Revisiting the AT

From Helen:

Jay and Sarah - happy to walk on the AT again briefly.

Jay and Sarah, Mark and I were together during the Christmas season in Tennessee, and we couldn't resist the urge to stop at the Waterville exit off of I-40 in North Carolina to check on the AT. Here are pictures from that reunion. They are a little blurry because of the limitations of the cell phone taking the pics.

Helen and Mark



Sarah, Jay, and Mark on the stairs up the AT
from the road at the Waterville Exit.



Katahdin in Pictures

Mark and Jay in front of the Appalachian Trail Lodge hostel in Millinocket.
Comfortable and relaxing place and great hospitality!

Helen and Mark at the falls, about 1 mile into the hike up Katahdin.

Mark pulls up one of the MANY boulder sequences that were steep and
difficult to climb. You can see below him how far we had to climb on this one.

Stopping for a snack break. You can see that Helen drew first blood on one of
the boulder challenges.

Mark places his hiking sticks ahead as he scrambles up
yet another boulder group. Some of them required both
shoe and skin friction as well as both hands!

At treeline, about halfway up Katahdin, the views are rewardingly spectacular.

It's a good thing we had a reward with the views, because the next step
after hitting treeline is a doozy! It's informally called "the rebar" because
of the conveniently placed rebar handle to help you up this obstacle.

Katahdin will be a return trip for us someday. Next time we want to start earlier
and make it all the way. The beauty and challenge of this trek is fantastic!

Fun in the Sun - Pictures



Happy Hikers... Jay and Sarah in July

 

Sign reads "Caution Logging Ahead." A free-spirited
thru-hiker had marked in a C to make it "CLogging Ahead."
Sarah is demonstrating to any who have doubts. :-)
Entertainment at its best! Flashing sequins and white socks, too!

Sign reads "Caution Logging Ahead." An AT hiker had painted in an F
to make it read "Caution FLogging Ahead."
Hey, without TV or radio out there you get to create your own drama.



Sarah in Vermont farmland

Picking the fruits of the land.

Sarah with two handfuls of delicious blackberries in VT.



This sign warns hikers that crossing Vermont Hwy 4 is
dangerous. The AT actually crosses this busy road.
Hikers can get very creative with their responses!

Jay negotiating a ladder placed for a 10-foot drop on the AT.
I think Jay got a great deal in that transaction!

Sarah in front of Thundering Brook Falls, Vermont

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!
Sarah is now VERY STRONG back home in Nevada.
She posed on this rock that makes a natural crypt formation.
I'm sure many an AT thru-hiker has taken a good rest here.

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Program...

Two crabcake sandwiches and a cup of clam chowder ready for devouring.

From Helen:
Ok, a moment of shameless advertising for a place where we found great food and fond memories.... As you finish the AT and make your way toward an airport, if you get a chance to drive through Freeport, Maine, stop at the Lobster Cooker. http://lobstercooker.net/ Mark and I, and later Jaybird, Mark and I, had the BEST crabcake sandwiches there. These crabcakes have spoiled me for ever eating another crabcake anywhere else. They are worth stopping for!

Helen takes a huge bite of her crabcake.

Mark could be the male model for
Lobster Cooker's crabcakes!

Katahdin!

Caught Jay with a mouthful of Snickers. This picture is at the treeline, about
halfway up Katahdin. Jay had summitted on Monday, and he hiked up again
Wednesday when Mark and I were able to be there.
The views were spectacular!

From Helen:

I know everyone is eagerly anticipating Jay's finish of the Appalachian Trail.... He summitted Katahdin on September 12, 2011! It was a beautiful day, and he was able to finish the 10.4 mile round trip from The Birches thru-hiker shelter in about 6.5 hours. There wasn't much scenery from the top because of clouds, but he got some good views on the way up. Jay's thru-hike took him 5 months and 5 days, much less than he expected.

Mark and Helen at treeline halfway up Katahdin. The Owl is seen in the
background. We stopped here because we were short on time, and the
summit of Katahdin was clouded in anyway.

More pictures will follow, including Jay's summit picture. We'll continue posting for a while as Jay catches us up on stories and experiences and pictures from the trail. Keep checking in for more!

Mt. Katahdin from Katahdin Stream Campground
By the time we came down to the trailhead the summit was beautiful and clear.

We're so glad Jay made it safely and efficiently. What an odyssey this has been for him this year!



Rainbow Ledges to Katahdin

Jay must be thinking what an understatement this is after 2,000 miles,
give or take, on the AT! :-)
This is actually an intersection of the Long Trail and the AT in VT.

From Sarah via email:

Saturday, September 10, Jay called me from the Rainbow Ledges, just 21 miles from the end of the AT! After four days of rain, he had finally had two days of sun, a fresh breeze, and the trail was beginning to dry out a bit. He said there was still a lot of mud, but he only got his feet wet once yesterday, instead of his feet staying wet all day as they had in the past four days. He was planning to get to Abol Bridge Campground Saturday night, and looked forward to filling up on food. For the past week he had opted for a light pack instead of a full stomach, and food was beginning to become an obsession again. :) 

He plans to camp at Katahdin Stream Campground on Sunday night, and hopefully summit Katahdin on Monday. He is very much looking forward to Helen and Mark joining him Tuesday and will gladly hike as much of Katahdin as they want on Wednesday or Thursday.

Jay and Sarah on top of the Bromley Mtn, VT lookout tower.
The view is north, where they are headed. 7/27/11

Hard to believe the end of the trail is so close. I'm sure he will have a few more stories to post on the blog, as well as two more reels of film. I know I am sure looking forward to having him home!

Slogging through Mud

From Sarah via email 9/9/11:

Gotta watch out for sharks on the trail in this
kind of weather! Amazingly creative hikers
set this up in a drainage ditch.

Jay called this morning. He was at a look out on the last mountain before Katahdin. He said it has rained a LOT in the past four days. Since water was already high after Hurricane Irene, the new water from the rain has had no place to go. All streams, low places, and ponds are filling up and overflowing. His feet have been wet for four days straight and are starting to complain about their treatment. He said today was sunny, so he was looking forward to the rest of his body staying dry, even though his squishy feet will continue to slog through mud and high water.