My Trails

I lost 40 pounds, three toenails, and I guess you could say, six months of my life.

I still walk like a baby deer when I first get up.

My foot still hurts and so does my knee.

The bottoms of my feet are numb and my digestive system seems to be all out of whack.

No matter how much sleep I get, I still feel tired much of the day.

My favorite shoes – even when I go to the store – are my crocs.

In the store I actually passed up a tube of toothpaste because it was too heavy.

I still crave fluff-a-nutter sandwiches and Snicker bars, but I can’t stand the thought of raman noodles or tuna.

I don’t wear anything synthetic, preferring instead the soft feel of cotton.

If you watched me walk across the parking lot you would wonder how in the world I walked 2,184 miles.

With all the pain, all the trouble, and all the suffering, I wouldn’t trade my hike on the AT for anything. It was the greatest and best thing I have ever done.

9/28/12 – 2184.2 miles
Baxter Peak – Mt. Katahdin – northern terminus of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

At 9:20 am, on September 28, 2012, I became an official thruhiker of the AT when I summited Mt. Katahdin in Maine, the end of my 2000+ mile journey. It will probably take a while for everything to sink in, and I will reserve my thoughts on the past six months until I have digested my feelings a little more. This is more of an update to let everyone know I am fine, and to thank all those who have been following me here on my blog.

The morning of my summit was near freezing temperature and I shivered in my sleeping bag while waiting for dawn to break. Around 5am, I broke camp and walked a quarter mile to the trail leading up the mountain. It was close to 6am when I signed the register, and aided by my headlamp, started the 4000′ climb to Baxter Peak. The trail was pretty easy at first, but after a mile or so became a boulder scramble and much more technical. Many times I had to pull myself up to a ledge or crawl over a slippery rock face as I worked higher on the mountain. It was definitely the hardest climb of the whole trip, but I had fun in the challenge of this final assent.

After a mile of hard climbing, the trail reached the tablelands and the terrain was easy from there to the summit. It took me 3.5 hours to the top but the view and feelings of accomplishment made it all worth while. I spent about 40 minutes on top, savoring the moments, enjoying the weather, sharing in the friendship with other thruhikers joining me at the summit, and eating a celebritory candy bar.

The climb down took a little longer. I guess the urgency was over and I just wanted to return safely from the mountain. When I reached Katahdin Stream Campground, I caught a ride to Millinocket with another thruhiker whose parents had come to pick him up on his summit day.

I booked into a motel for a couple of nights and will begin my transition back to New York tomorrow. My poor body is tired and sore. I always thought it would be my knee that would take me off the trail but it was a foot that suddenly halted me for two days. I’m still not sure what happened, the pain is on the top of my right foot and still hurts some. I think I need some rest.

I went to the store and bought new jeans – it’s been quite a while since I’ve worn size 34 – and I need to get a belt to hold them up. I lost a total of 40 lbs which will be hard to keep off – I still have a raging appetite.

Everyone will want to know, “what’s next?” and I really can’t answer that totally. The only plan for now is to get out west as soon as I can and see my Mom. Then it will be wherever the wind blows me.

9/24/12 – 2138 miles
For two days now I have been resting at a place called White House Landing, located on the Pemadumcook Lake, 45 miles south of my final Appalachian Trail destination. For reason I can’t explain… well, maybe 2100 miles, my foot suddenly developed pain behind the toes, which became more and more sore as I continued my hike. Somewhere after descending White Cap Mt., I informed the Troverts and Kleenex that I was in trouble. I knew it would take a lot of pain to stop me – I had a lot of it then.

There is still plenty of time to finish my thruhike, Baxter State Park doesn’t close until Oct 15. The bittersweet ending will be that I will miss summiting with my friends. They want me to shuttle north and climb Katahdin with them, but I want more than anything for my journey to end on the Mountain and not some back road.

So my plan is to go on alone and finish this thing. I intend to go slow and easy on my foot, hoping it will get me there. I probably won’t have cell service from here to the end and I want to save what battery I have left, so you may not get any updates for a while. Wish me luck, I’m going to need it!

9/16/12 – 2064 miles
It was another good day of hiking. The temperature last night went down to 40 degrees and there is definitely a feeling of fall in the air. It was almost noon before we took our outermost layer of clothing off. The trail was relatively flat today except for a 1300 ft. climb over Moxie Bald Mountain. They name a lot of things bald in this state, which I take exception to.

N had a debate with Gip-C-Girl about the view on top of the mountain. N thinks we saw Katahdin from the top and Gip-C-Girl says no way. I am remaining neutral. The air is so clear from the cold front we could see an amazingly long way.

The trail followed the Piscataquis River for several miles today. It was so pretty along the water that we remarked how nice it would be to day-hike this section and stop at the scenic places along the river. There were two fords, the east and west branch, but the water was never higher than our knees.

Tonight we are camped in a pine forest six miles from Monson, ME. Tomorrow we will hit town early for breakfast and then check into a room for the night. We originally planned to zero in Monson but we should be able to get everything done by evening. The next section is the 100 mile wilderness which will take more planning and endurance to complete.

9/15/12 – 2047 miles
I am camped tonight at Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to. We were a little late getting to the trail this morning, everyone thought it was a good idea to eat a good breakfast before setting out on our next section. We plan on three days to reach Monson and then we will take our last zero there.

The hiking today went well. Based on the miles we have been doing, our best guess for reaching Katahdin is on the 26th or 27th of this month. There are too many variables for me to guess at this time, but if all goes well it will be close to then.