We finished the trail!! It is such a surreal feeling. Now I am planning to head home, and Nick is going to continue with the International AT. He has about 700 miles to hike through Maine and Canada, and then he will end at the ocean.
Yoon, Boston, Stunned Mullet, me, and General getting ready to leave Stratton. Yoon is from South Korea and knows very little English. I have no idea how he has done the whole trail. It is really amazing! I also have no idea why he has his hand on Boston's knee.
Flagstaff Lake. I believe this is one of the four lakes in Maine that is actually man made. They flooded the town of Flagstaff to make this lake...of course they moved everybody out before the flood.
We made it 2,000 miles!!! We can now apply for our 2000 miler certificates.
The Kennebec River crossing. It is the only river crossing that we actually have to take a canoe across.
The ferry guy is taking Yoon and I across the river. It was kind of scary. The river was pretty high and moving really fast.
Blueberries!!! Wild blueberries and raspberries grow along the trail providing us a yummy treat.
Maine is very beautiful!
River crossings are good for one thing...cleaning the mud off my boots. My poor boots are looking pretty sad with holes all over them.
Yoon crossing one of the calmer rivers.
We have made it to the infamous 100-Mile Wilderness. There is a lot of hype about this section of trail because it is suppose to be the most remote of any section of trail on the AT. Ironically we found it had more hikers on it than we have seen in a long time, there were logging roads every little bit, and people were receiving better cell phone signal than they had in a long time.
The Barren Ledges on Barren mountain.
There she is Katahdin!! We have been walking towards that mountain for days upon days! We have 72 miles left at this point.
A snake eating a frog. The frog is puffed up so the snake is having a pretty hard time swallowing the frog.
We are getting closer to Katahdin. We only have 47 miles left now.
Pemadumcook Lake. We took a few seconds to admire this gorgeous lake. This was a new personal record mileage day for us...32.8 miles!
We made it out of the 100 mile wilderness alive! We were so lucky for this section. We had wonderful weather, and it only rained on us 1 day.
15 miles left at Abol Bridge.
Baxter State Park...we only have the last little bit now.
Boston eating cheerios and admiring the falls.
The rivers were stunning in the park. The water had a crisp, clear color to them. Too bad it was always a little too chilly to go swimming.
August 9th...this is the big day we are headed up the mountain. This is the view from the climb. The mountains have big granite faces. It is very pretty.
Katahdin was our biggest climb on the whole trail...more than 4,000 feet in 5 miles. Some parts were pretty steep, and we had to use bars to climb over the rocks.
View of all the lakes around.
We reached The Tableland. Only 1.5 miles left.
This is the last climb up. You can see the group of people waiting at the top.
We made it!!! What a beautiful day too! We were soooooo lucky to have such a sunny, clear day. Most finish pictures are in the clouds. We feel very fortunate.
There were 10 of us that finished the trail all at the same time. It was quite a moment to have us all up there. We have known most of these hikers a good portion of the way.
People try to be unique with their finish photo. Topo went a little overboard.
I couldn't get this picture to rotate, but it was too funny not to put on. Cajun Dave from Oklahoma is a hoot. He was always make us crack up at his facial expressions.
Here comes the 10th hiker...The General arrived late because his sister came to hike up with him and she has a slower pace.
From Baxter Peak (Katahdin) we went across this ridge called the knife's edge. In good weather it is a nice hike, but I would hate to do it in bad weather.
Lightning was the only other thru-hiker willing to go with us across the knife's edge. I think she was doubting her decision at times, but she did terrific. The other hikers didn't want to go because we had to go down a different trail and then hitch a ride back to the other side of the park to get our backpacks. They were more interested in getting down the mountain and going to town to eat and drink.
Looking down off the edge.
Climbing up the last peak...Pamola. Pamola is a god the Native Americans believe in. He protects this mountain. They described him as having the head of a
moose, the body of a man and the wings and feet of an
eagle. Pamola was both feared and respected by the Natives, and his presence was one of the main reasons that climbing the mountain was considered taboo. Good thing we are climbing it...ha ha.
Looking back after coming a little ways down the Herlon Taylor trail. What a day!!!
The General's mom paid for a suite at a hotel for us all to stay in and bought us all pizza. We were having a great time eating and hanging out with our trail family before we went our seperate ways.
Seagulls in the parking lot. We must be getting close to the ocean.
Saying good-bye this morning. Everybody is headed home...but Nick he still has miles to hike.
General's sister and mom, and Fortune's mom. They were soooo nice to us. Real trail angels!
We ran into Boston this afternoon. He had just finished the Sunday Summit Challenge. He ate 14 scoops of ice cream with 2 donuts and a king sized snickers in it in under 90 minutes. He won a free shirt and got to write his name on the wall. Very few people have been able to accomplish this feat. He had to throw up in the middle, but he got it all down. Way to go Boston!!
Yoon, Boston, Stunned Mullet, me, and General getting ready to leave Stratton. Yoon is from South Korea and knows very little English. I have no idea how he has done the whole trail. It is really amazing! I also have no idea why he has his hand on Boston's knee.
