Now that we’ve moved from the mountains to the coast I’ve started getting my fill of sea life again. Oh, how I missed it. While I loved the smell of Christmas and I really miss hearing all of the birds in the forest, I was craving some rotting seaweed and salt. During the last week of the hike I realized that we could go on a whale tour and it didn’t take much to convince my mom to go on a whale tour. The only whales I’ve ever seen were pilot whales off the South American coast in the Pacific, but I’ve always been stuck with the golden retrievers of the ocean—bottle nosed dolphins. I’m a poorly educated in marine mammals since I chose to study wetlands in college instead of focusing on the mammals and only took one mammals related course in college. So, identifying them isn’t my forte, but it goes to the very core of my little marine biology love.

Love my Mountain Man…he’s going to keep the beard and just trim it up!

Puffins! I was disappointed not to get close to them, but at least I saw them.

Petit Manan island.

We saw humpback whales, in this photo, and off in the distance several fin whales. Fin whales are second largest animal in the world behind the blue whale. Pretty awesome!

*sigh* Love ‘em!

After our whale trip we drove down to Stonington in search of a more mellow tourist town than Bar Harbor. It was quiet and quaint and reminded us a bit of Rockport in Texas.

Today we left Maine and came down to Massachusetts where we are exploring Salem a bit. We found the oldest cemetery in Salem, complete with a pilgrim from the Mayflower. Pretty nifty to be in such an old place, kinda how I felt while being in St. Augustine.

Tomorrow we head home. Not sure I am ready to trade in the 60′s and 70′s for 100* weather. In fact, I know I’m not. But I’m ready to eat up a cute little niece I know!

Trail Magic at Katahdin Iron Works Road, 100 Mile Wilderness, Maine

Now that we are several days post hike we’ve had to really think about what we are eating. When you aren’t burning 5,000 calories a day it is impossible to continue eating like you were. Or, you could, but you’d balloon up in no time! So, I thought I’d give a run down of what a typical thru-hiker eats.

Breakfast: Pretty much everyone starts off with oatmeal. It’s warm and easy to make, but it takes time to boil water. In the beginning this is great because you start off later in the morning. Eventually you move on to breakfast bars. Some people start eating cold oatmeal, some drink Carnation instant breakfast, Pop Tarts are popular and I tried those fried fruit pies. Too much sugar for me. Breakfast was mostly a pain in the butt.

Lunch: Lunch can be equally as hard as breakfast. Mostly we stuck to pepperoni, salami and tuna, but sometimes I bought chicken salad packages and ate peanut butter. I went into this thing thinking I would love pb but it didn’t appeal to me at all! Sometimes I had enough of something else that I’d put my pb into a hiker box. We also cooked lunch sometimes. In our mail drops we’d send a pack or two of chicken or tuna and then a mashed potato. This was awesome on days you were extra hungry. Tortilla’s were used most of the time for wraps with the pepperoni and tuna. I bought the flavored tuna packs, sometimes tuna salad packs. We’d grab mayo, mustard and relish from convenience stores or restaurants to flavor it up a bit. I liked to carry crackers, either cracker sandwiches or items like Goldfish or Cheez-its. Then you’d top it off with a candy bar, gummy bears, or some sort of dessert.

Dinner: Our dinners consisted of a lot of Mountain House/Alpine Aire or the like dehydrated meals. We had bought a bunch before we left for our mail drops and this was an excellent supplement along the way. Towards the later half of the trail we’d sometimes just buy them in outfitters because with two people it was the same cost as buying a Lipton/Knorr side and two packages of meat. Lipton/Knorr sides were very common. Once we bought some Thai noodles and some sauce and made that. Mac and cheese is popular as is ramen noodles. Ramen is probably the most popular hiker dinner there is. People made it all sorts of ways, and the latest popular way was to add peanut butter to it. We went until the very last day of the trip to buy a package of ramen. We had a few in the hiker box on occasion, but we kinda prided ourselves on not buying ramen. You will see all sorts of combinations of hiker food: Noodles with little packages of the dried sauces in the spice aisle, mac and cheese with Spam, pieces of sausage in ramen….on and on and on. One of the best things we did was send dried tomatoes to ourselves. They were nice surprises and additions to our meals. Further north we found some in stores and we’d buy them along the way.

