The Gear

There are certain things that stand the test of time... It is a little weird how attached to gear a Thru-Hiker gets but I feel these items deserve mentioning!  

This first picture is of all the items that I had with me throughout my hike of the Appalachian trail.

This next picture is of the few items that made it through BOTH of my thru-hikes... From Mexico to Canada, then Georgia to Maine:)

If only smell could show in pictures...

Maine!!

Such an amazing state!!  I spent about 3 weeks in the last state of my hike... The longest I have ever taken to do 289 miles, but I had so much fun.  Maine was split into 3 pretty distinct different sections for me:

First there was southern Maine where we experienced horrible weather and rough terrain at the same time.  In this section was the famed Mahoosuc notch, known as the hardest and most fun mile on the AT.  This is a boulder field where you have to crawl under, over, and between rocks for a mile straight.  It took me just under an hour to do this mile but it was so much fun!  In this section of southern Maine I had multiple days where I was only able to do 10 miles... It was due to difficult terrain and cold, wet weather.  By the time I got to Andover, 50 miles into Maine I was ready to take a zero day.  I ended up staying at 'the cabin', a nice little hostel that felt kind of like being at grandmas house...  After Andover the terrain got a got better and the weather also warmed up a bit until getting to Stratton.

The second part of Maine for me was the week when my dad came out, where I hiked from Stratton to Monson.  We had taken one zero in Stratton already and decided to take a second on the Sunday that my dad arrived.  During this day we decided to drive to Canada where we discovered that my dad shares a name with a bad dude and we spent an hour detained at the border before they could clear him.  The next day we took off out of Stratton where dad was planning to head to Caratunk with me.  This day was one of the coldest I experienced during the trail!  It was not the best day, dad got a little off trail and we only made it 5 miles  to the first shelter before bundling up from 3 pm until the next morning... That morning dad decided to head back to Stratton while I headed north over the Bigelows toward Caratunk.  The weather over the top of these mountains was a little less than ideal but I made it over getting hit by hail and sleet and keeping warm only because I kept moving.  Luckily after this day and a half the weather eased up and the rest of the time my dad was there I was spoiled in towns and had a buddy to hike with me for short spurts.  He also helped out a lot of the other hikers, so fun to have him around:)

The third section of Maine was the part after Monson, going through the hundred mile wilderness and up Katahdin!  Throughout this section the weather was remarkable!!  The wilderness was an amazing experience, one night cowboy camped under the stars, walking by ponds every day, swimming in October, beautiful views, northeast foliage, all with a great group of people, including the group I had been hiking with this past month (Shady, Grrenblaze, Twigs, Bojangles, Homeward Bound, and Wyoming) and my friend from earlier on, Patches!  The climb up Katahdin was also a great day!  I got up early and made it to the summit by 10am, it was one of the most fun climbs of the whole trip and an amazing end of the journey.  I definitely had mixed emotions on the top, while I was excited about completing my hike I was also incredibly sad that it was over! I was lucky to be taken in by the group that I finished with and had such a great last month or so with them, made some hiking friends from all over the country that I will hopefully keep in touch with:). 

New Hampshire

Leaving Hanover there were a few more days of mild terrain until the small town of Glencliff.  There is not much to the town but there is a hostel, Hikers Welcome, where one of my friends, Legion, was care taking.  During my zero at Hikers Welcome we played a game of monopoly  one night and poker the next, great time!!  Leaving Glencliff we headed into the Whites!  It was amazing to be above treeline, so many beautiful mountains, waterfalls and views.  The Whites were also filled with 'Huts'. These huts created a strange environment for thru-hikers.  The huts catered to crowds with a lot of money but a chosen few thru-hikers each day were allowed to sleep inside and eat a meal in exchange for doing some work... I decided that this wasn't really for me through the beginning due to the fact that in order to have a chance you had to stop hiking around 4:30.  However, near the end I decided I should do it just to know, so I did a short day into Madison spring hut and got a work for stay.  Here I met Twigs, Shady, and GreenBlaze.  I actually ended up around these 3 guys for the remainder of my thru-hike... Maybe my longest hiking relationship on both trails that I have completed!  After the night at Madison Springs hut we headed to Pinkham notch where we met Blis, an awesome trail angel that had thru-hiked last year, who took us in for a zero of movie watching and yummy meals:). We then went from Pinkham notch through the end of the White mountains, sad to be out of the views etc. but happy to be done with all of the hassle.  Shortly after the Whites ended do did New Hampshire...