2024

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

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

Today we hiked our last mountain before Katahdin and we’re camping by a lake tonight.   I slept pretty well last night. We woke up around 6:30 AM and were hiking just after 7:30.   Since we camped on the ridge last night, we didn’t have a ton of climbing to do to hit the peaks for the day. Two of the three peaks on the ridge were wooded and had minimal views. These peaks were West Peak and Hay Mountain. However, the third peak called Whitecap Mountain, had fantastic views. We could clearly see Katahdin about 30 miles away as the crow flies. From this point, we still had about 80 miles of hiking to do. The trail is usually about twice as long as the straight line distance between two points. The first picture is Katahdin, and the other pictures are looking back towards the Bigelow Mountains, and the 100 mile wilderness behind us. We hung out at the peak of whitecap for a bit, then did our final major descent of the entire trail. From camp to the end of the descent was about 7 miles. We

Today we crossed 2,100 miles and had an amazing sunset to end the day.   I slept really well last night. We were next to a large stream that gave excellent background noise. We woke up at 6:30 AM and we’re hiking just after 7:40 AM.  We began the morning by climbing Barren mountain. At the beginning of the ascent, we crossed the 2100 mile mark. It’s crazy that this is our last 100 mile marker. There was a short fire tower on the top of Barren Mountain with only a ladder. They had removed the top structure due to safety concerns. We climbed about halfway up the ladder and enjoyed a nice view. Unfortunelty I forgot to take pictures. After Barren mountain we walked a ridge that had great views of the 100 mile wilderness around us. The woods between the views were very nice as well. We walked through a bog that was notable for containing a carnivorous flower called a purple picture plant. The bog itself was a cedar bog, which was pretty cool.                                                

Today we began the 100 Mile Wilderness, the most remote section of the AT. I slept incredibly well last night, with AC, no bugs, and a real bed. We slept in and my mom made us a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, and an orange glazed pastry. Real food was fantastic. Thank you so much! Shelby and my mom dropped us off at the trail just after 9:15 and we began our 17.6 mile day.  It was incredibly hot today, reaching over 90 degrees with a ton of humidity. Very quickly into our hike we decided to see if Shelby and my mom could meet us again at a road crossing 3 miles into the day. This way we could eat lunch in air conditioning and maybe get ice cream. It worked out! They picked us up around 11 and we went to the Monson General Store where we got sandwiches for lunch and ice cream for dessert. Just being out of the heat for an hour was fantastic. Shelby and my mom dropped us back off at the trail at around 12:15.   After lunch we began the 100 mile wilderness, a stretch of trail without any t