As we were hiking through the great state of Maine, Jeremy started to ask people, "What's the main thing about Maine?" The responses varied. The most common being roots and rocks or the mountains devoid of switchbacks. That question lingered with me though. As I sat on the flight back to our home state of Arkansas, I pondered it deeply. The main about Maine to me was that it was the beginning to such a long anticipated end.
Let's rewind to when we crossed over the border from New Hampshire into the wild and wet state of Maine. We were greeted with a weathered sign announcing our entrance into our LAST state on the Appalachian Trail. We finally made it. So much effort exerted, and alas we've entered our final state. That being said, we still had a solid 280 plus miles of the most rugged, wilderness terrain left. Since we stayed at a shelter just a half-mile past the NH/ME border that evening, the next morning was our first full day of Maine. It was a long, strenuous 11 hours of hiking and only making it 16.5 miles. That's an average of 1.5 mph, which set the record for our lowest daily average speed of the trail. Hands down, it was the most difficult day on the trail. The first five miles took us THREE HOURS. Those five miles were plagued with short yet brutal 250-500 ft. climbs straight up and down wet granite slabs. It was equivalent to climbing up a slip and slide lathered with oil.
The afternoon terrain followed like a evil twin to the morning. We went through the Mahoosic Notch which is infamous for being the most difficult mile on the whole A.T. That proved to be nothing less than true. The Mahoosic was 1.1 miles of scrambling up, over, and thru 5-12 ft. boulder formations while lugging our 25-30lb packs. Initially, it was an adrenaline rush similar to the feeling you get at the beginning of a big race, but after 20 minutes or so my arms grew weary from constantly hoisting over the maze of rock formations. With all that said, we made it through in a whopping 1 hour 25 minutes which turned out to be a bit faster than average. We had some leisurely fun with it though--taking pictures and videos as we pleased. When the end of that prolonged mile came to sight, we were so relieved we stopped at a nice campsite and had lunch.
After lunch, we climbed the Mahoosic Arm. It proved to be minorly difficult, and a lot easier going up than it would be going down. By the time we got to the road crossing 13 miles from where we originated that day, it was 6:30 p.m. We had the option to head into town to enjoy the luxuries of showering and sleeping indoors, but we were adamant to stick with our original plan and make it to the shelter only 2.5 miles away. Acorn and Lucky B were at the road crossing when we got there, but they gave in to the town's appealing amenities. We pushed on and headed up another 1000 ft climb making it to the shelter just before dark. Little did we know that would be the last time we would see Acorn and Lucky B on the trail.
The next day was the beginning of thunderstorms almost every evening until the end of our journey. We would arrive at a shelter around 5:30- 6:00 p.m., and deliberate whether or not to stay. Thankfully, we succumbed to yearn for rest, and low and behold a downpour released into the night. We presumed this was the reason behind Maine's corroding footpath to Katahdin.
As we had come to experience, the terrain in Maine was the worst yet. If you were to take the most arduous parts of each trail state and compact them, you might receive a fraction of Maine. There were some easy sections though, and trust me we did not take those for granted. One day going into Rangely, Maine, we we were running terribly low on food. We rationed to the best of our ability, but when the day came for us to resupply we were ten miles from town and had only five granola bars between the two of us. Thank God the terrain was relatively level because when you're ascending a mountain and you're hungry, you're stomach literally feels like it's eating itself.
When we arrived at the road crossing for Rangely, we started to hatch a plan on how we'd get into town. This particular town was 10 miles to the east of where we were at. The further from the trail a town is, the harder it is to get a ride. Our options were limited to calling a shuttle, asking a day hiker for a hitch, or (my personal least favorite) standing next to the road and sticking out the good ole thumb.
However, today was our special day. When we arrived to the trail there was family coming back from their day hike heading towards their vehicle. A lady named Lois, her son, and future daughter-in-law were our Trail Angels for the day. They offered us a ride into town and the five of us packed into a Nissan Altima and cruised the easy 10 miles to town. On our way, Lois offered to take us back to her vacation cabin and eat some of their extra food. We eagerly excepted the generous offer. If there is one thing we have learned at that point in the hike, it is not to ever turn down exceptional offers like that. But wait....it gets better. She offered us the use of her washing machine and shower. Wow. The absolute kindness of strangers is almost too much sometimes! This was a total miracle. We wanted to take showers when we got to town but we couldn't stay the night because we hadn't hiked enough miles for the day, so we didn't really have any options other than to just resupply and hike out. That is, until we met this awesome family. The rest is about as good as any hiker could've dreamt. We showered, washed our clothes, and ate until our bellies were satisfied. And to tack a little cherry on the top of the experience, Lois offered to take us to the Market to get our resupply and wait for us to be done so she could take us back to the trail head. That was after she had packed us up with miscellaneous goods--granola, jelly, bars, leftover spaghetti, chocolate, ect. What a glorious experience. We are forever grateful for the kindness of strangers. Thank you to Lois and her family!
The next couple days were filled with various ascents and descents through the boot eating state of Maine. We conquered the Saddleback Range and then our final "real" mountains as others would call them--the Bigelows. We caught up with some friends we hadn't seen since Harper's Ferry, and we knew we were just a day behind Buzz, Tandem, and Mio.
