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Epilogue

I am officially an Appalachian Trail thru hiker. We hiked the AT from start to finish. It took 125 days, with 20 days off. Counting my 2020 attempt, I have hiked over 2,830 miles of the Appalachian Trail. Including days off we averaged 17.58 miles a day for 125 days. Not counting days off we averaged over 20 miles a day. It was harder, more beautiful, and more worthwhile than I hoped for or expected. When I think back on the hike as a whole, the generosity of our friends and families is foremost in my mind.   My biggest fears going into the hike were related to health and weather. When asked for prayer topics, these were the primary two items that came to my mind. The largest injury suffered through the entire hike was when Tyler cut his finger after a fall in New York. Otherwise we had all of the minor blisters, sore joints and muscles that you would expect, but we had no major injuries. We were given remarkable weather throughout the hike. Without a hint of exaggeration, I believe we
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Day 125 Summit Day

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Today we finished the Appalachian Trail.   A quick note before I get into the update for today. In a separate post I will write out an epilogue where I go over my broader thoughts and experiences of the trail. For today, I will write like I have for all the other days, capturing my memories and sharing my initial thoughts.   I slept well last night between 9PM and 4AM. We woke up early to make the 2 hour drive to Katahdin Stream trailhead. We grabbed left over pancakes from the day before and hopped in the car. The drive to the trailhead went smoothly. We arrived at Baxter and made it to the parking lot with some time to spare. We registered with the park ranger and got our AT Thru Hiker finisher cards.  Spencer and I are 40th and 41st people to finish the AT this year.  Spencer, Brooke, Ashley and I started hiking at around 7:30 with 5 miles to the summit.   The initial ascent was quite easy. With 10 miles out and back to hike we really weren’t in a rush. Ashley and Brooke hiked at a
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Day 124 Lakeville Zero

Today we took the day off at my parents’ cabin. It rained most of the day, so we were glad with our decision to postpone. The weather looks like it will be perfect tomorrow. It should be an incredible end to an incredible journey. Goodnight, Walker
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Day 123 Into Baxter

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Today we hiked out of the 100 Mile Wilderness and entered Baxter State Park, the home to Mt Katahdin. I did not sleep well last night. I’m not sure why, but I had a hard time getting comfortable given the heat. Fortunately the rain held off until after we packed up our tents, so we were able to keep everything dry. We started hiking at around 7:45.   The rain didn’t hold off forever. It started pouring just after we started hiking. We missed a couple views in the morning but nothing major. We passed a few lakes and had very minimal elevation change.   We hiked over Rainbow Ledges, a short climb up where we would have had good views of Katahdin on a clear day. Throughout the day we passed signs that showed the distance to the main peak of Katahdin, Baxter peak.   Maine has a lot of roots and mud. We were so soaked by the rain that we just splashed through the puddles, it’s not like our feet could get any more wet.   Before noon we exited the 100 Mile Wilderness. Overall the 100 Mile Wil
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Day 122 Lasts

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Today we had a lot of our last time doing things on trail.   I slept very well last night. I was asleep around 10PM and woke up after 6. Spencer says there was an amazing sunrise but I slept through it. Oh well. We started hiking around 7:40 with 25 miles to go.   For the first few miles we hiked around Lower Jo Mary lake. We made it to the opposite side from where we camped and there was a pretty nice sandy beach.   At the far end of the lake we had a fantastic view of Katahdin. Overall the trail was nice and flat. We had a lot of pleasant woods walking and a couple more beaches. We stopped at one for lunch. After lunch we climbed one more small mountain called Nesuntabunt Mountain. This was our final climb before Katahdin. We had excellent views from the top. After Nesuntabunt we had 10 easy miles to camp. We made good time. There was a quite precarious bridge across Rainbow Stream.   We got to camp around 6:30. We talked with some other hikers who were just a couple days into their
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