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 boulders that required climbing over and climbing under with snow and ice steaming up from beneath it all. Step over one of those gaps and you'd feel an instant drop in temperature. Very cool. There were also a few more 4000+ foot mountains to climb and some of them would give the Whites a run for their money with steep ascents and dangerous slip-n-slide descents. But the towns here have been nice with lots of hiker friendly folk ready to give a lift into town or just to talk about your journey so far.

The last couple of days have been fun - the rain has come at last and seems determined to get my gear wet. Luckily, I was able to get into a hostel the day after a heavy rainstorm swept through and a bit of sun that afternoon was enough to dry everything out again. Of course, if you look at the weather report I'll probably get rain 3 out of the next 4 days but that's all part of the journey. In this life, you need to stop and smell the roses even when it's raining because you might not have the chance later.

P.S. one of the shelters I stopped at used a Dr. Seuss book as the log book. We got to sign a Dr. Seuss book!