A typical sight in New Hampshire and Maine: bog boards. These allowed us to get over particularly muddy sections.
We had our first full day back on the trail today after a week off and I was reminded again about why I love the trail. We had beautiful weather, nice forest to walk through, some good views on the peaks we climbed, and most importantly, good time to talk and reflect. I am so glad to be back out here. Even Julie is much more optimistic. The trail is still really muddy right now, we have plenty of rocks and roots to maneuver, but she is rolling with it and seemingly enjoying herself too. We spent time talking about next adventures (and when they materialize more, we’ll certainly share) and simply enjoyed being out here in the woods.
One of the coolest things about today, and about getting off the trail for a week is that many of the people we passed along the way that we liked but didn’t get to spend much time with are now ahead of us by a few days. Sorry to say that Whitney Houston is not one of them. He has gotten way ahead now, maybe 10 or 11 days, so we won’t likely be seeing him again on the trail but folks like Tigger (Elvis), Peanut and Handstand, The Face and Sensei, Zippers and Stretch, and many more are out there in front, some a few miles and others a few days, but all within reach by Katahdin. It’ll be fun getting to meet up again and share trail stories because many of these hikers go all the way back to Virginia for us.
So life is good out here. We’re enjoying the trail. It’s exciting to know we are within three or four weeks of the finish and even more exciting to seriously begin to think about the next life to live. We’ve purposefully been very open and honest about our experience, not sugar coating things or only sharing the good stuff so people can really share in our experiences, the highs and the lows. I am happy to report that things are on the up and up right now and life is good on the AT.