At this point in the hike, we were evaluating who we would be summiting with on Katahdin. Who were the final faces of our Appalachian Trail thru-hike? Some of the people we met in the last 2-3 weeks were: Speedy, Impact, Chamomile and Coley, Fiver, Nemo, Go Far, Deep Blue, Harry, Big Spoon, and Toast. They were some of the coolest people that we had the pleasure to spend some time with before the end.
After the Bigelows, the elevation did indeed flatten out, but the terrain was still very coarse. Roots, rocks, bogs, and river fordings, that was Maine's game for hikers. When we got to Monson, Maine-- the last trail town of the Appalachian Trail-- it all hit us. This was it. Our final trail town. Our final resupply. Our final hostel stay. Our final A.T. shower. Our final clothing wash. Our final town meal. Our final hot breakfast on the trail. There were so many "lasts" the nostalgic feeling was hard to detain. The only thing left was the 100 mile wilderness and summiting Mount Katahdin. At this point, we just wanted to be done. We had no desire to savor the journey any longer. Our bodies were beat. Our minds were drained.
We planned to stay the night in Monson at a hostel called "Shaw's", and embark on the wilderness first thing in the morning. We resupplied in Greenville, ate at the only restaurant in Monson, and bought our routine gallon of chocolate milk to finish off that evening. Around 4 in the morning, Jeremy woke me up and asked me to pray for him because he didn't feel well. I didn't think anything of it because we had gorged on food the night before like we usually do when we get to a trail town, so I figured it was just an extra full belly. But none-the-less, I prayed for him and dozed back off. When we woke again around 6:30 am, to pack up our belonging and head down to breakfast, Jeremy headed to the bathroom because he still wasn't feeling well. As I was waiting for him in the bedroom, I get a text from him, "HELP!!! I'm in the bathroom on the left." Needless to say, the rest of the day and into the afternoon consisted of me cleaning out the trash can full of regurgitated liquids, wetting cold wash clothes to comfort his feverish head, and coaching him into sipping Gatorade or water every 15 minutes. It was a long day to say the least, but we made it through. We reasoned that it was food poisoning because I never had any symptoms and we had shared everything minus the food he ate the day before. Putting the past behind, the next morning was a new day. Truly a testament to the Lord's mercies being new every morning.
The rest of the story is history. We made it through Maine's infamous wilderness, and also were reconnected with our friends Buzz, Mio, and Tandem. The last couple nights on the trail were quite nostalgic. We savored the last bit of the thru-hiking experience by stopping to pick the blueberries; making jokes about how filtering water, peanut butter, and pasta sides will be a haunting memory, and just genuinely enjoying the camaraderie of our fellow thru-hikers. On our last night, we met the acoustic duo, Big Spoon and Toast. They were thru-hikers who carried their fiddle and banjo almost the entire trail, and made for some entertaining camp nights. They were unique and talented guys to say the least.
We celebrated our final night by sitting around the campfire listening to the music from Big Spoon and Toast and reminiscing the trail life memories. It was one of the best nights of the whole trail. At dusk, we all headed off to our final night of sleep on the A.T., each person giddy with the excitement of finishing this long journey yet anxious as to what the future holds.
The next morning everyone woke around sunrise and we shared our last breakfast on the Appalachian Trail--pop tarts and protein bars. We swapped one another's itinerary for after summiting, and how our means of getting back home. Jeremy's parents were planing to pick us up, but they weren't going to be at Baxter State Park until the Thursday, August 21st, and we planned on summiting the day before that, so we didn't have much of a plan other than waiting. Thankfully, Buzz offered us a ride to the town of Millinoke where we could get a hotel until Jeremy's parents came. We were so grateful for that, otherwise we'd be sleeping in the woods one more night.
We started climbing Katahdin right before 8:00 am. The climb was worthy of being the grand finale of the Appalachian Trail. It started off steady and smooth, but that didn't last long. Before we knew it, we were climbing over slippery boulders yet again. We climbed about 3,500 ft. in three miles, and then the terrain leveled out for a mile or so. We only had one mile and 700 vertical ft. left until the glorious summit. After the last short scrabble of our Appalachian Trail career, we were greeted with applauses from Mio, Big Spoon, and Toast on the summit of Mount Katahdin. We passed 51 people going up the mountain, and there were at least that many on the summit. As I walked toward the weathered sign that I had seen so many times in pictures, I realized the simplicity before me. It wasn't anything like I had anticipated. There were no tears, no fireworks, no rainbows, or clapping monkeys. It was just us and 50 other people meandering on top of a mountain in the wilderness of Maine. I touched the sign and that was it. The official ending to our almost 5 month journey.
We took our place with our fellow thru-hikers, and over the next hour our group grew from 6 to 11. We took turns taking pictures of one another with the rustic sign as our mascot. We sat around eating snacks while Big Spoon and Toast played some acoustics. The day hikers we passed up the mountain sprinkled in throughout the two hours we were on the summit. People congratulated us on the mighty accomplishment and we would humbly thank them knowing that it was only by the grace of God we could ever hope to finish something like this. Around 1:00 p.m., we decided to descend as a group. Buzz, Mio, Tandem, Big Spoon, Toast, Jeremy, and I filed down the mountain with hope in our hearts and sweet memories at our back. We snacked our last wild blueberries of the trail and trekked back down to the campground. The 4 month 20 day mission was complete, and we are now Appalachian Trail thru-hikers. We have reached the end to so many beginnings.
