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:).
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