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.