Flagstaff Lake. I believe this is one of the four lakes in Maine that is actually man made. They flooded the town of Flagstaff to make this lake...of course they moved everybody out before the flood.
We made it 2,000 miles!!! We can now apply for our 2000 miler certificates.
The Kennebec River crossing. It is the only river crossing that we actually have to take a canoe across.
The ferry guy is taking Yoon and I across the river. It was kind of scary. The river was pretty high and moving really fast.
Blueberries!!! Wild blueberries and raspberries grow along the trail providing us a yummy treat.
Maine is very beautiful!
River crossings are good for one thing...cleaning the mud off my boots. My poor boots are looking pretty sad with holes all over them.
Yoon crossing one of the calmer rivers.
We have made it to the infamous 100-Mile Wilderness. There is a lot of hype about this section of trail because it is suppose to be the most remote of any section of trail on the AT. Ironically we found it had more hikers on it than we have seen in a long time, there were logging roads every little bit, and people were receiving better cell phone signal than they had in a long time.
The Barren Ledges on Barren mountain.
There she is Katahdin!! We have been walking towards that mountain for days upon days! We have 72 miles left at this point.
A snake eating a frog. The frog is puffed up so the snake is having a pretty hard time swallowing the frog.
We are getting closer to Katahdin. We only have 47 miles left now.
Pemadumcook Lake. We took a few seconds to admire this gorgeous lake. This was a new personal record mileage day for us...32.8 miles!
We made it out of the 100 mile wilderness alive! We were so lucky for this section. We had wonderful weather, and it only rained on us 1 day.
15 miles left at Abol Bridge.
Baxter State Park...we only have the last little bit now.
Boston eating cheerios and admiring the falls.
The rivers were stunning in the park. The water had a crisp, clear color to them. Too bad it was always a little too chilly to go swimming.
August 9th...this is the big day we are headed up the mountain. This is the view from the climb. The mountains have big granite faces. It is very pretty.
Katahdin was our biggest climb on the whole trail...more than 4,000 feet in 5 miles. Some parts were pretty steep, and we had to use bars to climb over the rocks.
View of all the lakes around.
We reached The Tableland. Only 1.5 miles left.
This is the last climb up. You can see the group of people waiting at the top.
We made it!!! What a beautiful day too! We were soooooo lucky to have such a sunny, clear day. Most finish pictures are in the clouds. We feel very fortunate.
There were 10 of us that finished the trail all at the same time. It was quite a moment to have us all up there. We have known most of these hikers a good portion of the way.
People try to be unique with their finish photo. Topo went a little overboard.
I couldn't get this picture to rotate, but it was too funny not to put on. Cajun Dave from Oklahoma is a hoot. He was always make us crack up at his facial expressions.
Here comes the 10th hiker...The General arrived late because his sister came to hike up with him and she has a slower pace.
From Baxter Peak (Katahdin) we went across this ridge called the knife's edge. In good weather it is a nice hike, but I would hate to do it in bad weather.
Lightning was the only other thru-hiker willing to go with us across the knife's edge. I think she was doubting her decision at times, but she did terrific. The other hikers didn't want to go because we had to go down a different trail and then hitch a ride back to the other side of the park to get our backpacks. They were more interested in getting down the mountain and going to town to eat and drink.
Looking down off the edge.
Climbing up the last peak...Pamola. Pamola is a god the Native Americans believe in. He protects this mountain. They described him as having the head of a moose, the body of a man and the wings and feet of an eagle. Pamola was both feared and respected by the Natives, and his presence was one of the main reasons that climbing the mountain was considered taboo. Good thing we are climbing it...ha ha.
Looking back after coming a little ways down the Herlon Taylor trail. What a day!!!
The General's mom paid for a suite at a hotel for us all to stay in and bought us all pizza. We were having a great time eating and hanging out with our trail family before we went our seperate ways.
Seagulls in the parking lot. We must be getting close to the ocean.
Saying good-bye this morning. Everybody is headed home...but Nick he still has miles to hike.
General's sister and mom, and Fortune's mom. They were soooo nice to us. Real trail angels!
We ran into Boston this afternoon. He had just finished the Sunday Summit Challenge. He ate 14 scoops of ice cream with 2 donuts and a king sized snickers in it in under 90 minutes. He won a free shirt and got to write his name on the wall. Very few people have been able to accomplish this feat. He had to throw up in the middle, but he got it all down. Way to go Boston!!
5 comments:
Congratulations! You two are pretty awesome. Hopefully, Nick will add the rest of his hike to the blog 'cause I've enjoyed the ride - this is the best blog ever!
Love,
Lauren
Congratulations!! What an accomplishment! Hope to see you soon--I think the kids want you to come and visit with them about the trail here at school---and Happy Anniversary! :)
Kim V.
Congratulations! You guys rock! I'm very anxious for you to come visit school and tell the kids about your adventures. Take care and Happy Anniversary! Kim P.
CONGRATS!!!!! does this mean the blog is over? I hope not!!!
Too late to say it but you know I mean it! Also that snake eating a frog pic is super rad.
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