train rides and construction sites

thankfully, for me, the adventure does not end at the last white blaze. and, hopefully, it never will, for me or for anyone. after a car ride with a beautiful widow to portland maine, a bus ride to the apple of my eye new york city and an overnight with two savvy new yorkers turned AT thru-hikers, i found myself on a train headed to charlottesville, va where two of the most beautiful people on this earth agreed to come retrieve me and carry me with them in his little red honda back to a warm home in harrisonburg. the train ride was the first time i had been truly alone in months; unable to walk somewhere and find someone i know, unable to plan where i was going the next day and without a defined goal. i felt freer, somehow, but mostly just sad.

but, after a week in harrisonburg, a city which i have concluded is one of the most beautiful in the world....there is so much good going on there, so much about to happen, so much happening now, so much to be involved in and so much that needs attention....harrisonburgers, do you know that? if you don't, go out and explore. there's a lot going on there, and i'm tempted to stay and get invovled in the birth of something truly beautiful. but we shall see. i tried sleeping somewhere different every night and, thanks to the people who care about me despite myself, that was almost possible. having a house, even though it may not be yours, is a blessing indeed. thank you guys :)

anyway, i am now home, or at least in the place in which all my material crap resides and so do the most important people int he world, my dad and his new wife (!!!) Liz. i can't say it feels good to be here, but it certainly doesn't feel as bad as i thought it would. our house, the big one that i lived in during high school, is being remodeled by Dad and liz and, so, the entire downstairs has been reduced to walls and dust-covered floor. they're tearing out walls and creating new ones, taking a house that was nice enough and turning it into a home. i'm excited for the end result, but the fact that i'm now living in the upstairs of a construction site without heat or hot water is rather strange. though, i can just shut the door, turn on my music and drown out the hairy men pounding with their hammers and pretned that nothing has changed. its kind of like my own little hideaway, and i, actually, rather like it. besides, i have enough boxes of random stuff up here that needs attention to keep me busy for months.

it doesnt feel like its over....but, surprisingly, it doesnt feel as much as i thought it would at all. it doesn't feel so strange to be using electricity, or to poop in a toilet...it all feels like a dream. i think, though, that the strange position of my home is adding an element that makes reality of normal life not seem so overwhelming and terrifying...nothing is the same for me, and i returned to a different life, one that changed along with me. and that was important. what's next, i wonder? my mom is coming here from the new mexican land soon, and i'm headed to her new trailer and new darkroom in the bathroom to develop my film from the adventure. maybe that will make it real. we'll see.

:) i love you

where the blazes end

i officially summited katahdin wednesday, october 11th, 2006 at 11:30 am. it was frigid, completely fogged in, and 50 mph wind gusts, and there were 14 thru-hikers at the top, surrounding the sign and collasping upon it, crying their eyes out and hugging one another, staring blankly at the one place they had been aiming for throughout the last 6 months of their life and trying to comprehend what had just happened and what was going to happen next. i guess it was one of those moments that will never leave you.

heres a photo of me, sarah (prana) and don (IROC) on the top, holding a sign for our two other best friends who had to leave the trail. i'm in the blue. :)

whatttt

hey there hi there ho there

well, here i am, monson, maine. this is the last trail town, well, ever. we have 114 miles to go before Kahtahdin, 100 of which are the famed "100 mile wilderness," which means we go that far without seeing any towns, roads or cars, hopefully. feels like a fitting end to this adventure but seems strange to be ending what has become my life. hard to say where i, and everyone, will go from here, but i suppose that's always the question, ay?

a final quote about this trip:

"I mean, how many adults do you know how get to have sleepovers with all of their best friends in the world every night of the week?"
--Breeze

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.

HELLOOOOO

did you all think i quit the trail? does anyone even read this anymore?

well, either way, i have not quit. in fact, i have walked all the way to vermont and will be in new hampshire in less than a week. vermont, new hampshire and maine are the last three states....have done 1,600 miles and have only 530 to go. wow.

as far as trail life goes...it has been a mix of wonder, frustration, amazement and boredom all at once ,like usual. felt revived by a night in a firetower....slept 50 feet above the earth on the highest peak in southern vermont...arose to a 360 degree panorama of vermont sunrise. have finally met up with people again after a long time hiking solo...a bunch of us are in this town and we are all excited to get to maine.

as far as after the hike goes (it will be over before i know it), i would love to know where everyone will be come mid-october and i would love to see a bunch of you beautiful folk if that's possible. let me know.

okay, gotta share this computer.
just wanted to let you know i'm still walking.
i love you

does anybody even realize what this all entails?

i think that's one of the strangest things about this blog, about this trip, about life and our interactions...as much as i write, as much as you read, as much as we talk, we will never know wholly what each other is experiencing. its such a strange thing to travel through all of this world alone in our journeys, yet to realize that, at least to the extent to which we can, we are together. does that make any sense? each moment is experienced as an individual; each life lead as a single; yet, somehow, on the grand scheme of things, i think, we're one. maybe? maybe this is heat-induced ramble. but, what i'm saying is, you probably don't know anything about what i'm doing, and i probably don't know anything about what you're doing, and i wonder if you wonder. so, as prompted by a recent request from my dad, here is some basic, bread and butter information. the questions that everybody wants to ask. the questions i hate to answer. the basics.

each day, i wake up around 7 and get ready to move. sometimes i sleep in a shelter, but lately i've been tenting because the mosquitos are horrendous in the lovely state of PA.

for breakfast i usually eat two packets of oatmeal and drink 32 ounces of water.

my pack weighs (i'm totally guessing on this) somewhere between 30-40 pounds. i believe i must have started with around 70 pounds.

i started the 16th of april, and i hope to finish before the end of september.

i would say i average around 18 miles a day, buts its really kind of hard to say. we've done 3 mile days, we've done 30 mile days.

things i eat on the trail....cliff bars, power bars, basically anything ending in the word "bar," dehydrated fruit, tortillas, oatmeal, pasta dishes for dinner...nothing too excitng and nothing too delicious.

lately i've been hiking at a pretty steady pace of 3 miles an hour. i can hike faster, and often do, and with this ability has come the confidence to know that i can laze around for most of the day and still get some decent miles in eventually. some say we hike fast so that we have longer to sit around :)

i have not seen a bear. everyone i know, however, has seen at least two. i have seen a skunk and approximatley 16,000 chipmunks, though.

i have not seen a rattlesnake.

i have not seen a unicorn (yet)

since harper's ferry, an amazing amount of hikers have shown up. for the last couple of weeks i have met at least one new thru-hiker a day. this place, duncannon, is one of the last places for us to all meet up, so its guaranteed that, from here, we will see less people as the bubble spreads out once again.

i carry an osprey pack, vasque boots, an alcohol stove, a 45 degree marmot sleeping bag liner, an MSR PCT tent...

i bought some new hiking shorts yesterday. they're hot pink.

no, i don't filter water. yes, i drink water directly from creeks and streams. yes, its dangerous and yes, i'm one of the only people that doesn't use some kind of water purification system. i'm insane, what can i say.

it has been insanely hot lately. 102 degrees yesterday. we didn't hike.



god, i'm boring myself, but it has been striking me recently how little people actually know about what it is that i'm actually doing, besides just wandering around in the woods like the lost nomad that i am.

okay, i'm peacing out.

i love you.
that's right.
you.

1000 miles

mmm quick post...just wanted to say i've made it 1,000 miles on this crazy trail. or, actually, now its 1009.8, as i have walked to harper's ferry, wv.

goodbye, va.

onward, north we walk.