Maine. The last Stretch.

I've been contemplating how to accurately describe a thru hike, this is what i've come up with:

Living in the woods for half of a year means a lack of cleanliness, the term showers was broadened to gas station bathroom sinks, streams, and cold hoses. They also became less necessary.
Two Words: Crispy. Socks.
No matter how much you wring them they will bleed dirt.
I've come to call a burning pile of pine and birch home.

Dehydrated foods.
Inhaling plate after plate of food only to be ravenous and starving two hours after.
Oh and snot rockets, privies, cat holes, pee rags.
The perciverence of walking through pain.
The feeling of the muscles on your shins detaching themselves with every step.
Inflammation. Blisters. Losing toenails.
Accepting that everything hurts all the time.
Trees and bushes reaching out to whip your arms and legs.
Rocks appearing out of the earth to meet your falls.
Constantly reminding you that you are alive.
Waking up and packing everything you own into a backpack.
And carrying it while you walk through every kind of weather. Hail. Sunshine. Thunderstorms. Tropical storms. Knee deep flooded trails. 100 degree heat. Swarms of bugs. Fog.
Twelve hours later unpacking it all, building your house. Repeat.

Slipping. Sliding. Falling. Running. Walking. Climbing. Followed by more, Walking. Falling. Climbing. Sliding. Running. Slipping.

The camaraderie and intimacies that forms between fellow hikers.
Quickly finding ways to entertain and connect with one another that didn't involve a screen, social media or modern technologies.
Passing information from one hiker to the other via word of mouth and trail logs.
Real, meaningful conversations.
Inside jokes.
Breaking out randomly into random tune.
Making parodies to every song we remembered the chorus to and singing them at the top of our lungs as we marched up along the long Appalachian Trail.
Laughing. Crying. Sharing. Being comfortable in silence with one another.
Running into friends time and time again hundreds of miles apart.

The community that forms around the trail, on and off of it.
Trail magic. The overwhelming joy of finding a cooler containing cold soda and chips.
The trail angels.
Strangers welcoming us into their homes letting us escape from bad weather. Bathe. Sleep on real beds. Eat home cooked meals. And enjoy simple comforts such as water that does not require filtration.
Hitch hiking from trail heads to towns to resupply.
Resupplying from Boxes. Gas stations. Walmarts.

Stopping throughout the day to inspect and oogle over various vegetation growths, insane looking fungus, bizarre bugs, rock formations and the crazy ways trees had grown.
The ever changing terrain.
Walking on beds of pine needles felt like clouds.
Rock scrambles that required all four limbs.
Bog boards over pits of mud and swamp.
Tangles of roots reaching over one another, over rocks and even more roots.
Emurging out of the green tunnel to views of mountains with reflecting lakes at their bases.
Rows and rows of ridges consuming one another.
Eventually being able to meditate while walking.
Finding comfort and solace in silence.

Knowing it's completely on you to make it to Maine but at the same time everyone is in it together.

Maine was by far my favorite state.

It was the most beautiful state out of the fourteen, filled with amazing views, crystal clear lakes, rainbow sunsets & sunrises. Maine seemed to be a combination of the terrain of the previous thirteen states, adding in her own spice. She was also the toughest state, Southern Maine was no joke, she was brutal and kicked my little ass. Southern Maine made my feet bleed and gave me shin splints so bad that on numerous nights I hobbled into camp with watering eyes and a mouth full of swear words.

Crossed the New Hampshire and Maine boarder with the best people possible people!

Chill-a-While, Croc Rocket, CindeRella (me), Woodchuck, Detox & Keychain.

Southern Maine instantly held up to its reputation. All throughout New Hampshire everyone kept saying Southern Maine is the Hardest part, just wait. Boulder mazes, steep rock slab inclines and declines, more rock climbing then before.

Detox climbing up rebar.

Croc Rocket testing out sleeping on a bear box.

Mahoosic Notch

Mahoosic Notch is considered either the hardest or funnest mile on the trail, I had a blast! Running, scrambling, and squeezing through it seeing which one of our group could find the most inventive way of getting through the car sized boulder field. Keychain managed to do the whole thing without taking her pack off.

This quote will forever stick with me.

What my feet looked like after the beginning of southern Maine, blistered and sore, but they felt much better then my shins did.

Andover, ME

Icing my Shin splints.

Yukon, a previous thru hiker helped me out when I need badly to rest my shins.

Yukon, KimChi, Rock Ocean.

The general store in Andover had the best french toast, with real maple syrup (I swear I drank more maple syrup then humanly possible here), Mmmmm.

Height of Land

Sabbath day pond was the first of Maines infamous crystal clear lakes.

Took a break to swim and do laundry.

Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to

A bunch of the lakes I came across had canoes.

If you look closely... you'll see the burn hole in my right darn tough..

The couple that took us into their cabin for the night in Rangely, ME.

It was their 50th anniversary.

"MEDINNAAAA?!?! Where are your?!?"

The Night Hiking Bitches (our group name) soon became the Night Caving Bitches

Hello Mr.Frog.

Piazza Rock

Saddleback Mountain

A convient spot to escape the wind while resting our feet.