Snacks: Aside from bars like Larabars, Luna, Powerbars, etc., we ate a lot of candy bars for snacks, gummy bears, Oreo’s, crackers, Little Debbie snacks. Anything junk food you can insert here. And oh, it was so nice!

The photo above includes a Whoopie Pie. We discovered these in Andover, ME at a general store. They packing a whopping 800 calories and an ungodly amount of fat and sugar, so they are a PERFECT hiker food! Merf and Chris would joke that after I ate one that I’d have my afterburners on because I’d be so far ahead of them I’d keep slowing down to wait for ‘em. Yesterday we were driving along a road on the coast when we saw a hand made sign for pies and whoopies. We turned down the road and into someones drive and out came a pre-teen girl who showed us to a covered porch with a fridge full of whoopie pies. I refrained, but Chris got a pb one and mom got a coconut one. I had a nibble…and they were so divine!

Too bad you can’t eat a whoopie every day.

I’m actually craving a green monster and can’t wait to start cooking! One of my hiker friends (though we only met twice!) has a cooking blog, so check our Eat What You Love and entice her to post more!

So, it’s been two days since we went up Katahdin and ended the hike. Yesterday felt pretty ok, like a zero day, just relaxing in town. Today, well, it was back to the real world in a way. We’re still on a vacation of sorts, but we went into the biggest town we’d been in since our short trip back to DFW in May and it was a bit overwhelming. So much stuff….everywhere! Our goal of the morning was to hit up a Goodwill after going to Best Buy to get a new GPS since we think ours was stolen from my mom’s luggage in the airport.

Goodwill was nice and we scored lots of clothes for a cheap price. In Millinocket we hit up a small thrift shop that had much more women’s clothes and I was able to get myself clothed like a normal person, but Chris only bought a shirt. Apparently mens jeans are hard to find. We ended up in a few different thrift stores throughout the day and it left me with the desire to attempt to try to buy from thrift stores in the future. Being on the trail you are constantly wearing the same outfits and being thrifty with everything you use. Not only is buying from a thrift store more environmentally friendly, it’s easy on the wallet too. Being jobless and all.

Eventually we made it to Bar Harbor to walk around. At first we thought the downtown area was pretty small, a typical tourist town, but we walked up a few blocks and discovered it was much larger than we first thought and I couldn’t believe how many shops there were. We didn’t cover everything, or even half of it, but it was overwhelming to see so much “Stuff”. There were some great shops with art, a nice whale museum and some nicer tourist places, but it also had the same old junk you find at any tourist town.

We went to Acadia National Park for sunset, driving to the top of Cadillac Mountain. We made out Katahdin in the far off distance. Not sure what we are up to tomorrow. We may head back into the mountains; there are 17 people supposedly summiting tomorrow including several people we know. I’d like to try to intercept them in Millinocket if possible to see them one last time. I think we’ve got a whale/puffin tour on the agenda for Sunday! WOO!

As for the four goals thing, I read on a few blogs (talk about being overwhelmed….I’ll be deleting a lot of blogs I read on my Reader….too many and so much to compare my tiny little blog to) about four end of the year goals. Since I just finished one gigantic goal I am going to leave out the obvious goal of finding a job and focus on some smaller goals.

I hope I can manage that.

The alarm went off. Was the sky clear? Yes, the stars were out. We reached over and twisted our NeoAir tubes to deflate them, stretching in our sleeping bags and yawning. It was too early. After fumbling for our headlamps we started moving about, getting dressed, rolling up the air mattresses and stuffing our bags into their compression sacks.

Sitting on the side of the tent platform at The Birches, Blue Rooster came by and said he was getting ready. Cubbie & Dilly Dally were in the other shelter getting their items together. We ate a few granola bars for the early morning breakfast and quickly put everything together in our packs.

We were off on an adventure. Or the final adventure to a long adventure.

Inside the front porch of the ranger station we found someone sleeping. Sorry, but we had to switch our some gear, ditching anything heavy we didn’t need for the final five miles. No use for a sleeping bag, Keen sandals, cooking gear. Throw it into the trash bag to leave behind. Without the extra weight we felt light and airy, able to bounce around. Just some water, food, rain gear and extra clothing.

