No, not for our wedding, silly! Hah, we have set a date to summit Katahdin...September 17th. Moonshine's dad and step-mom, Greg and Kelly, have decided to come up and join us for our final summit, which we are very excited about! It's been awhile since we updated, but things have been going well out here on the trail. We're currently in Caratunk, ME at the Northern Outdoor Resort spending the day. This is our next to last town stop, we've got 151 miles to go, and all the talk of the trail is about finishing. The feeling that this journey is really almost over is beginning to sink in. We are both definitely feeling physically worn out and tired of walking every day, but we are sad about the experience as a whole ending.
Since we last updated, we have endured a variety of weather conditions. We had some heavy rain after leaving Kathy and Dan's in South Paris, followed by some beautiful fall-like weather. The skies were clear, it was breezy with daytime temps in the 60s and nighttime temps in the 40s. It felt just like fall back down south! Then came the heat wave, which we have been suffering through for almost a week...it has been in the 90s during the day and 70s at night with high humidity...definitely does not feel like we're in Maine! The locals say they have usually had a frost by this time of year. Last night it rained ALL night, i guess from whatever hurricane was breezing through. We have found during this recent rain that our tent has lost it's waterproof ability, so we were fortunate to be in the shelter last night. It was supposed to rain all day today, which is why we decided to stay in town, but it has turned out to be a beautiful day; the temps are also supposed to cool down.
Maine has continued to be BEAUTIFUL, one of our favorite states as far as scenery goes. The terrain has, up until a couple of days ago, continued to be very difficult. The trails are not consistently maintained, which adds to the "wilderness" feeling. There are knee deep mud bogs everywhere-Moonshine has gotten "bogged" once, the trail is extremely rocky, rooty, and eroded. We have gone over a few beautiful mountains and mountain ranges, including Baldpate, the Saddleback range, and the Bigelow range, all with amazing above treeline views. Fortunately, the weather was good over all of the major mountains, although with the heat, there has been a heavy haze in the air that severely limited our views in some places. There are very plentiful ponds up here in Maine (ponds up here would be considered lakes down south...they are BIG, and we are still not quite sure why they are ponds and not lakes). We have had many opportunities to swim, which we have been able and glad to take advantage of since it has been so hot! There are also many river "fords" in Maine, although most of them are simply rock-hopping. Perhas the most well known ford of the AT is the Kennebec River, where one thru-hiker has lost his life. We crossed the Kennebec today, but a canoe ferry runs hikers across the river...after the heavy rains last night, we took the ferry.
Ahh, MOOSE! We saw one together, and Moonshine has seen 2. We were sitting by the campfire and heard something large walking around near our tent, Mooshine shined his headlamp on a moose towering over the tent, and it quickly made it's way into the woods before I could catch a glimpse of it. Our second sighting wasn't much more exciting, we caught a glimpse of it early one morning in the woods while hiking. I guess we scared it and it took off running-didn't know they could run that fast! We would like to get a better sighting and be able to actually observe a moose for a few minutes, we will keep our fingers crossed but glad that we actually got to see one. We have seen more spruce grouse and a deer and tons and tons of toads. Moonshine saw a pine martin, which is a carnivorous animal resembling a mink or other weasel-like animal.
We have had a couple of in-and-out town stops since we visited South Paris. We stopped in Rangeley to resupply and EAT-we had been feeling super protein-deprived. It was a nice tourist town, we packed out some hot dogs and wine and camped near the road with a couple of friends, Phantom and Blush, that we have been hiking on and off with since the beginning. Needless to say, a good time was had by all. We also stopped in Stratton for a resupply. and a necesssary shower and washing of the stinky clothes. As I mentioned, we are now in Caratunk, which happens to be home of the Kennebec River Brewing Company. There are many hikers here reminiscing about the trip and chatting about the end of our journey, and lots of tourists here too (it's labor day weekend!). Our last town stop of the trip will be Monson in about 3 days. From there we will enter the "100 mile wilderness" and will be carrying a hefty load of food to last us for the last 115 miles of our trip. We are definitely having mixed emotions about the end of our journey, but it is soon approaching! We will attempt to update again in Monson, until then-everyone take care! Much love!
