Some Animals on the AT

A sampling of some of the beautiful creatures we admired on the trail:





















October 15th marks the official cut-off date for climbing Katahdin in Baxter State Park, Maine (weather permitting.) This means that the thru-hiker season for northbound hikers is coming to a close. Congratulations to all the NOBO hikers!

Southbounders leave from Katahdin no earlier than June 1st, which is the official opening day to climb Katahdin (weather permitting.) Good luck to all SOBO hikers who are still trucking towards Springer Mountain, Georgia. Happy trails to you!

(Photo: Public Library in Gorham, New Hampshire)

Trail Superlatives

We are currently visiting with family, job hunting, and organizing thousands of pictures from our AT hike. We've also been thinking about the various states and sections of the trail. Here are some trail superlatives from our '07 thru-hike. These findings are specific to our AT experience. Other hikers may have different data based on their hikes. This information is not at all scientific. It simply explains some of our experiences on the trail.

States with the smoothest trail: Georgia (least rooty) and Virginia (least hilly)
State with the best deli sandwiches: New Jersey
States with the clearest water: Connecticut and Maine
State where we saw the most black bears: Virginia (We saw nine.)
State where we saw the most deer: Virginia (We saw too many to count.)
State where we saw the most timber rattlesnakes: Pennsylvania (We saw eight. We also saw rattlers in Virginia and New York.)
State with the best biscuits: Tennessee (At Miss Janet's)
States where we ate the most blueberries right on the trail: Pennsylvania and Maine
States where we ate the most blackberries right on the trail: Pennsylvania
State where we heard the most country music played at campsites or in restaurants: Vermont
State where the trail was most rocky: Pennsylvania
State where we experienced the most heat: Connecticut (This is where we were during a big heat wave that was all up and down the East Coast.)
State where it snowed the most: North Carolina
State where we hiked on the most ski slopes: Vermont
States with the best ice cream: Vermont (Ben & Jerry's) and Maine (Gifford's: a local piece of heaven!)
State where we saw the most Nascar racing stickers: Pennsylvania
State where we saw the biggest spider: Maryland
State with the most aggressive squirrels Maine (Red squirrels dropped pine cones on our tent and stole food out of people's backpacks. They also talk a lot and often don't use a nice tone.)
State with the most mud: Vermont (Sometimes the mud came up to our knees.)
States with the most rain: All the New England states
State where we were hailed on the most times: Maine
State where we saw the scariest lightening: New Jersey


Biggest burgers on the trail: Port Clinton Inn, PA, and White House Landing, ME
Biggest ice cream challenge on the trail: Summit Sundae Challenge at Appalachian Trail Cafe in Millenocket, ME. (Pennsylvania's Half Gallon Challenge at the halfway point is also serious.)
Most memorable climbs: Springer Mountain, GA (our first climb)
Clingman's Dome, TN (highest point on the AT, and we almost
blew off into the foggy, icy abyss)
Max Patch, NC (white out conditions)
Roan Mountain, TN (lots of pine trees, rhodos, and our climb right before we met up with family and friends for the first time on the trail.)
Out of Lehigh Gap towards Blue Mountain, PA (Steep, rocky, and barren on top from the Palmerton zinc factory pollution)
Killington, VT (gondola and ski lodge with cafe)
Moosilauke, NH (our first climb in The Whites)
Up to Franconia Ridge, NH (where the Whites got serious)
Mount Washington, NH (weather risks, tourism, and great people)
Mount Madison, NH (It took us forever, especially on the way
down.
Bigelow, ME (We were climbing in MAINE. And we couldn't
see a thing in the fog and rain!)
Katahdin, ME (One of the best moments of our lives.)




And some actual scientific data:

State with the largest tree: New York (The Dover Oak has a girth of 20 feet, 4 inches and is over 300 years old.)
State with highest AT mileage: Virginia
State with the least AT mileage: West Virginia


This post is dedicated to Bob G. since we don't blog often enough for his taste. :)

The Water in Maine

One of our favorite parts about hiking in Maine was the abundance of water. Not only did this make hiking easier without having to carry as much heavy water at a time, but it made for spectacular scenery. The trail ran near numerous ponds, lakes, streams, and rivers.

