The End

Just doing a quick post. I completed my thru-hike on August 13th. Haven't really had any time to post since most of my time the past few days has been rather busy getting ready for college. But I figured I would atleast put up my victory picture. My closing thoughts and more pictures will follow after I get settled in. Hope everyone is doing well.

Monson, ME

Got into Monson around 1 this afternoon. Its my last town stop of the trip which is pretty crazy to think about.
Its a cute little town. I'm staying at the Lake Shore House which has a hostel upstairs with Ringleader, Monkey and a few other south bounders. Its a nice little place, right on the lake, has a pub/restaurant down stairs and has paddle boats you can take out on the lake as well. Very nice relaxing setting.
Had lunch and this BBQ place down the street. It was amazing, had some of the best mac and cheese I've ever had. I know you usually don't think of BBQ when it comes to Maine but believe me, this was the real deal. Tin-tin hitched into town (he got Lyme so he hasn't been doing a lot of hiking recently) and I ran into him at the bar so I hung out with him and caught up for a bit. Other than that I did the usual town chores, laundry, shower, resupply, the usual.
But whats cool is that every Friday night at the town's general store there's a bluegrass jam session. So I went to check it out and had a lot of fun. Ended up spending about 2 hours there just listening to them play. Through out my trip I've been amazed at all the cool unique things you find in these small towns.
I'm hiking out tomorrow with 114.3 miles left. Its amazing just to think how far we've all come since GA and how little we have left.
I'll be taking my victory photo on top of Katahdin on the 14th, its unbelievable that this moment is finally here.

Maine

All I can say about Maine is that it's rugged......but beautiful

New Hampshire

My AT book lists New Hampshire as the toughest but most rewarding state and I would have to say that its pretty true.
New Hampshire is home to the White Mountains which has some of the most difficult terrain of the entire trip, along with weather that can change in a heart beat. I had a 2 mile up hill which gained 2000 feet in elevation and was pretty much going hand over hand up rocks the entire way. By the time I finished the climb I was exhausted.
But the views were amazing, once you got to the top of the mountain and above tree line the views go on for miles. One of the most impressive stretches was the Presidential Ranch. Its pretty much 25 miles entirely above tree line, where you can see the trail going for miles in front of you along the ridge line and endless views to your right and left
Only bad thing about being above tree line is that the weather can change extremely fast. Which is why its a definite must to bring cold weather gear through the Whites. Mount Washington for example has gotten snow on its summit any time of the year.
My climb up Mt. Washington was a good one. Got to summit with rain, fog and 65mph winds the whole way up. It would have been nice to get to summit with nice clear weather because I'm sure the view from on top is very impressive. But climbing it in these conditions was a lot of fun and its also great to be able to say I climbed Mt. Washington (the mountain known for have the worst weather int the world) in such conditions.

Pit Crew

Pit Crew is the trail name for my dad. He's come up to visit me a few times to help me slack pack which has been a great time all around. So basically what he'd do is we'd pick a shelter close to a road, usually between 5 and 7 miles. Then I would strip down my pack to the absolute bare minimum of what I would need for that night. My dad would take most of it and I would carry my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, lunch and a few snacks. My dad would take the rest along with his stuff for the night. This worked really well because I could do big mileage days without having to carry a full pack. And my dad would be carrying a full pack but only have to go a few miles. So by the time I got to the shelter/campsite we planned to stay at he'd already be there with everything, just like a pit crew. So that's how he earned that trail name.
We even hit up a few trail towns such as Great Barrington, Hanover and North Woodstock. And like I said, we always had a good time and it was always a bummer when he had to go back home.

Bear Mountain NY

This town is pretty much where I had my day of days. I was just feeling really tired and starting to burn out and thinking all those wonderful thoughts that go something like "why am I out here" "I still have so far to go" "I don't think I want to do this anymore" and so on. Going home for my sister's grad, seeing everyone and just being able to completely relax also had something to do with this mood as well.
So my mom being the amazing person she is spent the day with me, talked things over with me and after an insane amount of driving around we ended up back at Bear Mountain where we found a little hotel and I pretty much chilled and rebooted for the rest of the day. Which was much needed.
By the next morning I was feeling much better, hit the trail and ended up doing about 15 miles. And I've kept on going ever since. But this has probably been the most mentally trying day of the whole trip.

Going Home

This event happened back in June. As you can tell from the post above my sister graduated high school back in June. So I decided to go home and attend.
Now going home was an interesting experience. I've gotten off the trail before to go into town and such but the furthest I've ever gone off the trail is 16 miles and every time I did get off the trail was always trail related in some way or the other. But this time I was going about 100 miles off trail. It just felt weird after spending so much time on the trail to be going so far away.
But going home did feel good also. It was nice just to be in that home setting again. I got to sleep in my own bed, got to see my turtle and got to see a few friends as well. Now I'm sorry I didn't make my visit home vast public knowledge but I figured the more people who knew I was coming home, the people I would have to see and the harder it would be to get back on the trail.
But it was also nice to see Sarah's graduation. Actually she had no idea I was coming so when I showed up at home it was a complete surprise for her, which was really cool.
But unfortunately my visit home would have some negative side effects.