Since we last updated, we have endured a variety of weather conditions. We had some heavy rain after leaving Kathy and Dan's in South Paris, followed by some beautiful fall-like weather. The skies were clear, it was breezy with daytime temps in the 60s and nighttime temps in the 40s. It felt just like fall back down south! Then came the heat wave, which we have been suffering through for almost a week...it has been in the 90s during the day and 70s at night with high humidity...definitely does not feel like we're in Maine! The locals say they have usually had a frost by this time of year. Last night it rained ALL night, i guess from whatever hurricane was breezing through. We have found during this recent rain that our tent has lost it's waterproof ability, so we were fortunate to be in the shelter last night. It was supposed to rain all day today, which is why we decided to stay in town, but it has turned out to be a beautiful day; the temps are also supposed to cool down.
Maine has continued to be BEAUTIFUL, one of our favorite states as far as scenery goes. The terrain has, up until a couple of days ago, continued to be very difficult. The trails are not consistently maintained, which adds to the "wilderness" feeling. There are knee deep mud bogs everywhere-Moonshine has gotten "bogged" once, the trail is extremely rocky, rooty, and eroded. We have gone over a few beautiful mountains and mountain ranges, including Baldpate, the Saddleback range, and the Bigelow range, all with amazing above treeline views. Fortunately, the weather was good over all of the major mountains, although with the heat, there has been a heavy haze in the air that severely limited our views in some places. There are very plentiful ponds up here in Maine (ponds up here would be considered lakes down south...they are BIG, and we are still not quite sure why they are ponds and not lakes). We have had many opportunities to swim, which we have been able and glad to take advantage of since it has been so hot! There are also many river "fords" in Maine, although most of them are simply rock-hopping. Perhas the most well known ford of the AT is the Kennebec River, where one thru-hiker has lost his life. We crossed the Kennebec today, but a canoe ferry runs hikers across the river...after the heavy rains last night, we took the ferry.
Ahh, MOOSE! We saw one together, and Moonshine has seen 2. We were sitting by the campfire and heard something large walking around near our tent, Mooshine shined his headlamp on a moose towering over the tent, and it quickly made it's way into the woods before I could catch a glimpse of it. Our second sighting wasn't much more exciting, we caught a glimpse of it early one morning in the woods while hiking. I guess we scared it and it took off running-didn't know they could run that fast! We would like to get a better sighting and be able to actually observe a moose for a few minutes, we will keep our fingers crossed but glad that we actually got to see one. We have seen more spruce grouse and a deer and tons and tons of toads. Moonshine saw a pine martin, which is a carnivorous animal resembling a mink or other weasel-like animal.
We have had a couple of in-and-out town stops since we visited South Paris. We stopped in Rangeley to resupply and EAT-we had been feeling super protein-deprived. It was a nice tourist town, we packed out some hot dogs and wine and camped near the road with a couple of friends, Phantom and Blush, that we have been hiking on and off with since the beginning. Needless to say, a good time was had by all. We also stopped in Stratton for a resupply. and a necesssary shower and washing of the stinky clothes. As I mentioned, we are now in Caratunk, which happens to be home of the Kennebec River Brewing Company. There are many hikers here reminiscing about the trip and chatting about the end of our journey, and lots of tourists here too (it's labor day weekend!). Our last town stop of the trip will be Monson in about 3 days. From there we will enter the "100 mile wilderness" and will be carrying a hefty load of food to last us for the last 115 miles of our trip. We are definitely having mixed emotions about the end of our journey, but it is soon approaching! We will attempt to update again in Monson, until then-everyone take care! Much love!
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