Here is a cow moose in a pond near Piazza Rocks:


Sometimes, we had to ford through the very cold rivers and streams.

Here is our hiker friend, Lion, fording Big Wilson Stream:



This video shows the beautiful Pierce Pond and the nearby lean-to where we ate lunch that day. Most of the trail shelters don't have views quite this nice, so it sure is a treat to take advantage of them.

(Video is simply a 360 degree view of the area. )



About 3 1/2 miles past the Pierce Pond lean-to is the Kennebec River. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) and Maine Appalachian Trail Club (MATC) strongly discourage hikers from fording this river. There is a power plant that releases water from a dam upriver. This causes the water to rise up to four feet in a matter of seconds. In 1985, a thru-hiker drowned while attempting to ford.

For many years, Steve "The Ferryman" Longley has organized a ferry across the Kennebec. He and several volunteers run a canoe ferry between the hours of 9-11am and 2-4pm. GG and I caught the 2pm ferry that day and enjoyed chatting with Dave, our canoe guide. We helped paddle, and admired the white blaze painted on the floor of the canoe. (This way the "purist" hikers like myself have the peace of mind of following the entire trail. The ATC wanted to stress that the ferry is the official white blaze route; not fording.) Amazingly, there are some hikers who have a beef with missing a ford, and it's a continual debate in the hiking community.

GG and Dave:


We went to The Ferryman's camp store in Caratunk, ME, to re-supply that day, and we were honored to meet Steve and thank him for running this service. True to his amazing character, Steve told us, "Every time I see a hiker, I see 100 people behind him or her. I see the family members and friends who love and worry about that hiker. That's why this ferry service is so necessary." At the end of the day, Steve surprised us with a postcard of himself in the Kennebec canoe. (I had already purchased one of these postcards to mail to my parents. That's how much I loved it.) Steve gave us this free one with a kind congratulations message on the back. I was so moved to have this gift and his signature. It is my most prized autograph that I own!

Steve is 50 years old and perhaps a future thru-hiker. We hope we know the year he decides to hike so we can bring him some trail magic!

Here is a view of Katahdin from Pemadumcook Lake. At this point, we were still 47.7 trail miles from the summit of Katahdin.


This is Crazy Bear crossing a creek the day before our Katahdin Summit. We were officially in Baxter State Park, and it felt great!


We also visited "Big Niagra Falls" while in Baxter State Park.


And of course, we could see LOTS of water from the summit of Katahdin. This is one of my favorite ponds that we could see from the top. We were so high up, that this picture was taken with full zoom. Isn't the color amazing?


Maine is just so gorgeous!

Cool Bird Blog

Back when we were hiking in Maryland, we met a wonderful couple out hiking and bird watching. Once we learned of their knowledge about birds, we asked them several questions about birds we had seen or heard on the trail. They taught us about the scarlet tanager, red winged blackbird, and more! They even worked as trail angels giving us candy and energy bars that they packed out specifically to give to thru-hikers.

Lisa and Warren or "The Bird Couple" have a wonderful blog about birds, the environment, and conservation. The site has great information and beautiful pictures. They also have a link to their Appalachian Trail section hikes. Feel free to check them out at http://birdcouple.com.

Thanks, Bush and Bush Wacker, for teaching us about the birds and pulling out your bird book! Enjoy your future hikes!

Video

Now that we have access to a computer again, we can post multiple pictures at a time as well as video clips.

Here is a video of Ron climbing Mount Madison back on August 11th. The clouds whizzing by give you an idea of how windy it was.





We'll post more videos in the future.

The Maine Coast

We would like to thank our family and friends for all of the wonderful comments, emails, and phone calls. This AT journey has been absolutely incredible, and your thoughts and prayers are what helped us all the way to Katahdin. Thanks so much for the support and encouragement.

After our September 5th summit, Carpenter drove us into Millenocket, ME, which is the closest town to Baxter State Park. GG was in the middle of his Summit Challenge when our parents arrived. 'Ole Man and NaviGator are former thru-hikers who now run the Appalachian Trail Cafe and nearby hostel. 'Ole Man recently created another AT challenge which consists of consuming 14 scoops of ice cream (one for each state of the trail), a king size Snickers, a banana, Reeces cups, a slice of pie, whipped cream, and hot fudge. Those who complete the challenge (consume all the food and keep it down for five minutes) get to keep their bowl, receive a Summit Challenge bumper sticker, and sign the wall of the cafe.

