so the other day i was walking around in the woods, and suddenly i come across this silly little blue sign that says very plainly, "welcome to maine" and suddenly i realized that, somehow, most likely through a series of random mistakes and good fortune, i have somehow managed to walk from the state of georgia to the state of maine. and i wanted to jump around and scream and cry, but i mostly just sat there, staring blankly at that unassuming sign, and then it started to rain so i moved on to the shelter, and then, for the next three days of hiking, everyone around me has been caught up in the sheer ridiculous fact that, hell yes, we're in MAINE!!!! it seems to pop out of people's mouth's at the most unexpected times, and it can make any situation, including this morning's hike up the sheer, exposed face of rock that constitutes old speck mountain in the 60-70 mph wind gusts and the ice all over the surrounding plants and the fact that an exposed strand of my hair froze, seem even more amazing because, son of a gun, it was a mountain in maine.

and now i sit here in a hostel in andover, and prana and tu-tone are watching a movie and sitting on the couch, and its 20 degrees outside but 60 in here, and i'm eating birthday cake flavored ice cream and i'm still in maine but in a totally different way. its a very strange feeling. for 5 months now, random people will ask me, "where are you headed?," and i'd respond, "maine," like its somehow achieveable, and i've had that same, ridiculous response even since georgia, where maine was about as attainable as the moon, and here we are. whew.

i've been doing well, got pretty sick before gorham, new hampshire and had to take an extended rest but, apparently, i'm all healed up now. it seems that 5 months of hiking can make one exceptionally tired and drained of the ability to do anything at all. funny how it works like that. tomorrow we're going to do some slack-packing (where we get to be dropped off somewhere, hike all day without our packs and just water and snacks and stuff, and then get picked up again at the end of the day) and hopefully we'll keep trucking through maine until the end. we have until october 15th and we have 270-something miles to go. strangely enough, i think we'll make it by at least the 10th, but we'll just have to see. looking forward to real life again, i think, but its strange to see the end of this life coming so quickly. i'm not sure how i'm going to make the transition...it may prove more of a challenge than the trail itself.


wishing you sunny skies and happy feet :)
good luck with those tests and exams and things i can't understand, haha.