The Very Best

12/7/2013


The Very Best


I am home now.  I have been home for almost three months.  But my thoughts are still filled daily, with the trail, and the people that I met while on it.  I talked to two of them this week by phone.  It was so good to hear their voices....to experience their personalities.   I think that I am beginning to realize just how deeply the AT has planted itself into me. 

I am gradually organizing photos and videos.  Yes.  I am reliving my hike.  Today I am immersed in the thought of water.... running water.

There is, I suspect........ one special place.... one experience...... for each thru-hiker on the trail..... that stands above everything else.... something so unexpected..... something so spectacular.... so mesmerizing..... that it overwhelms one's senses..... leaves you in breathless awe.
That moment for me, was the Beaver Brook Cascades, on the north face of Mount Moosilauke', at the start of the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  

I was blissfully unaware of and unprepared for the Beaver Brook Cascades.  Nobody told me.....I can not believe that nobody told me.

Two of us summited Moosilauke' together that day...... experiencing rain ...which briefly became small hail.... with two distinct lightning strikes.  We were exposed and did not linger up top.  I wanted off that flat, treeless, top.  Now!  We worked our way down to the shelter.  I think it was about 1500 feet below the 4800 plus, foot summit.  I will have to check the stats on those elevation guesses.  There were other hikers taking refuge from the rain, at the shelter.  Ironically, they had witnessed one of the two lightning strikes.  It hit a tree down there, not up on top, where we had been.  The person I had summited with had a sore Achilles Tendon, and decided to stay at the shelter with the others.  I decided to get off the mountain alone..... intending to stealth camp at it's base.  Hell.  It was only a mile and a half downhill.  I wanted to be fresh for The two Kinsman Peaks in the morning.  I was unaware of the difficult descent ahead and completely unaware of the cascades.
So it is that ignorance can be bliss.     

I know now..... that scrambling downhill..... on wet rock..... on that north face, is probably the toughest descent on the AT.  It demands total concentration.   But the cascades blunted my awareness of the descent.

Although I fell twice on the wet rock, I could think of nothing else.....no thought .......save that of  falling water....the sight and sound....the feel and taste, of rushing water.  I breathed the mist of rushing water into my lungs.  The cascades seemed a living thing.  For me.....it was the right time....the right place.  It was an intensely mystical experience.  I felt the overwhelming joy filling up my soul.  And the rain fed the cascades.

I had difficulty narrating.......emotion choking my voice.....as I stopped again and again.....and yet again...... to video the falling water.  I simply could not get enough water.
  

The cascades flowed down and down....and down.....unendingly.  And then they magically fell farther.  The cascades and I descended the mountain together.  For me....for all of my senses....for my mind...for my whole being....that falling water on the north face of the mountain, was my moment.... the absolute peak of joyous envelopment in natural beauty.
I was at peace......... and it was good.    

Home

9/11/2013


Home

Got home to Minnesota, about midnight last night, September 10th.....a day early.  After racing from Millinocket, ME, to Boston by bus, we discovered that hotels are very expensive near the airport. Duh?  Our tickets were for a flight in the morning.  But the need to get home had been turned loose, anyway.  My brother, "Wildman", and I, both just wanted to be home again....Right Now!!!  So we bought new airline tickets......wasting the others.  Once our paths turned homeward, as I said.....nothing else mattered.  We were going home right now.

We were the last two on the plane and seated in the very rear seats.  The other passengers had been waiting on us.  We were last because of our scramble to book a new flight to MPLS/ST. Paul  and because "Wildman" forgot that he had a folding knife in his pocket.  I chatted non stop, in panic mode, with a TSA Agent,  while "Wildman" was taken away by two TSA Agents.  I did not know about the knife, but I knew we were in trouble.  "Wildman" was gone twenty minutes, while they helped him pack up and mail the knife home.   This flight toward home being only my second, in a long, long time, as I explained at the start of this adventure,  I spent twenty minutes sweating.  Finally
"Wildman" appeared again, and we dashed up the ramp to those last two seats.  We flew from Boston to Washington, DC.  It was 90 degrees in DC, and still a reported 73 degrees in Mpls./ St. Paul.  We were dressed for 40 degrees and, Katahdin....

(Oh Katahdin!!!!!  I said the word just now....and I am back up there....up on top....way up on top....and it is clear.... and I can see forever....and the world is just so incredibly beautiful...and peaceful.  And I am so....so aware of everything...so alive.  I want to hold onto that...to make it last....to plant it deeply into my being....so the roots of Katahdin stay strong....with me forever.)

Then we flew another plane from DC to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Terminal....walked out the door....got hugs from my brother's wife...jumped in a car, and we were home.

I had gotten up earlier today, .... ate some apple pie.... weighed myself.... 146 pounds.... down from 175.  Oh my goodness.....  It is a long hike from Georgia to Maine.

Now I am awake again.  I just pulled on my pants and it occurred to me, that I have more pants!  I have more choices!  I am home!  My life has changed again, overnight.  I can not wait to see where it goes. 

But today...... I will wear my grey hiking pants again.....and those grey pants that hiked the length of the AT with me.... will keep a part of me........ right there.... walking up a mountain.... following a path of white blazes.... on the Appalachian Trail.
I am indeed..."HAWKEYE".....A MOUNTAIN MAN!

Another Maine Moose

This cow was having lunch and we had to ask her to lift her head up for the photo. 

Katahdin

We did it!!! September 9th 2013 at 10:15 Am.   I am Hawkeye,,,,  a Mountain Man !