After hearing about this challenge, GG had to go for it. Since a bumper sticker was part of the prize, Ghetto was up for the challenge too. After all, the Blue Lagoon van still has space for a few more stickers.

The Summit Challenge starts out looking like this:



'Ole Man with GG:


Contestants smile at first:


Then, the only people smiling are the spectators:


Thirty or so minutes later, GG and Ghetto must dig deep:


Apparently, this is a lot tougher than it looks:



Ghetto finished with flying colors and got to sign the wall first:

GG only had a few drops of melted ice cream left, but he received full credit since he ate a plate of cheese fries before the challenge.

Upon commenting on the challenge, GG stated, "'Ole Man was out of bananas so he put several large scoops of Marshmellow Fluff in the bowl instead. I think that made it a lot harder." He added that the cup of coffee he drank during the challenge kept his body temperature at a safe level.

The next day, proved to be much more relaxing. Mom G. and Mom & Dad C. drove us to Bar Harbor, ME. For the next five days, we all consumed wonderful food. Siriwan and Jack took the Lobster Challenge numerous times and were successful. Every time we turned around, those two were off to eat more steamers.



During this trip, we also visited Acadia National Park. It was absolutely gorgeous. We went to Cadillac Mountain and Thunder Rocks, pictured below:



We are so fortunate to have seen the Maine mountains and now its coast as well:


We visited the adorable town of Camden, ME, as well as Booth Bay Harbor where we saw this sunset:


Mom and Dad C:

Mom C. got to enjoy her fried clams during the trip. Then, we visted Freeport. This is the home of the L.L. Bean Outlet Store complete with a bass pond inside.

As hikers, we're very appreciative for the trail work from L.L. Bean. They constructed the Piazza Rock Lean-to which is famous for the two-seat privy and cribbage board. (When we were on the trail, we had to go into the privy to see it for ourselves. There truly are two seats side by side with a cribbage board in-between. Humm....)

We concluded the trip with visits to two lighthouses and the neat city of Portland.

Thanks to our families for the wonderful trip!

The Big K

September 5, 10:30am

Happy Trails

Enter the Wilderness

We've been enjoying our days in Maine. The other day on top of Moxie Bald, we could view Katahdin way off in the distance. It was amazing to actually SEE our goal and the spot where the hiking portion of our journey will end. We hope to keep the other elements of our adventure alive and well once we return home.

Some of the lessons we've learned out here are to be flexible and work with plan B. (and sometimes C and D...) We've also learned the importance of perseverance. We've been amazed at the constant kindness of others. You're probably familiar with the term "Random Acts of Kindness." Well, the concept is alive and well on the Appalachian Trail. It's called "Trail Magic" and the providers are called "Trail Angels."

Trail angels may be other hikers who share some of their water before you get to the next water source. (Thanks, Trailblazed!) Trail Angels may be former thru-hikers who wait for the 2007 hikers at a road crossing and grill them burgers at 9:00 in the morning. (Thanks, PA Jeff!) Trail Angels may leave you Dunkin' Donuts coffee and breakfast sandwiches in your motel room while you go to the supermarket and re-supply at 7:00 am. (Thanks, Crazy Bear!) An angel may also be a familiar face who hikes up Mount Moosilauke with a backpack of cold brews for you to drink on the way down your first climb in the White Mountains. He then waits for you at a nearby road to drive you to town and treat you to dinner at a Mexican Restaurant. (Thanks, Carpenter!) A trail angel friend recently picked us up at ME 27 and let us relax at his Sugarloaf House. (Thanks, Stuntman!)

Most often, trail angels are people you will never meet, but they still leave sodas in the creek or fresh fruit and goodies in a cooler on the trail. We have constantly been touched by the people on this trip. The trail is an amazing place, and we're honored to be a part of it.

We just had the famous AYCE breakfast at Shaw's Boarding House in Monson, Maine. Now, it's off to the 100 Mile Wilderness and hopefully a September 5th summit of Katahdin. We'll be in touch after mile 2,175 (plus some, since a helicopter won't pick us up on top of Big K. We have to walk back DOWN that monster.)

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and support!