Day 100... and 3

Hello y'all!
I am done the trail! I've been done for 11 days actually. Little late on the post cause I've been super lazy (and enjoying it immensley) and been running around the US and Canada, dropping off hikers, visiting Pop Tart, hanging out with friends in the 6 (i.e. Toronto) and getting back to normal life and work in Ottawa. Still in recovery mode... I've only mustered one run since I finished.
I'll jump to where I left off last post...
The White Mountains in New Hampshire were awesome. It was the first time the trail was above treeline at all I believe and the views were amazing. I also had a new tent, sleeping pad and trail runners a size too big and double wide, which were the best thing ever. My feet were very thankful for all the room. In the Whites there are a half dozen huts high up in the mountains that aren't accessible by roads, where hiking groups can book a night where they hike up, get supper, sleep in a bunk, get breaky and hike out for like 50 bucks. The huts also had good snacks for sale during the day and usually have some left over food for thru hikers stopping by. I had a pretty crazy experience atop the Presidential Mountains. One the way up to Mt. Washington I kind of ignored the weather report and this sign:

and got stuck in the worst storm I've ever experienced.  The wind was howling to say the least... I couldn't even stand up. Luckily I was able to hunker down and get some shelter behind a rock and wait it out. The storm raged for half an hour but slowly dissipated and by the time I got to the hut two miles away the sun was peaking out. It was weird going from Mt.Washington, which has essentially a little mall at the top, where I ate pizza, to feeling like a feather in mother nature's wrath, to a warm, cozy hut full of kids playing cards in the matter of 4 hours. It worked out nicely because I had the chance to do a work for stay there. I had two meals and a bunk for just half an hour of sweeping in the morning.
The Whites were the highlight of the trip for me. So scenic... it felt like the climax of the trip, being near the end. My miles went down a bit but not too much. I was kind of hoping to coast through Maine and finish er off in a tidy 100 days.
I got to the Maine border (281 miles to go) in 91 days. I had a task ahead of me but I thought it was doable if all went right.... and almost nothing went right.
For 3 months I kicked the trail's ass, and for 12 days it kicked mine. Southern Maine was really tough. Often it was tough to do 2 miles an hour. When you're trying to average near 30 a day... that aint good news. On the first day of Maine you're greeted with the Mahousic notch, which is billed as the slowest mile on the trail. It's a valley of boulders you have to climb over and through. It took me about an hour and a half. There's a pretty solid climb right after it to boot.
I started getting up at 5 something and hiking by 6am.... and going till 8pm, taking about an hour total of breaks, but still not getting the miles I wanted. I was hurting. I was constantly dyeing for a nap or some sort of reprieve. I felt like a tour de france rider doing 10 straight mountain stages, just dyeing for a flat sprint stage. It was becoming a bit of a job to hike, which is not what I wanted. I also lost my sleeping bag (got to a campsite late, it was all full except for a super slanted spot, had a crappy sleep, started packing up in the morn, eating breaky, and my sleeping bag rolled down the hill, and I totally forgot to grab it. A nice surprise the next night). My sleeping bag wasn't warm at all, so it wasn't a huge deal, but it was pretty cold throughout Maine. It was also very wet. My feet were wet for days on end, which I really hate. The final straw came at exactly the 2000 mile mark. I'd pushed it late the night before, gotten lost in my delirious state of exhaustion and somehow got turned around, and realized I'd backtracked a couple miles when I saw that sign for the second time. The day before I'd felt like a marathoner who hit the wall. Then that day I was feeling pretty sick, probably from the water the day before. And completely exhausted. And I found out I wasn't going to be able to get a food drop I was banking on in the coming days. I sat there for an hour trying to figure out if there was any way I could push on and still do 100 days, but I decided very correctly that I had no choice but to backtrack a few miles, hitchhike into town, get some food and recuperate. Lucky