Hey guys,
I've finally made it to Maine (on Saturday) and I'm currently sitting in my parents' kitchen! I came home on a whim last night with Pixel and Shazam, the remnant of Booty Club, because we decided it would be better to try to get here than to spend the night at the hostel in Bethel and try to hitch back to the trail in the morning. I'm going to take my car with us up to the trail, and from there hopefully we'll be able to slackpack most of the rest of the trail up to Monson!
So, here are some highlights from the past month-ish:
Andy came out and hiked with me for a few days from Killington into Hanover, and then I spent the next two days doing bigger miles so I could catch up with Pixel and Shazam for her birthday on August 20th, in Glencliff, NH; my cousin Jason came out and hiked with us for 3 days, over Mts. Moosilauke, Kinsman, and another that I can't think of at the moment; we spent 5 days in Wenham/Beverly/Boston thanks to Hurricane Irene; we had beautiful weather on Franconia Ridge, and took our time through the White Mountains and Presidentials; and since we were soaked coming down into Pinkham Notch, we spent the night in Gorham, NH, and then hiked for two days over the Wildcats and the Carters, only to spend two more nights in Gorham; and finally, 3 days later, we are in Maine (!) and have already done Mahoosuc Notch, arguably the toughest (slowest, maybe) mile on the trail, as well as Mahoosuc Arm, which I thought was harder, and finished up the hike into Grafton Notch with Old Speck, where I was able to see Katahdin when I climbed the fire tower!!
We've got about 265 miles to go, and hopefully that will take us less than 3 weeks. We're going to use my car to slackpack almost all the way to Monson, so hopefully that will allow us to make up time and miles!
Normally I would include some photos, but this computer is pretty slow and I've already uploaded all the new ones to my picasa site: https://picasaweb.google.com/113773606098607456017/ATPhotos?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJjyr8LWiMLPzQE&feat=directlink
Enjoy! And please get in touch with me if you want to hike with us in Maine!
