GET - AT Hike

Well, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of re-entering reality. We’re currently sitting on a couch, eating and watching a NASCAR race. Same old, same old!

We got to drive to Acadia National Park in Maine and see some beautiful coastline. We ran into our hiking friends Red Dog & Lucky Dog by chance in Bar Harbor and had dinner and drinks with them. Then we drove back to Rangely, Maine to pick up Andy’s broken backpack and came back to the Phairs for one last night of home-cooked dinner & good company. We set off the next day to get a rental car to drive to Portland and then back to South Carolina. After much ado, we got a Hyundai Tuscon that is very much like my Honda CR-V and packed up and got on the road. We stopped off in Freeport, home of the famous L.L. Bean store, and did a little shopping before heading to Portland. We walked around a bit in downtown Portland, checked out the port area, then ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant (we couldn’t resist!). After dinner we heading down the interstate toward home. We drove a couple of hours then booked a hotel in Mass. somewhere for the night. The next day we drove all the way to Columbia, SC, getting home around 1:45am.

Since then we’ve been seeing all of Andy’s friends and trying to organize the boxes of random stuff we sent home over six months on the trail. We also did our spring cleaning in September. None of our clothes fit either so we’ve had to go get some new outfits (darn). Other than that, we’re preparing to go to Gauley Fest, a white-water festival in West Virginia, this week and Andy’s brother’s wedding next week in Ohio. Then after that we’ll look for jobs, promise.

Thanks again a million times over to the Phair family for all their kindness and generosity - we’re so sorry you couldn’t keep Corley! Thanks to the Bellaire Moms for the HUGE card (awesome), HAT & Dan, beall+thomas, Sammi, Jeffrey & mom for the cards of congrats! Thanks to Mindy for the box of clothes to make us look like real humans again!

Thanks to everyone we met along the way who gave us support, and to all our contributors to the Great Eastern Trail! We’ll try to keep ya’ll updated on it’s progress.

That’s all for now!

Best,

susan, andy & corley

 We finally made it to the last mile of our journey!

We were so excited and nervous about the last day - a 4,000 foot climb in 5.2 miles, half of which is exposed above treeline.  Southbound hikers had been shaking their heads when they told us about Katahdin: “It’s a butt-kicker for sure”.  So we couldn’t sleep too well for the three nights leading up to our last day; we were like kids right before Christmas! 

We stayed at the thru-hiker campground in Baxter State Park the last night with some old buddies and some new: Aboman, Half-Ounce, SeatoLand and Snakebait.  We carried in S’mores and snacks from the Abol Bridge Campstore we passed ten miles before just as we left the 100-mile Wilderness (which was awesome!) and had a feast.  We all sat around the fire reminiscing about our journies, the good, the bad and our disbelief that it was finally coming to an end.

In the morning we were all up by 5:30.  We were only carrying food, water, extra clothing and cameras to the top so we packed our other gear in trash bags and left it at the ranger station.  The sky was partly cloudy when we started out, looking like there were some winds up on the mountain tops.  There’s a mandatory sign in/sign out when you summit Katahdin; we signed out to leave at 7:17am. 

The first mile was mostly flat, which surprised me and made me nervous at the same time because if we didn’t gain any elevation in the first mile then we still had the whole 4,000 feet to climb in the remaining four miles - it means a much steeper climb.  After we crossed Katahdin Stream, one of the clearest and and coldest streams I’ve seen, we started the climb.  It was just like any other mountain in Maine for the next two miles - some rocks, some roots and fairly steep.  Then we reached treeline at the Hunt Spur after climbing around and over some boulders.  The weather had become less than beautiful; the mountain above the Hunt Spur was covered by a cloud and the wind was blowing harder and making me nervous.  No turning back though and we began climbing from the Spur to the Gateway.

This was probably our toughest part of the climb - something like 1200 feet in .6 miles.  It was like walking a narrow ridge straight uphill on big rocks with a pushy breeze coming across our left side.  Yikes.  Looking back, I’m glad I couldn’t see the top of the climb because it probably would have scared me.  The Gateway was the top of the steep climbing where we reached the Tableland, the flatter ridge of Katahdin.  It was still foggy, windy and rocky, but less precarious.  It was still a mile to Baxter Peak, the highest peak in Maine.

Because of the fog we couldn’t see the peak until we were about 50 yards from it.  We were so excited to be done, although it really felt like we had climbed just another mountain on the trail.  We were taking photos with the sign and celebrating when suddenly the clouds parted and then dispersed, giving us a beautiful view of the mountain.  Blue skies!  Then we took tons more photos, ate, toasted our finish with some Nassau Royale and just took in the view.

After about two hours we started back down - the first time we’d hiked the same section of trail twice.  When we reached the Gateway again the clouds rolled back over the mountain and covered it again.  We were so lucky to have had a view!  It took us two hours to get back down where we hung out with our thru-hiker buddies, drinking some wine and talking about how we never have to hike again if we don’t want too! Yay!

We got a ride into Millonocket where our buddy Beatbox picked us up and took us to Bangor.  We went out to dinner, then got dropped off at the Phair’s home in Levant where we were reunited with Corley!  He was so excited to see us, and we were estatic to see him.  He looked healthy, happy and pudgy!

Now we’re travelling around Maine a bit and hanging out with the ever so generous and fun Phair family.  We’ll head back to the South this weekend and back into the real world.

Check out the photos!

best,

susan, andy & corley