A hikers tail

167 days, 2184 miles, 14 states, 1 pair of shoes, 300 snickers bars, 40 town stops and a lot of determination later and I am finished hiking. The Appalachian Trail has been one of (if not the) best experience of my life. Now let me just say this right now, this is NOT the end of my hiking life, I definitely want to hike again some day (I'm already thinking of my next big adventure but i'll tell you about that when I know more).

So let's finish the A.T. report of this blog now, when I last updated I was in Monson about to start the so called "100 mile wilderness". Pretty much a straight shot until the end point on top of Mount Katahdin. The miles went by slowly because we basically wanted to extend the trip as long as possible so we took every opportunity to stop and enjoy the last leg of the journey. One of those opportunities was some very special trail magic, namely lobster trail magic! The guy who was doing it went to Monson the previous day and started advertising his little feast. He showed us the lobster in the back of the truck along with two coolers filled with beer. Needless to say we hiked like maniacs to get to the trail magic early the next day.

The first time I had lobster, not a bad start!

After a very nice first day in the wilderness we ventured on the next day and came across multiple stream crossings, which by this point I had gotten so used to that I didn't even bother taking my shoes of anymore, I just kept hiking.

One of the last crossings

A nice camping spot

Good morning Maine

As we got closer and closer to Katahdin we got more and more exited and we started realizing that this journey is coming to an end, which of course gives you mixed emotions. Here is the finish point coming closer and closer.

80 miles of trail

30 miles of trail

15 miles of trail

10 miles of trail

I was happy I had a fun group going through the wilderness, we stuck together for most of the way. And on the last day we even got some trail magic courtesy of the father of a hiker named Flapjack who I first met back in Virginia. It was very nice seeing Hotwheel again (met him on day 2 of the trail) although because of his time schedule he had to speed up a little at the end (he had to summit a day earlier then us). And then there is King of the Hill. I met him on day 1 and it seemed our pase was pretty much the same throughout the whole trail so we stuck together during most of it. I was very happy to be able to start and finish the trail with him. He is a very impressive hiker (although he still thinks he is very slow). Here are some pictures of hikers during the last days.

Johnny walker red

Hotwheels

Dances with flies

lower left: King of the Hill, upper left: Flapjack and his dad.
Left from top to bottom: Bad penny, Johnny walker red, Voltron.

Bad penny on the morning of the final summit

The final climb of my adventure was a 5 mile climb ascending almost 5000 feet in total. The first 2,5 miles are below treeline and are really pleasant and it looked like it might be a nice day. But unfortunately the weather turned for the worse and once I got above treeline the wind plus rain plus cold temperature made for a rough hike. Even though the weather was crazy up there I didn't care much because I was so close to finishing. I passed a bunch of day hikers going down that had given up because the wind was to strong. When they told me and other thru hikers to quit and go back we could only smile, there is no way I am going back when I'm so close to the ending!

Conditions worsen

Not a lot to see

So finally the moment arrived, I got to the sign of all signs. The moment is less magical then it sounds. It was cold, wet and very crouded. I got my picture taken by the sign and congratulated all the other thru hikers who where up there at that very moment (dances with flies, EZ, gravity, passion flower, sparky, voltron, bad penny and johnny walker red) and got the hell of that rock.

The final result

On my way down I did get a chance to reflect on what I had achieved. I am very happy that I was lucky enough to finish the trip, but mostly it was about the journey. I've learned so much new things about life and met a lot of great people I look up to and a lot of new friends. I hope to be back to the states sometime over the next 3 years to do some trail magic myself or a section hike just to get that feeling back that unites everyone on the trail. I will be very happy if I can ever relive such an amazing experience again in my life.

The last step

I'm done! After 2184.2 miles I finished the Appalachian Trail! WOHOO!!!! I will make another update telling about the last part of my trip soon. Fore now I am to busy eating and drinking and sleeping.

Can't we stay a little longer?

Probably the last blog update before I finish the trail. I am now in Monson, Maine only 115 miles from the finish line. The last hundred miles or so have been really slow mainly because I want to drag out this experience for as long as I can. I have been hiking mainly with King of the Hill (see other blogs), Canecutter and EZ Nomad and we've been pretty much stopping at every town along the trail so Maine has been expensive for me (but a lot of fun!).

An interesting place I stayed in was Rangeley. I stayed there 3 nights because I liked it and I hiked ahead of the other guys for a little bit so this was the perfect chance to let them catch up. The first night I stayed outside of town close to the trail at a couples summer cabin which was very nice (see pic below of building with sunflower). The second and third night I stayed with the other guys in town in a cheap motel (the way all motels should be) next to a nice lake.

the view from outside our room

We where seriously considering hijacking one of these

Besides the town stops Maine had a lot of nice hiking to offer. The views where spectacular and the climbs where impressive. The last part of Maine has less climbs and the trail is very wet and there are some spots where you have to ford rivers that can get waist deep. Luckily we had nice weather (no rain!) so the rivers where not waist deep when we had to go through them. Here are some more pictures of the mountains we climbed in Maine.

Canecutter manages to smile after a hard climb

Amazing sight of one of the last big peaks of the climb

The last mountain above 4000 feet we have to climb (expect Katahdin of course)

The view from the top of that mountain

Still same mountain

Morning clouds

With only a little bit more then a hundred miles to go I am looking forward to finishing the trail. There are two parts of the trail remaining now, the first of which is the so called hundred mile wilderness. It's the longest stretch (100 miles) without a chance to go into town and resupply. I have about 5 days worth of food to get through them which should be enough now. After that it's only 15 miles to the finish line, which is on top of Mount Katahdin. Katahdin is probably the most talked about mountain on the trail. It's considered the hardest individual climb and for people going north (me) it's the dramatic end to an unbelievable adventure.
Anyway that's all to come in the next week or so. Here are some more pictures of the trail.

The unofficial 2000 mile marker on top of Avery Peak, where as you can see I was completely fogged in

Very low visibility in the morning

Taking a break at a shelter

A nice view to finish another day on the trail