We crossed Katahdin stream, through the campground and were off. It was 2am. I lead the way up the Hunt Trail, the name of the trail that the AT follows up Mount Katahdin, this Greatest Mountain that the local Indian tribes call Maine’s tallest peak. I’m the slowest one so it’s easier to keep everyone behind the slowest person.

Lights are on full blast, to scope out the roots and rocks that we might stumble upon. We cross over a bridge, see the privy that is located a mile up the trail. That was a quick mile. We finally start climbing, lots of nicely placed rock stairs by the Maine Appalachian Trail Club, then up some big rocks. Finally we come to a spot where water is flowing on the trail, trying to side step the puddles in the dark, careful to keep our shoes dry. We pull ourselves up by using some trees, our hands, other rocks, to keep moving upwards and onto rocks that pose tricks for us to continue. Eventually the confiers become smaller; we are nearing tree line.

With a turn around a rock, the wind howls, the stars are bright and it is pitch black outside of five head lamps on the trail. It becomes a bit scary, finding that we have to manuvere our way up large boulders, several having rebar placed in the perfect position to pull ourselves up or place a foot. The white blazes are well marked every few feet, though in a few sections we get confused; is it that way or this way? Of course we have to go down to go up, this is the Appalachian Trail after all, so yes, it is that way, down through the trees and into some protection from the wind, at least for a few minutes.

Soon we are completely above tree line, following white blazes over large boulders. Still leading, I pull myself up rocks that look intimidating, squeeze through sections that I can barely fit through. The wind is still blowing and it is getting pretty cold. I have my warm wool hat on to keep my ears from stinging. We’re all talking, looking around us. We can see the outline of some thunderheads to the northeast. We’re all hoping they don’t blow our direction. We see the lights from Millenocket in the distance, and further away, is it Bangor? Finally everyone gets too cold and starts putting extra layers on and we take a few minutes break. Is that the peak we see up there? Probably not, there are always false summits.

I spot the white spray paint on a rock that says 2 miles. We have two miles to summit. Continuing our way up to the summit we are all hoping is the summit, we eventually see a sign. Could it be? Is it the sign? We joke that it is probably a fake sign, and sure enough it is just a small sign advising people to stay on the trail to avoid damaging the alpine vegetation. By this time we’ve reached the tableland, the flatter section of the top. We keep walking along, bouncing off rocks on the path when we finally see a sign for Thoreau spring and the mark for the 1 mile to the summit. Which way is the summit? It’s probably the part that is covered in the clouds, a light fog drifting over it. Damn, we all hope it blows away.

The sky is becoming light in the east. We’re getting faster, more excited, but we still have to go up the mountain more. By the time we start climbing more MATC stairs the fog has drifted away, the sky is brighter and our head lamps are turned off.

And then it was there. The Sign. The one we dream off the minute we left Springer Mountain, Georgia. The sign we all walk to. We stop 100′ away, maybe more, so Cubbie & Dilly Dally can take a photo of us walking up the last bit of the Appalachian Trail. And then we keep walking.

And we’re there. On the summit the with the sign. We’re relived, stoked, excited, in awe of the awesome beauty of the sunrise that is unfolding before us. Our summit was just after 5am. Three hours to the top. None of us can believe it was three hours, it didn’t feel like it, nor did it feel like four thousand vertical feet of elevation gain in five miles. It is such a beautiful site. And words just can’t explain the feeling of being there.

Only five of us at the top for the sunrise summit. No crowds, no day hikers. Just five thru-hikers who have busted through 2,179 miles to be there. We stayed for two hours, eating M&M’s and other food, taking photo after photo, nearly getting dragged off the mountain by a kite and losing said kite (that story later), the other three smoking cigs that were left up there by someone else, probably a thru-hiker, discussing the intense insaneness of the Knife’s Edge, talking about our favorite parts of the trip….

We left down at 7am. It was a completely different hike on the way down since we hadn’t seen what we’d come up. Going down is much harder than coming up, scooting down rocks, easing your way around, trying not to fall. I was amazed at what we’d climbed up at night and couldn’t believe how narrow some of the areas had been. Adrenaline had been our power that pushed us up the mountain. We were down by 10am, passing hoards of other tourists, most in amazement that we’d left so early, many congratulating us on our accomplishment and some asking if they were half way or even near the top (sorry…not quite).