for me I met up with Sonic who I'd been hiking with before. She also was feeling sick and tired, so we were a perfect hiking pair. I almost had a negative miles day but we were able to crawl back up the mountain to just past where I'd been the previous night. The rest of Maine was tough but slowly got less hilly and I was able to push through. My buddies Tyler and Garrett joined for a few days. Couple of beauties. That was awesome, a really good morale boost and chance to be somewhat supported. I'd been counting down the days till I was done, and had honestly wanted to quit. It was a complete 180 from the high level of motivation I had the previous three months, where quitting never once even entered my thoughts, but I was toast. My legs were shot, I was on and off sick, and I felt like I was missing a great Jays season. I was totally ready to be done. To do anything but hiking. We hit 100 days and had 90 miles left... and I didn't want to walk a step of it. But being so close to the end gave me just enough motivation. The trail ends with the "100 mile wilderness" which was nice and flat and not so daunting for experienced north bounders (as opposed to south bounders just starting out). The climb up Mt Katahdin was fun and it was beautiful at the top. Five miles back down and that was a wrap for the trail...  103 days. Shout out to my Mom for picking me and 2 other hikers up at the campground at the bottom, in the dark, in a remote part of Maine, when I'd given here one text a week earlier telling here the place and time to meet.
There wasn't much of a celebration... more of a "I'm pretty tired, I think I'm gonna go home now" a la Forrest Gump. We went to the nearest hotel and slept like rocks. In the coming days we dropped off sonic at the Boston airport and visited Pop Tart at the Connecticut/Massachusetts border (about 700 miles from the finish). It was weird going back to a part of the trail I'd hiked a month ago. Pop Tart's doing well, enjoying a more casual pace. Except when we were having breakfast before heading out he mentioned he had a rash, and I said that's a sign of lyme disease. Turns out thats what he had. But he got it early, took the antibiotics and didn't feel and effects. We tried to visit Killer but couldn't quite pinpoint her location. She was somewhere in New Hampshire we think, hiking with a really big group apparently. Must be a different experience than me who hiked alone half the time and never really with a group. I was surprised how social one can be on the trail.
Conclusionally, I had a blast for 3 months, and struggled for 12 days. It was a great experience for sure and I'm looking forward to doing more hiking. Burning out like I did made me think that I maybe should've balanced the competitive side and chilling sides more. I got a bit wrapped up in the 100 day challenge. One of the most common hiker small talk questions is "When did you start" and everyone was always impressed by how late mine was so that kind of fuelled the fire. I really did enjoy pushing the miles but I probably let that be too important. One of my favourite parts of the trail was the freedom. It was like Forrest Gump said "When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go, you know, I went." Being able to pee just seconds after the thought pops into you're head is an underrated luxury. But the 100 day challenge cut my freedom probably in half. I was mile hungry. Getting in mileage was priority number 1, 2 and 3. I was like Walter White (selfish if not a bit maniacal) at the end: "I did it for me, because I liked it, because I was good at it" no matter the cost. I for sure missed out on some things. I rarely stopped and smelled the flowers per say. And my body had enough of it around 2000 miles. 100 days is a long time to be racing... I learned a good lesson for the future. On a side note I wasn't initially going to include the 5 day trip to Bonnaroo in the 100 days but one day I was feeling optimistic I guess and decided to include it. So I guess I still made it under the old parameters. But who cares, I can live with 103 days.
I've gotta say a huge thanks to my "support team" Kevin, Kerry and Connie, for being 100% supportive the whole way. I couldn't have asked for more and absolutely couldn't have done it without you guys, thanks a million. Also thanks to da boys Garrett and Ty for visiting, and to Emily for putting the whole idea into my head and being so encouraging and enthusiastic.
Here's some pics:

