Last stop!

What in the world is going on? I have had the most world wind experience in the last 24 hours, and now I'm trying to sort it all out a bit hung over in Greenville, ME. I made it to Maine!

I haven't written anything in a while because I've been cruising along at a good pace and not really spending any time in towns, not that the towns have actually had internet. New Hampshire was really pretty and lived up to the hype of folks talking about how difficult it was. I still managed a couple of 20s in the Whites just to spite those SOBOs, but they definitely took a toll on me. The trail up this way isn't so much a trail as often traveled rock slides. It just goes straight up mountains without a thought to making it easy by offering even a single switchback. The first 60 miles of Maine were so grueling and steep that there were parts I would have been wearing a rock climbing harness if I was working with kids. The ATC has a fun habit as well of warning you to avoid stream crossings and other hazzards mostly caused by bridges on the trail that are out or under construction. They will come up with rediculous detours to address these closures that take hikers miles out of the way, but the crossings are easy rock hops over creeks where bridges aren't necessary. I don't mind agencies being over cautious about things like this, but shortly after the last one of these I hit a part of the trail where I had to down climb a flipping waterfall. So dangerous, and there was no other option for getting around. I didn't realize it was the trail at first and was so confused as to where the trail could possibly go.

I met a friend I've been hiking with for the last couple weeks named lower case b. We met at the start of the Whites and he was planning on summiting the day after I on Katahdin so he helped me keep pace and shared in the hardships. He lives on the North Side of Pittsburgh, and has a brother who lives in Goleta, CA whose ex wife is a bartender at the Old Town Tavern, my favorite watering hole in Santa Barbara county. The world is small. He has been a pleasure to walk with, but is taking a zero here in town today while I press on to finish on Monday.

Things have been so rough up here that everything seems to be falling apart. My water bladder was the first thing to go, so now I have a gatorade bottle with a hose running in through the cap instead of that. My shirt then wore through in several spots on my back and I'm sure I will lose the left sleeve by the time I'm done. The other day the tip of b's trekking pole fell off, then the next day his other tip fell off, then the next day one of mine fell off. Not good advertising for Black Diamond whose trekking poles seem to have a 1900 mile limit. I myself look a little tattered as I have not showered since Ally left 4 weeks ago, and am so tired from trying to maintain my pace through the mountains that I quit several times a day. There is never a road when I quit, so I just keep going. Because of this I think I am the fastest section hiker to have done the trail. Maine at the start was so rough that b and I turned Maine into a curse word that we shout when we slip or fall or step into giant mud bogs.

Last night we were coming to the road crossing to get into town to buy some groceries. b always hikes ahead of me cause he is really fast and as I get to the road I here all this commotion and people talking about Stillers. He had run into a family who were out hiking for the day. They were from Pittsburgh and up in the area to support their son who is hiking the trail and will finish on Friday. They gave us some sodas and drove us to town very excited about meeting us feeding us all this food in acramped car they stuffed us into with our packs on our laps and they jsut kept throwing food at us. They drove us to town and I wanted to go to the outfitter to get fuel. We get in there and the grandmother is running around with the shop employee walking all over the place and I can't get any fuel cause she keeps talking to him and then all of the sudden she is behind the counter and the rest of the family keeps talking to b and I. I finally get some fuel and head outside where the family continues to talk to us and distract us when all of the sudden the grandmother comes out of the shop with 2 brand new pairs of Leki Makalu trekking poles and gives them to us! b and I just stood there stunned, these are $140 a set. I still can't believe it. So we took some pictures and they left us sitting on the sidewalk with 8 poles between the two of us. Unreal. The funny thing was that while the grandmother was running around I was talking to the aunt about the generosity of people on the trail and how humbling that is. Epic trail magic! b and I then went and celebrated at the Black Frog bar and then went and slept on the public dock here on Moosehead lake. Still haven't bought groceries.

This will be my last food buy and my last entry from the trail. I have 114 miles left to go and enter into the 100 mile wilderness today where I am really hoping there are no computers. If all goes according to plan I will be out on Monday the 16th having completed my journey. I have nop idea what I will do after that as my guide book stops there. I will miss having a book that tells you what your days ahead are going to be like. Hope all is well and spread the trail magic!

-Wrong Way