And it was done. We had thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail.

I have to blog about the rest of Maine that I haven’t covered and then I plan on doing a retrospective of each state with photos that haven’t been shown here, when I get home. If you have any questions about the trail, hiking, whatever, ask away and I’ll answer them soon!

What’s next for us??? Hanging around Maine for a few days, heading to Texas and after that we’re not sure. Looking for jobs and trying to find a place to live, but doing a lot of fun side trips and getting into photography again will be on the agenda, too. Thanks for reading and I hope you stay around! Oh yeah, it was a Class I day and we were #’s 103 & 104 at the park.

Since last leaving y’all we were in Rangeley, Maine. Now we have advanced forward to Monson, Maine, our last town stop on the entire trail. Everyone seems to be a little bit sad about this last town stop, reminiscing in the log books. It does seem surreal that we won’t be continuing our walk north towards a far off destination.

We left Rangeley and got to the first shelter two miles out for lunch to find that our friends Moose & Tetherball had finally caught up to us and passed us. Drat! Merf’s friend Inferno had done the same. We climbed up Saddleback mountain and had a beautiful view. Supposedly you can see both Mount Washington and Katahdin from the summit but it was a bit hazy and we could only glimpse what we thought was Katahdin. The next day we had a pretty easy day and had only planned 14 miles but tossed around the idea of doing 17 or so until we came to a stream at mile 13 and Chris decided he wanted to fish so we took two hours and sat around before walking up to the Crocker Cirque campsite.

The following morning we left Merf at the road to Stratton. She has a later finish date and so she wanted to take a nearo and stay in town and we continued on and summited both the West Peak and Avery Peak of the Bigelows and camped down in a notch between those and Little Bigelow. It was a quiet campsite and I thought a nice place to stop. It was another 17 mile day. woo for higher mileage days! The next morning we went up Little Bigelow and found out that our friends Moose, Tetherball, Cubbie and Dilly Dally were only five miles ahead of us and we were fairly certain we were going to catch them that night at Pierce Pond. Sure enough at lunch we ran into them at a shelter! We hadn’t seen M&T since New York when they were slowing down to do some zero’s with family. We did 22 miles into Pierce Pond shelter. The reason to push was so that we could get a super awesome breakfast at Harrison’s Pierce Pond camps about .2 off the trail. The owner walks over in the evening, or you can call him, and tell him if you want sausage and eggs with your 12 pancake breakfast. The next morning you walk over and sit down in his dining area sipping coffee, watching the hummingbirds at the feeders and just chill out. He goes all out, powdered sugar, maple syrup….oh it was really, really awesome.

Our next big “thing” was to cross the fabled Kennebec River. It’s the only ATC sanctioned moving white blaze on the trail. At least one person has died trying to ford the river and many get swept down stream or lose their packs, so for 20+ years during certain times of the day, a paid canoeist will come and shuttle you across the river. We picked up a package in Caratunk and kept on going yesterday and ended at 18 miles. We did 22 miles today to get into Monson and will take the morning off and head out somewhere into the 100 mile wilderness tomorrow.

It’s so insane. We are almost done. Last night we were flipping through our photos on our camera. We switched our card out when we went home in Pearisburg so we only have from Pearisburg until now, but it was hilarious to see my brilliantly pink hair, and so many other photos that you all haven’t seen yet. There will be many more stories to tell.

So far in the animal count, no moose yet. Everyone says we will see them in the 100 but who knows. Everyone also jokes that the only moose they will see will be the ones on the road out of Baxter State Park! hah! We saw two grouse this morning, a ruffed and a spruce. I saw three garter snakes today, too.

what can I say? The journey is almost done. we have plane tickets for the 17th and my mom is coming on the 12th to pick us up/hang out with us in Maine for a few days. Since we were concerned about the whole summit thing we were leery about getting something too close, but I am excited to have some time to tool around Maine. I want to do a trail magic day, go to Arcadia National Park, eat a lobster dinner, and hang out in Bangor some. A mini-vacation.

So….sometime next week I’ll be back with summit photos! Until then keep thinking “Class I day….Class I day”. Class I day is like having the as perfect a day as possible on Katahdin.