Live Free or Die

Hello world! The post title is the (awesome) slogan for the state I'm currently in, New Hampshire. I'm taking a much needed half day off to relax and visit with family in Littleton, NH. I'm at mile 1799.8, and have entered the White Mountains, which are supposed to be the toughest section of the trail.
I'll do a quick recap of my travels since the last post. I hiked over the highest peaks of New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The New Jersey high point was cool because that was the first state high peak I'd been to back in 2012 when me and Pop Tart did a week long trip of day hikes in the US which I think planted the seed for the thru hike of 2015. I also hit the lowest point on the trail, which was ironically a bear den at a public zoo in New York. I bet most hikers aren't too enthused to see the bears in captivity after spending so much time in the great outdoors. Poor bears.
I'd been hiking alone for a month before this past week when I finally caught up to some fellow May starters. From the log books I could tell that there was 5 hikers ahead of me that had started after me, who passed me when I was sick or at Bonnaroo. First I caught Burgular, a veteran hiker finishing his triple crown, then Diesel, a student from Louisville, Kentucky. I hiked with Diesel for a week which was great. We pushed 30 miles a day, peaking with a 35 miler, and got through Vermont in 5 days. We also had a really nice stop over at a hostel in Rutland, VT. The day out of Rutland I decided to try the Nutella challenge, which is eating only Nutella for one whole day. It hit me how crazy it was when I grabbed the Nutella jar from the shelf and though to myself Ok, I've got my groceries for tomorrow.  The challenge went pretty well, although I would pick a 32 mile, very hilly day to do it. I was pretty wobbly by the end. It's pretty crazy to think that I could've and probably should've eaten twice as much as the 4000 calories that I got. I was looking forward to breakfast the next day more than you'd ever believe.
We made it to ritzy Hanover, NH, which was very hiker friendly. There was like 4 houses doing trail magic on the 2 mile road walk into town and in town we got a free donut and piece of pizza. I parted with Diesel but I immediately met up with Sonic, a tiny girl from Colorado I'd been gunning for for months. She'd been hiking mostly with 2 guys who were ahead now. One of those guys started the same day as me, so I was starting to get nervous that he'd finish before me or I'd have to kill myself to catch him in the last 2 weeks. I was relieved to find out that they'd skipped a few parts of the trail, so I feel like we're not in the same category. Phew. I hiked with Sonic for a few days. She's super fast, faster than me. Hiking with her and Diesel, who are both trying to finish in 100 days, but are about 5 days ahead of me makes me a little nervous about my 100 day goal.
Because I'm kind of behind the 8 ball here to finish by my goal date, I decided to bite the bullet and make some gear improvements. I got new shoes (trail runners), an air mattress and a tent! I'm hoping these things will help with the things that are annoying me and slowing my down the most: toe pain (because I made the rookie mistake of buying hiking boots at my normal shoe size instead of going bigger and wider for perennially swollen feet... my feet were kiiilling me the past couple days...), bugs (especially at night), not sleeping well at night, stubbed toes, soggy feet and shoes (by going without Gortex to improve draining) and not having to worry about finding a perfect spot with two good trees to set up my tarp.
A couple random quick things before I hit the sack:
I hadn't showered (or brushed my hair) in a month, and my hair had turned into one big dread. I had to chop about half of it off. Way she goes I guess.
It's a weird coincidence that almost exactly a year to the day I was in this exact area doing a quick camping/day hiking trip.  
Pop Tart is at mile 1283 apparently. He's taking the weekend off to go to Osheaga in Montreal. I have no clue where Killer is lol.
I got into town today and got bombarded with big Blue Jays trade news... I'm still in shock... O baby! Another reason to keep motoring and get this trail done quick.
Thanks for reading... 389 miles to go!

Feast or Famine

Hey every body! Been a while... I finally climbed down from the mountains into a town with a computer! I'm in Greenwood Lake, New York. Just over an hour north of New York City. Mile 1369 of 2189 (62% done), State number 9, with 820 miles to go. I've got 30 days to finish by my goal time, so going to have to average just over 27 miles a day. Gonna be tough... but do-able.

