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. 

Monson, Maine



Jay, Sarah, and Peregrine in front of Sutton's Place in
Manchester Center, Vermont. 7/27/11

From Sarah via phone conversation and email, 9/2/11: Jay is in Monson tonight, the last town before the "100 Mile Wilderness" and Katahdin. He has had a shower, eaten way too much, and is staying in a hostel with about 50 other people. He says they are all section hikers and haven't yet learned the need for that 8:00 p.m. thru-hiker bedtime. :) He also wondered how many men in his room would snore.  :)

Jay has had great weather since Hurricane Irene. There were wonderful views as he hiked through the Bigelow Mountains. He says Maine is a very nice state. After the Bigelow Mountain range, the trail has leveled out a bit. He says the hurricane left a lot of mud, but nothing else worth mentioning along the section of AT where he is. 



Sarah from the top of the fire tower on Glastenbury Mtn. 7/23/11

A few days ago he picked up a book I had mailed to Caratunk, ME. Caratunk has about 100 residents. When he asked the postmistress if there were anywhere to eat, she told him he would have to go about 3 miles the opposite way off the trail. (He had already hiked almost half a mile off the trail.) Jay said she must have seen his crestfallen expression, for she then said, "Wait here. If anyone comes, tell them I'll be right back." She went across the street to her house and brought back a plate full of the most delicious leftovers! She told him, "You came on the right day. I had a party last night, and had a lot of leftover food." He sat right down and ate it on the steps of the post office. What an amazing bit of trail magic!



Jay on the firetower on top of Stratton Mtn.
We hope is day is just as beautiful on top of Katahdin!

The crossing of the Kennebec River was another AT adventure. This river is too deep and fast to ford, so the AT Conference employs a man to ferry people across the river in a canoe. (When we read about this last spring, Jay said maybe that was a job he should apply for!) The day Jay arrived, the man had already ferried across two people and a dog, loading the canoe nearly to its gunnels. The river was still high after the hurricane, though no longer at flood stage. The current was swift, and Jay had to paddle for all he was worth to help the ferryman get the canoe across to the other bank. He said the canoe felt extremely tippy, and he wasn't used to being in the bow (front), which feels much closer to the water than the stern. The ferryman told Jay he was working the day of the storm because so many people needed to be ferried across as they came off the trail and headed for the nearest town. Jay saw how high the water had risen that day, and decided maybe this was NOT a job for which he would ever apply!

[Note from Helen: Just a few days after Jay crossed this river, the trail updates on the ATC website said the Kennebec River ferry was shut down temporarily due to flooding. It stayed shut down for several days. How fortunate that Jay was able to cross the Kennebec River after Irene and before the recent flooding!]



7/30/11 Jay takes a moment of respite atop Killington Mtn, VT.
He's looking toward the distant White Mtns. of NH.

Jay got his first view of Mt. Katahdin from the top of Moxie Bald a few days ago. He said it looked like a tiny tip on the horizon, like the point of a sail just peeking over the edge of the ocean. It is way cool to be able to see the end of the trail like that, even though it is still a ways off.

Spirit-boosters



He's gonna eat the WHOLE THING!
Banana Split for dessert, following the Hiker Special Sandwich
at West Hartford Village Store
After that I think he's going to take a nap.

 From Sarah via email:
Jay told me where to look online to find the comics that he and I have been enjoying in the trail registers all summer. He met the woman who captioned them, Pony, a teacher who has been section hiking the AT every summer. This year she is still on the trail. Here is the link. Enjoy!

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?74523-comics-on-the-trail

July in Pictures

Jay swam in Nuclear Lake. Now he won't need a flashlight at night!
Just kidding, of course. This was only the 2nd lake he'd been able to
swim in within the previous 1400 miles. The water felt fabulous!

The "Cookie Lady" lives on a blueberry farm on Washington Mtn. Road near
Becket, MA. She lets hikers fill their water bottles from her spigot and gave
us free homemade cookies. She also sells boiled eggs for 25 cents apiece, and
she let us use her salt shaker and a dented pan for eggshells. Yum!



Brainfrog playing guitar at Silver Hills Campsite. He got his name from his
companions by saying, "My thoughts got lost in a brain frog."
(instead of "brain fog")

Unknown pond and shed in the mist near the top of Mt. Greylock. Beautiful!

 

One flat section of the AT near the Housatonic River.

  

Free cold shower for hikers!
Shower on the side of a pump house at a
hydroelectric plant near Falls Village, CT.



Trail maintenance crew volunteers from SCA. (Student Conservation Association?)
Thank you trail maintenance volunteers!

First Southbounder we met! July 9, 2011. Newt is
her name. This was just north of Kent, CT; she was
heading toward a break with family and trail angels.

Sarah in front of the Dover Oak. This 300 year old
tree on Dover Rd. is the oldest oak tree on the AT.

Bodie, a fellow thru-hiker and friend.



Sarah on a fancy boardwalk in the swamp just before the railroad.



Jay pretends to hail a train on the Appalachian Trail Railroad Station.



Last 100 Miles

From Sarah via phone conversation:

Jay eating lunch high above the mosquitos

Jay passed the spot that puts him within 100 miles of Katahdin yesterday! Hard to believe that he is closing in on his goal now. He has had beautiful weather after Irene, and the trails have been muddy but not bad. We are excited and proud to see him complete the trail!