Hawkeye and Wildman begin the 100 mile wilderness

The Bigelow Mountain Range

The Bigelow Range is just north of Stratton Maine

Thankyou

8/28/2013


Thankyou


This hike is not complete........ but the end of it will be a mad scramble..... to Summit Katahdin, get back down...... and get home.  That will involve lodging, shuttles, bus rides, and airlines.  Once home, part three of this trip will begin.....finding a place to live and catching up on a ton of post hike business.

So I am taking time now,  to say thank you.  Thank you to  everyone who helped me.  We did it!!!  I could not have experienced this amazing, slow motion adventure, without a ton of help, from an incredible number of people.....some known.....many anonymous....never to be known.  Thank you for rides.... for food.... for companionship,  for phone calls,  texts,  e-mails.

Thankyou for trail magic..... from exotic canopied outdoor grills, with tables and chairs, and 100 different choices of food to eat..... to simple water bottles at trailheads..... when I was out of water. Thank you for saying "You can do it!" Thanks to all of the unheralded trail builders and maintainers.  I have seen you out there working to repair and maintain our AT, in the 90 degree heat. 

The AT trail community is an amazing thing. 

Thank you to all the hotels,motels, hostels, shuttle drivers...... the vast majority of whom treated me as a friend..... some of whom actually made me feel like a family member...... rather than a customer. Thank you all, for your graciousness and kindness.

Hiking the trail has strongly renewed my faith in the people of this country, and boosted my confidence in it's future.  Yes, that sounds a bit corny......a bit melodramatic, for a hike in the mountains.....but it is true.  There are wonderful people....everywhere.  We are surrounded by them.

I give a special personal thanks to my family members,  and friends who have encouraged and supported me.

Lastly..... but first in order of help and incredible support...... I want to thank Beth and Ray.  Because of both of you, I was given the opportunity to follow my dream. 

Soon we will all climb Mount Katahdin.  We will make it to the very top.  We will do it together.  Thank you so much...... to all of you.  "Hawkeye". 

Maine

Maine Moose

Saw this cow moose yesterday afternoon.  Tried to get closer but she was not willing. 

New Shoes, Maine Wild Blueberry Ice Cream, and Fall

8/22/2013


New Shoes,  Maine Wild Blueberry Ice Cream, and Fall


Sewed my pants, for the second time, this morning.  Sewed my tent for the second time, two days ago.  Will sew the netting on my pack, for the third time, later today. Hiking gear takes a beating and eventually starts to break down.
Then I put on my sewn pants and my brand new shoes......

( Picture included so you can see what they look like....recall what the pair that I tossed this morning looked like after 1 and 1/2 days?  See earlier post) and hobbled accross the road to the General Store/Deli.  I know all five owners/ employees over there already.  I love my new shoes....I just love them!  There is a chance of rain this afternoon.  It is surprisingly warm today and was yesterday...an August heat wave...and a chance of rain in the morning.  I hope for continuation of this incredible period of good weather.  It has not rained on us for 12 days, by far the longest dry period of this hike.  Dry shoes, and dry rocks to hike on is hiker bliss!

I hobbled because I have "in town" syndrome, as I call it,  bad today.  My feet are swollen and hurt....my knees hurt ....my hips hurt....everything hurts.  I have spoken of it before.  You hike up and down the mountains all week....no problem.  Two hours after you get to town, everything quits working.  It really is funny....I kid you not.  Tomorrow I will go back out, and this same hobbling, beat up, body will say, "Ok...lets climb Mt Bigelow!" How it works is a mystery.( I got that line from the movie "Shakespeare in Love".  I do love Shakespeare. )  But tomorrow I will be fine. 

I did the grocery store/deli, and bought an exotic roast beef sandwich with home made bread, a quart of V-8 Juice , and a quart of Giffords Maine Wild Blueberry Ice Cream.  The ice cream container would not fit in the freezer....not a problem.  I thought of Wild Blueberry because "Moxie", "Bear Bell", and I, who spent a bit more than a week together, including squirreling our way through Mahousuc Notch....the toughest 1 mile of the whole AT........ really got into the wild blueberrys in the Bemis Mountain area,  a couple of days ago.  Maybe they have a shortage of bears over there, because the blueberries were plentiful and tasty.

Anyhow..... yesterday afternoon I bought 2 deli sandwiches, 1/2 pound of cheese, Triscut, 1/2 gallon of Orange Juice, grapes....... and a bunch of chocolate too. 

That held me over till I had dinner at the motel next door to this one, with my friend "Wanderlust", and a couple of day hikers from Massachusetts.  Ate Haddock, fries, cole slaw, and this really great strawberry/rhubbarb cobbler, with vanilla ice cream on top.  I will also eat 2 of the 4 foil packets of Pink Salmon and tuna that came with my resupply box.  I don't need them for my five evening meals, so if I can eat em before tomorrow, that is 10 ounces that I don't have to carry.  I think I can do it.

On Zero Days like today, I try to nap a bit, and I eat....constantly.  It is planned.  If I just totally stuff myself, it does not work.  My body objects. But if I munch continuously.....every 2 hours say, then I can pack on the calories! When I go up Bigelow I will have strength in my legs!  "Bigelow....Hawkeye is coming!"

Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you that Fall is sneaking into the mountains.  The ferns are turning brown up top, and here and there, a Sugar Maple Leaf has floated to the ground.  I am amazed.  It was not that long ago, that we were hiking the Smokies with frostbitten faces in 18 inches of snow!
A thought like that brings the romance of this journey to the surface.  WOW!  Now 

it is nap time...then dinner time.....then on to Monson....and Katahdin!