I'll give y'all a quick (edit not really actually) recap of my last few weeks. I went ahead alone shortly after the last blog, just before the 50th day. Me and Killer were doing the math of what it would take to finish in 100 days and she decided she wanted to slow down and chill a bit and not be rushing every day (weird concept). Killer was an awesome hiking partner, never complained once. I heard that she was hiking with a group of 6 and now is hiking with some cool people that started the same day as us. A perk of hiking at a more moderate pace is getting to hike with other people. I've been pretty much on my lonesome for a few weeks now.
I had an interesting week a few weeks back. Firstly, Virginia aint flat. I was lied to. It might not have as tall of mountains as the previous states, but it really wasn't flat at all. The only section I would consider flatish would be the Shenandoah National Park in Northern Virginia. I was there at the very beginning of July. It was nice because there was touristy rest stops that had food along the trail. I stopped at one for a burger and was planning on getting some snacks for the next few days but they were way over priced, so I decided to push on for a day to a hostel/inn further down the trail. The hostel was a cool place, but the restaurant wasn't open. I managed to scrounge some instant ramen noodles, 2 pops and oatmeal from the hiker box (a kind of leave stuff/take stuff box of food and clothes hikers use) and take a shower. The ramen was obviously given out as trail magic. I don't think I've mentioned trail magic yet. It's an awesome thing where people basically just give hikers free food. Could be a cooler in the woods full of pop or a whole meal set up along the trail. It's been a nice perk along the trail that I had no clue about. I get trail magic usually a couple times a week. A tip for people giving trail magic though: don't give ramen. It's like giving people rescued from sea tuna or something. It's just cruel. So that's what I had to go on until the next town, a day away. I was also planing on trying the 4 state challenge the next day. I had heard about it near the start of the trail, and had been very intrigued. The challenge is to hike through 4 states. Starting in Virginia, going through 4 miles of West Virginia, 40 of Maryland and finishing in Pennsylvanian, all in one day. My sparse diet the previous day wasn't exactly carbo loading. I started my day at 5:53, hungry, and soon got to Harper's Ferry, WV. It's a tiny town with a refurbished civil war era downtown, which was pretty cool to wander around at 7 am. There was luckily one place open that early for me to get some breaky at and some snacks for the day. Four miles by 8:30 isn't exactly the blazing pace I was looking for. By 8pm it was getting dark, I'd done 35 miles, and I passed by a nice looking camping spot. I was really close to calling er a day. But I did some quick math and figured I could still finish the challenge, and didn't want to go down that easily. I soon was regretting my decision. I night hiked for hours. Night hiking isn't ideal because it's harder to see where you're going, harder to stay on the trail, and you kind of feel like an escaped murderer, or that you're going to run into one. The last few miles of the day are often a bit tough. They seem to drag on. You're getting tired and hungry, it's getting dark, you're feet are hurting, and you're just ready to be done. This was that times ten. And the dreaded perennially rocky terrain of Pennsylvanian had begun early. It was a dark night and my headlamp isn't too bright so I kept loosing the trail. At one point I heard growling, I approached slowly and was relieved to see it was a guy tenting with his dog. He probably had the only decent flat spot in that whole forest. I started listening to a podcast that happened to be about a woman interviewing a guy with PTSD that manifested itself in him being haunted by a demon, then the symptoms started occurring to the interviewer. Great. The next podcast was about a woman's love for songbirds, so that was better. The terrain reminded me of the Blair With Project. Further research tells me that the movie was filmed in the very same state of Maryland. Good thing that movie wasn't too scary. I stumbled around in the forest for 4 hours, totally ready to give up, but there was no where flat I could camp. After 18 hours of hiking, my feet weren't feeling great, to say the least. I finally saw a sign up ahead. I was hoping it would tell me some good news, that something, anything was close by. When I got close I saw it said "Appalachian Trail". That's it. Thanks sign. Finally around 1 am I got to a large park. It started to rain so I took refuge under a nice big pavilion and feasted on all my luxurious food (not). I opened my guidebook to see where I was and was a bit amazed to see that I was only 0.3 miles from the Pennsylvania border. I was pretty tempted to say close enough, and call er a gimmie, but I waddled over to the state line, stepped over, took and pic and walked back arthritically but proudly. It was 1:15 am on July 4th and the 4 state challenge was in the bag. I'm not sure it was worth it... but it was nice to say I'd done it. I haven't heard of anyone else doing it. One older guy I don't think believed me when I told him the next day. I slept like a baby that night under the pavilion until getting kicked out by a parky at 9am. I was able to walk the next day, surprisingly. Out of food, I made my way into Waynesboro, PA. I quickly got offered a ride from a guy with face tattoos in a tiny car with a big dog that tried to lick me to death. He offered me a beer as he sipped his. A little early for me but it was Independence day so I'll cut him some slack. I got lots of good food and replaced my broken sleeping bad with a cheap foam on from Wal-mart. On my walk back I got offered a ride within minutes again. I wonder if these guys see the pony tail and pull over, and then don't have the guts to drive away when they see my ugly mug. I did an easy 20 miles and was in bed by 9pm... back to hiker hours.
