Good news!

I made it out alive and still on my feet!

The 100 mile wilderness was crazy. It started with a 7 hour 10 mile hike up Mt. Katahdin, a 5267ft crazy mountain in Baxter State Park. I made a friend the night before and we hiked up together. Once past the tree line the wind started to blow, and we had to rock climb up to the table lands, where we walked against strong winds up to the summit. A few times I thought I would be blown off the mountain if I didn’t duck and hug a rock. But we made it! It was crazy, and I loved it.

The next day we hiked out.There were a few people at the shelter and we soaked our feet in the creek to soothe the pain. My shoulders were also killing me, so tender after such a long hike in. We cooked our dinner, chatted a bit and then went right to sleep.

Waking up is really easy on the trail. As soon as first light comes I’m usually ready to wake up and get going. I’m on the trail by 7 most days and get my best hiking done in the morning while my legs are still fresh and I feel energized from my breakfast. The temp is still cool which is nice for hiking up giant mountains.

The trail seems to go up every stinking mountain and down the steepest side. At the top of one mountain was an old tower, I climbed up it and got a view of all the mountains surrounding in a perfect 360. Sometimes when i get to the top of a mountain I can’t stop laughing and smiling because I can hardly believe where I am and that my legs got me there. After the 3rd day I noticed some pain in my left knee. The next day it got worse, and the next day worse and in the other knee. I heard about a hostel out in the middle of the wilderness so I headed there. When you reach the dock you blow an air horn and a boat comes across the lake to pick you up (which was so cool). I was there with these 3 fat old guys and my friend Johnathan. We all sawed logs that night on squeaky mattresses. It was really nice to be out of the bugs. We also had all you can eat pancakes for brekkie.

For the next few days my knees were still killing me, and I was taking a lot of Advil etc. and it didn’t quite make the pain go away, so I’ve taken a few rest days where I’ve only done 4  miles.Yesterday me and my two friends Erik and Eden hiked a hefty 16 miles to get to the last shelter before town.

At one point I missed a turn and was hiking off the trail for almost 25 minutes. I suddenly realized that I didn’t see any white blazes so I back tracked to find that my friends were gone. I started to panic because I still couldn’t find the trail and I didn’t see anyone around. I finally found it and then started hiking only to have my knees start to hurt really bad again. Long story short, I cried, I prayed, I freaked out, and then I caught up to them at the next shelter. Thank God. They thought I was ahead. Then we continued on for 8 more miles into the evening.

At the 1.1 mile marker to our lean-to that night we found a cooler of soda and candy bars for sale by honor system. We all had one of each, Erik had two mountain dews, and we motored to the lean-to hopped up on sugar. I went straight to bed, too tired to eat, and we woke up and hiked into town today to meet all our friends who were already at the hostel.

I’ve met a lot of funny, nice and interesting people in the shelters in the evenings. We’ve had lots of laughs and good stories have been told. I’m really enjoying the company out here. A few funny things that happened today are: after my shower and shave we each got to pick some loner clothes out of the hiker closet, i found some flowery shorts and a yellow t shirt to match. The guys all wore tight shorts and wacky shirts and we all went out to eat BBQ. At the hostel these 3 crazy guys were taking shots of pickle juice and whipped cream vodka mixed together. They all seemed to like it, but I politely declined. One of the hikers has her dog with her, “Riffle” she dyed his eye brows blue… I don’t know why…

The long and short of it is… pain in knees, a MILE IS A LOT LONGER THAN A KILOMETER, jaw dropping panorama mountain views, great people and lots of fun so far!

I hike out tomorrow! What else ya got for me Maine??? Bring it on!!