The Final Push

As most of you are probably aware, we are rapidly bearing down on our destination, and we expect to summit Mount Katahdin on September first. We are currently in Monson, ME and are setting out tomorrow into the famous hundred mile wilderness. Following the wilderness, we will be in Baxter State Park for our final day and a half before reaching Katahdin. Over the last week or so, we have been enveloped in the pristine and beautiful landscape of the North woods. Most nights we've caught amazing sunsets over remote mountain glacial ponds and gone to sleep to the haunting calls of the resident loons. We've seen several moose and forrests that are vastly different from everything we're used to. One of the most striking details about the trail in Maine is that we summit many mountains with stunning 360 degree views of nothing but untamed wilds. No towns, no roads, no lights, just trees, mountains, and hundreds of lakes and rivers; this is truly how the trail should be. Most places in the southern and mid-Atlantic states were never quite remote, and you could easily be in a town within a day's walk. Convenient as it may have been, you never felt like you were alone and independent. Jess and I are both very excited to get home and move on with our "normal lives," but we also realize how much we will miss this when it is over. Maybe not having to pack up a wet tent in a driving rain, eat our thousandth pop tart, and hike twenty miles through mud holes, over boulders, and up near vertical rock faces, but we will miss getting to walk along waterfalls on a pristine mountain stream, seeing black bears and moose forage in the dense undergrowth, and seeing stars unimpeded by the lights of a booming metropolis. We're still trying to piece together exactly what, if anything, we've learned out here about both ourselves, and our world, but we realize that we are certainly better off for this experience. Only a few mountains, bogs, and rivers stand between us and our goal, but we are gradually realizing that we are going to complete this undertaking and will be back home, driving cars, worrying about bills, and applying for jobs sooner, rather than later. Keep us in your thoughts over the next week, and we can't wait to see you all and share our pictures and memories when we get home.

The rain in Maine falls mainly.. on us!!

We are finally in Maine! Although it seems like an accomplishment, it is very difficult, and we still have a long way to go. We are doing half the miles we used to do in a day yet exerting 5 times the effort. We are tired and ready to finish this trip. Our spirits were lifted a bit when our friend Tyler came to visit; hopefully he wasn't damaged too much by the terrain. We are in Andover, ME for the night trying to dry out again. The forecast for today was supposed to be 75 degrees and sunny, so we must have imagined the thunderstorm on top of Baldplate Mountain. We've already seen our first moose, and the treeline is dropping lower and lower on each mountain as we continue pressing northward. Luckily, we had good weather through Mahoosuc notch, which is a cliffed in valley strewn with enormous boulders that we had to climb over, around, through and under. We both thought that scramble was fun, but the climbs are what really take it out of us. No more switchbacks, no more packed dirt paths; now we get either flat, slick rock at an eighty degree angle or knee deep mud holes filled with water. This is beginning to look more like an obstacle course than a trail, but the end is near. We have had a total of two days without rain since we arrived in Dalton, Massachusetts, and we are quite accustomed to the smell of mildew on all of our gear. Oh well, onward and upward for now. Hope all is well for everyone at home. We love and miss you all.

Stomp and Shuffles.