The first few days in Pennsylvania were enjoyable. It was mostly rolling farm land, which reminded me of Ontario. I passed the half way point, and did the traditional half galleon ice cream challenge. I didn't know exactly how much a half galleon was, and neither did the lady at the store, so i googled it. It's 1.89 liters. I was a bit daunted at first but I love ice cream and needed lots of calories so it was kinda fun. I would of rather stopped after the first box, but I got through the last pint/liter. Took about 40 minutes. 3394 calories in total. Not bad for 9 bucks. The spot most people do the challenge didn't take credit cards so I did it at the next town. Must of looked weird... a greasy kid eating a ton of ice cream outside a convenience store. I also got some good trail magic that day. Two sandwiches, pop, Gatorade, chocolate bar and baby wipes. I was feeling good, riding high. But then I got to Duncannon.
I knew I was getting low on money, so I had kind of been crossing my fingers when I paid for anything, hoping it would go through, until I could get into a town and get some more money on my credit card. I got to Duncannon, PA, and my luck ran out. I was hoping to use the library computer, but it was a volunteer run library in a church that was open a total of 6 hours a week. My phone was dead and wouldn't charge. And I was out of money. I had got a double breakfast, but couldn't pay for it. A lady working there was nice enough to get the bill. I was sure I would be able to pay her back before I left town. I was able to use a (really slow) computer in town and get in contact with some people. I was hoping to have some money from returning my hammock, but it's kind of hard to return a hammock when it's in Vermont, the receipt is in Fergus, the store is in Ottawa and me and the debit card are in the middle of nowhere, USA. A buddy sent me some money and my Dad loaned me enough money to finish the trip. I was hoping the card would work right away but it didn't. The convenience store guy shooed me away after my card failed for the third time. I tried the other convenience store in town but again it didn't work. The guy behind me in line was a section hiker and was nice enough to buy the chips and milk I had. I appreciated the kind acts, but man I felt like a bum. A few days ago I was a conqueror of challenges... A force that couldn't be stopped. And now I was grounded to a halt in this crappy little town. No money, no phone, not able to handle my own financial situation, smelling like poop, dirty clothes, matted hair, and shorts that were slipping off my waist. I'd been stuck in this down for 6 hours trying to deal with my credit card and stuff. That's 15 miles of hiking that I'll have to make up, when I'm trying to bank miles before the high mountains. I was frustrated and disheartened, so I decided to get the heck out of there and push on to the next town. It was 35 miles away. I could be there in 24 hours if all went well. I had half a bag of dried pineapple, 2 oatmeal packages, a bit of Nutella and a marmalade package. At the road head to the next town I tried hitchhiking. A cop pulled over, here we go. But he was nice and gave me a ride into town. My card still didn't work. I went to a hotel and asked to use the computer. I tried not to recreated the scene from Planes, Trains and Automobiles when Steve Martin is talking to the airline worker when the hotel receptionist smiled and said they were for guests only. I explained my situation and was eventually able to haggle with the credit card company over the house phone and get everything sorted out. I ate so much I almost puked. That was an interesting couple days. I learned my lesson to be more on top of my financial situation, even when it feels like another world when I'm in the mountains 95 percent of the time. Thank god for my awesome friends and family for helping me out. My phone still wasn't charging but thats a little lower on the totem pole than eating.
I aimed to do 30 mile days in Pennsylvanian. The skeeters were really bad. It would have been nice to have an ipod to block out their noise and keep me motivated. Also not knowing the time or having and alarm isn't ideal. I was thinking about getting two pet frogs and perching them on either shoulder to take care of the bugs. They were just relentless. Pennsylvania is know as Rocksylvania amongst hikers. After a couple longer days my feet felt like hamburger. Barely any step is on soft flat ground. It was endless small jagged rocks, not many mountains or views, or good water sources. I didn't shed any tears when I crossed into New Jersey. Jersey was much better, and by some miracle my Ipod came back from the dead yesterday!
PS I didn't realize how long this post would be so I ran up against the library closing last night so came back this morning to finish the post and apply to a job. I stealth camped behind the school, not the first time I've done that. If I'm going to finish in 100 days, I'll have to really cut down on time in town. That means computer time, blog entries, laundry, and showering time will be very limited. Anyone whose read this far is probably sick of my rambling anyway. Getting food is really all I can afford to do. This pace doesn't leave much time for anything but hiking. It's going to be an exceptionally greasy last month on the trail. I feel bad for anyone who has to be in my vicinity or catch a glimpse of me. I never thought doing the trail in 100 days would be easy, I just think it will be worth it. I'll try and get a quick update out around the long weekend. Thanks for reading! Phone's too finicky to upload any pictures. Adios!
           

