Reaching Maine, the final state along the AT, was huge. The White Mountains and their rock-dancing descents were finally over but every hiker I saw told me that early Maine would be just as difficult. It was, if in a different way.
The Mahoosuc Notch was an exhilarating mile of ginormous boulder...
No, that's not hate speech. It's a bunch of mountains. In New Hampshire. Steep mountains. Rocky mountains. But not the Rockies. That's the other side of the country. These are in the Northeast. Up near Maine. You know, that place where I will soon be finishing my 2200 mile hiking journey called the...
Here goes another photo dump. I've got good wifi and I'm going to put it to use! Oh, and I finally got a picture of a bear. Not a good picture but a picture nonetheless...
The last few states have gone by in a blur. I've completed New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and just now Vermont by climbing rock scrambles, enduring the heat, and sticking to the often poorly blazed trail like a post-it note (it's easy to get off trail but also usually easy to find it again)....
We'd been hiking many long, weary miles. Our throats parched and our clothes drenched in sweat from endless staggering under a broiling sun. Tired, sore in foot and in the rest of the body, and utterly exhausted..... Ok, fine, that might be a slight exaggeration. But it was a hot day when we stumble...
I've been climbing rocks recently. Sometimes they're just strewn all over the trail like gravel. Sometimes they are big enough to hop from one to the next like a game of "the floor is lava". Sometimes they are huge slabs that, when slicked by rain, become danger slides of doom. And last but certainl...
Staying in the basement of a church tonight. It's cleaner than most hostels but we do have to spread our pads and sleep on the floor. I'm not complaining; they have a foosball table down here.
So I managed to finish the half-gallon challenge. There's a little general store at mile 1104 (just pas...
We each travel the world in our own unique way. Our footsteps cross and intertwine, sometimes even traveling side by side for a time but never quite matching perfectly. Most of us wear blinders so we will only see the footprints near us without having to look at the footprints further off that aren'...
I blame my shoelaces. Using the topmost holes for the laces the last few weeks caused my feet to gradually grow more and more numb. I've fixed it now and my feet are finally starting to feel better but I'm taking a couple of days in this town to help them heal quicker.
I'm a bit behind on postin...
Noon-day sun burns bright upon a scorched Earth that cries for relief. A blessed breeze ruffles the treetops and carries the scent of toasting pine needles and dry dust. Brown leaves rustle as they flip over in the wind while rocks grind underfoot and roots stand their silent watch. Cool mountain s...
The past week has been a blur. The miles, the sore feet, the amazing sights, the warm nights, the unpredictable rain, and the many attempts to find new trail meals that aren't the same things as usual make the days fly by. I sleep in shelters, tucked tight between other smelly... I mean delightful h...
No wifi for four days now so just some stories to share from the past few days.
Hover mode engage, backup slowly. Scan targets for sweet gold, wings beating the air furiously to keep the fat... no, I shouldn't call it that... rotund body aloft. I drift over the highway and dust and loose leaves...
I have now completed the Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee sections of the Appalachian Trail. That's over 470 miles that I've hiked in about a month and a half. These milestones don't really tell the full story of what that means to me, though. It is difficult to put into words the sheer enormi...
This past week has been a blur but two things in particular stand out for me.
I miss my friends. The Misfits are the best group of strangers I could have met on the AT. We were an odd group, for sure, but they helped me through some of the most difficult sections of trail (both physically demand...
It's official: I've been hiking the Appalachian Trail for one month. This has been the most rewarding experience of my life and a huge step towards transitioning my daily motivations from comfort to necessity. It has also been at times cold, painful, and mentally fatiguing. However, as John Muir wr...
The human body is incredible: the endurance, the resilience, the power to keep on going despite having been through so much already. We are a marvelous design. We crossed the Fontana Dam today in a drizzling rain and then climbed nearly 3000 feet and walked about 12 miles. The fog was "as thick as...
It's been a blur. Where do I start? Every morning I wake up and smell the forest (and probably myself as well) and hear the birds chirping and sometimes even catch a peach and lavender colored sunrise over a distant hill. I used to have sinus headaches nearly every day and I would cough up sinus gun...
We had a nice big fire this evening courtesy of Big Fire Billigan. Following our delicious dinner we crawled into our tents with nighttime closing in on us. Before sleeping, I read the following section of Matthew 8
23 As he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.
24 And a great storm de...
Hiking the AT is a lot like hiking anywhere. There are stunningly beautiful mountain vistas, clear streams burbling merrily along, leaf crumbs and tiny twigs shuffling underfoot, and of course toasty campfires with churning embers to warm your hands by at night. What sets the AT apart are the people...
The wifi isn't super fast here so I won't be uploading many photos today but here's how my first few days have gone.
My first trail magic was a woman standing by the side of a nearby road handing out Krispy Kreme donuts and bottles of water. They were quite tasty! The next day I ran into a hiker go...
The Uwharrie forest is a spot of green in an area that otherwise lacks for good hiking. The drive up to the main trailhead was smoky due to the ongoing effort to protect against wildfire by doing small, contained fires to clear underbrush. It made the whole area smell like a campfire.
Winter mon...
Compared to the last time I hiked Crowder's Mt. just a couple of weeks ago, today was a ray of sunshine. No, really, it was clear blue skies without a hint of clouds or mist or heavy fog to soup things up. Now, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert at this whole blogging thing and you're probab...