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:
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