The 2,000 mile marker was one of the most exciting mile markers.

Celebrated with Keychain, Woodchuck & Chill-a-While by yipping, yelling, howling and singing.

(Our parody to the chorus of "I would walk 500 miles")

I can hike two thousand miles

And I can hike two hundred more

Just to be the hiker that makes it to Katahdin

And to fall down at the sign

And we backpack

Up along the long Appalachian Trail

Stratton, ME

The police chief of Carrabassett, ME gave us a hitch into town. He shuttled hikers all weekend and had a contest going on with one of the other police chief to see who could shuttle the most thru hikers.

Sorting our resupply.

Chill found a four leaf clover.

Me, Denny & Chill-a-While.

Tink, Horse, me & Chesapeake.
At a church breakfast feed from "Yardsales" church in Stratton Maine.

It was the first time I had seen them since Pennsylvania!

Keychain telling us a wild tale.

I ran into tons of old faces in Maine, including Guildenstern whom I hadn't seen since Georgia.

My trail log entry.

A privy and the composting setup.

How my legs looked nightly.

Chill built a driftwood seahorse.

Me, Chill & Woodchuck built a school bus size fish out of driftwood, complete with a tail, ribcage and head on some random lake in Maine.

The ribcage.

The tail.

The coolest looking fungus yet.

The infamous Kennebec river crossing. The water is known to rise a few feet suddenly without warning and hikers are strongly advised to take advantage of the ferryman (pictured below) who provides safe passage.

Caratunk, ME

Me about to consume a burger the size of my face.

Keychain & Pathfinder.

The infamous "Trail Devil"

Moxie Bald

Provided one of the most picturesque and beautiful sunsets of the trail.

Mushrooms.

Keychain catching a sunrise.

Croc Rocket.

Gator Tator

One of the four actual river fordings.

Most of the fordings in the book weren't actual fordings (maybe if it had been a wetter season), they were more like rock hops.

Monson, ME

Monson was the last town before the hundred mile wilderness & is the last town before reaching Katahdin.

Pete's Place was a quaint and hiker friendly eatery.

Parks, was an awesome human. He carried extra trail logs and pens to put in shelters that were in need. He was always helping others and was a joy to be around.

The best candy bar EVER!!!

While in Monson some of our old hiking buddies kidnapped us and took a Side Trip to Maines Coast.

The coast of Maine was beautiful. We even spotted a few seals!

The 100 mile wilderness

We were obviously excited to enter the 100 mile wilderness, it meant that we were only 114 miles away from Katahdin, the thing we had been working for over the 2,100 miles.

Little Wilson Falls

Was by far the prettiest waterfall on the entire trail. It was 40 foot slate waterfall. The jutting slate acted like stairs and you could climb all the way to base. I spent a good chunk of time taking it all in, if the sun didn't set, I would've stayed a lot longer.

Barren Ledges

Felt and looked like you were standing atop the edge of the earth.

Some interesting spiderweb textured algae in one of the streams.

Screw Auger Falls - Gulf Hagas Trail
It was recommended to us to take the extra 5 mile Gulf Hagas Trail loop, we decided against it, but did go the extra .01 to see Screw Auger falls. If I were to do it over I would do the extra 5 miles, I've heard amazing reviews from fellow thru hikers (Croc Rocket & Slow Ride) that it was their favorite 5 miles of the entire trip, and was filled with breath taking waterfalls. Below are pictures of Screw Auger.

Chill-a-While, being a wizard, as usual!

Me attempting the be nimble...

The elusive Woodchuck, finally captured in a photo.

My moose!!!! Her name is Sir Dilbert Dublin, the Earl of Haggas.

Yes, we named the random moose we came across... This beautiful creature walked on the trail with us for a few hundred metres, until stopping here to munch on some green. It was the first moose I saw in Maine and would be the last one I saw alive.

Some awesome trail maintenance, I was really impressed with the MATC throughout the entire state, labeling every summit, building lots of stairs, and just being on top of their game.

Logan Brook Lean-to

Keychains shoes could talk.

The bucket resupply I had dropped somewhere in the middle of the 100 mile wilderness.

Started hiking at 3:40 am and caught this beautiful sunrise at Antlers Campsite. Stopped to make some coffee and eat breakfast to this beautiful view before continuing on with my 30 mile day.

The first time I saw Mama K.

3 girls + 30 miles of hiking + 1st view of Katahdin = a few tears.

My second view of Mt.Katahdin on Rainbow Ledges.

My last shelter log entry included stick figure drawings of The Night Hiking Bitches.

The elusive woodchuck, only ever spotted on the Appalachian Trail.

Photographs of this rare creature are hard to come by.

Incase you didn't know we were goofs.

Big Mama K!
The view from Abol Bridge, only 15.1 miles away!

We camped out at Abol Bridge campsites in order to put off our summit until Oct 1st, determined to summit in good weather, the next two days were forecasted for torrential downpour.

I saw a lot of moose in Maine, We arrived to Abol Bridge during hunting week. The little grocery store was also an inspection station, so the only visitors besides stinky hikers were hunters getting their moose tagged. I know its a little unsavory, but here is me & Horse with another moose.