. AND after dinner, two flip-floppers made a fire, so we enjoyed our S'MORES treats from Mere & DP (: [thanks guys!].

Now, I'm in the "in between nothing & barely a town" town of Millinocket - they did have a McDonalds, so that counts for something! I'll be on the road once again here shortly--at the end of the day the boys & Kiddo will have 32.5 miles go to to reach Katahdin .. and ONE MORE DAY OF HIKING!! Katahdin on Friday is "just for fun" (: Bring it on!!

wild flowers - you know I had to

"cool as a moose"

I thought this may be my only siting of a moose..but I saw a real one two nights ago!! 

we found OTT & Battlecat - our friends from VA! (: good stuff!

Yes this is a goat. Our first experience with a goat on the trail -- technically you aren't allowed to have "pack-animals" but these guys don't count because they're too small [even though he weighed almost 200lbs!]

Mike demonstrating how he walked up the mountain. Old man style 

the Sterling Inn

dad, this is for you--it's an old hardware scale that was used when at some point the inn was a hardware store!

a beautiful old church in Monson

an old, old building in Greenville

the Lakeshore House where we stayed

reflections

more reflections

Loop, Upstate, & Tiger with 112 miles to go!

welcome to Greenville, ME! it's almost as good as Greenville, SC ...but not quite. 

a storms-a-movin-in

hmmmmmm gettin' close 

i know..i should be setting up camp while it's not raining, but i couldn't help myself!