Day 122 Lasts

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 southbound thru hikes. Their son had thru hiked a few years ago and they were very excited to talk with us. One of the hikers had the same tent as me. I’ll just say she had pitched it quite poorly. So I mentioned that we had the same tent and she asked if I had any tips for pitching it. I hadn’t pitched my tent yet so I offered to show her how I do it. Hopefully my lesson helped. It was funny having an audience for the last time I pitched my tent as an AT thru hiker. 


We did our last bear hang and tonight will be our last night in our tents. 


Tomorrow we will hike 20 miles in the pouring rain and get to the base of Katahdin. From there, Ashley and Brooke will pick us up and we will drive 2 hours to my parents’ cabin. We will spend Monday there, then all four of us will summit Katahdin with what is supposed to be beautiful weather on Tuesday. 


I’m feeling quite sad that the hike is ending. I have very much enjoyed this experience. I feel so grateful for all of the growth, beauty, difficulty, and joy that this journey has given me. I feel a little lost knowing that it’s ending. I have so much to be excited for, but I will definitely miss this hike. I will miss being in the woods every day, taking the good days with the bad and working every day toward one specific goal. This hike has been everything I hoped and dreamed it would be. As it’s coming to a close I want to take everything I learned and carry it with me back into my life after the trail. 


Good night,

Walker 

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