 

The calm before the storm

Hellllllooooo to my blog readership (all 8 of you). I'm currently taking my first true rest day (zero day in hiker speak) in Daleville, Virginia. Just outside Roanoke. I'm at mile 727 (about 1/3 of the way) and have been hiking for 45 days. It just truly hit me how much hiking I have to do if I want to finish in 100 days. By my math I'll have to average 26.4 miles a day, for 55 more days, to get to Mt. Katahdin in Maine by August 14th. It's gonna be really tough. I'm a bit intimidated to be honest, but I'll give'r my best shot.
The first few days after Bonnaroo were a little tough, getting back into the groove, and breaking in my new boots. It wasn't until yesterday that I finally got rolling again, and I wore my crocs all day so my blistered heels didn't hold me back. Yesterday was also my Birthday, yayyy so old! My mom and Connie came down for the weekend to meet up with us which is reaaally nice. I stayed 2 nights at a hotel and enjoyed a plethora of luxuries: comfy beds, restaurant food, pool, clean clothes, internet, watching a blue jays game and a movie, seeing my peeps, and some hard chillin. It's a bit eerie because it feels like the calm before the storm of exhaustion that will rage for the next 2 months. I wish I could divide this day and enjoy a bit of it everyday over the next 2 months. I really don't have time for any other slacker days. I'll barely have time for anything except good ole hiking. I'm still confident that this is what I want to do. A good example maybe is that I've never really got the people who do marathons just to finish and not worry about time. I'd rather see how fast I can go. I feed off the competitiveness. So I think I am definitely "hiking my own hike". Killer says she will try and hold on for as long as she can. Big props to her... she's given'r er real hard.
Here's some pics for ya'll!

Also thanks everybody for the birthday wishes!
That's all for now, l8ter!