Imagine...

... two beleaguered, sweaty, tired hikers sitting atop an old wooden frame sign which itself rests upon the upper most crest of a towering mountain in the northern woods of Maine. Put our faces on those hikers, lots of blue sky in the background, and many other friendly hikers up there and you know what occurred last Thursday, the 20th of Sept... we finished the AT!!! YAY!!!! It was an amazingly beautiful day, and we were accompanied only by our fellow thru-hikers.

We exited the 100-mile wilderness the day before, where upon Roxi Roxtar was picked up by a local kennel as she is not allowed in Baxter State Park (we did however bring someone else along to take Roxi's place and assure her some glory atop the mountain!). The rest of the day was spent leisurely hiking 10 more miles to the base of Katahdin past roaring waterfalls and glass-covered ponds. Our last night on the trial west punctuated by a feast of epic proportions consisting of ramen noodles with tomato and cheese sauces as well as veggies... yum! We awoke early on Thursday and started up the trail around seven in the morning. The climb was very steep and involved much hand-over-hand bouldering and rock-hoping. It was however magnificent in scale and color; the leaves are in full bloom in Maine! At 11:05 EST, TrailDogs summited Baxter Peak on Mt. Katahdin, tapped the sign designating the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, and officially became Thru-Hikers!

It has been a dream two years in coming, and after everything that you all have done for us, we have done it: hiked from Georgia to Maine. Its done now; no more walking to do. Tomorrow morning we wake up and start unpacking completely: washing and drying clothing and gear, dividing up what belongs to who, storing gear away for the long term, attempting to reintegrate into regular life...

We'll probably be seeing most of you in the coming weeks. We need to say hi to our families and friends!! We will however be preparing and then hosting a slide show, hopefully with-in two months from now. We will be sure to publicly announce the slide shows, and there should be one near you.

For now, we are done! Huge thanks go out to the families that hosted us, the friends that took care of us, and all that simply followed our journey! We hope to see you all again soon!

~TrailDogs

100 miles and a pointy bit...

....is all that is left for the three of us to traverse. It had been a while since we've posted (there aren't too many towns in northern Maine) but rest assured that we've continued north. After leaving Ranger Doug and Sparky in NH, we we're rained and blown off of Mt. Washington, spent a week averaging only ten miles a day through the toughest terrain we have yet seen, walked to Maine (yay!!) spent another week nailing down well over 120 miles, and have arrived here in Monson, the gateway to the final chapter of the AT. Buy this time next week we will be at the foot of Mt. Katahdin about to ascend ourselves back into civilization. Its been over 2100 miles of walking since we've have seen most of you, and though we love and adore these woods, the urge for home and friends is strong. We will charishe the next week, our last, and look forward to our final meal. Our ascent date is tenatively the 21st, next Friday, so if any of you happen to be in the north woods of Maine...

Remember, however, that this walk is for the Dessin Animal Shelter. We have raised over 10,000 dollars now, but we need more. Please, if haven't already, click on the link to the right and help Dessin find good homes for as many animals as possible.

And I apologize; blogger is failing me right now and wont upload any more pictures. Will of course post more later on and hope to do a slide show when we return home, so look for the soon!!

~TrailDogs

Some Pointy Bits with Friends

Paul here (aka Sparky on the trail) with some news! The two successfully completed their Hamiltonian duties and I chauffeured them (along with Roxy in the back) up to the White Mountains. The two enjoyed their time with old and new friends, but were ready to get on the trail.
Because of my questionable fitness, we opted to do a day-hike our first day taking us 7 miles over Mt. Moosilauke. (See pictures below) Beautiful weather and a trail dog that liked to carry lunch and water made for a very enjoyable day. Amazing the two
said this was their first natural bald peak on the trail! Had I come at the perfect time to do the best part of the trial? Ha!
The next day we were joined by David, Ben's dad, who was similarly looking for some 'pain' as a fellow hiker put it. The plan was to do 27 miles in 3 days taking us over Franconia Ridge, one of the most scenic parts of the Whites (and maybe the AT!?!), onward past Garfield, South Twin, Zealand, then down into
Crawford Notch to our car. Little did we know it would be cloudy, windy, rocky, and long. As the pictures can attest it was windy and cloudy up on the ridge, robbing us of our much deserved views. We
pressed on, and on, and for myself I was doubtful I would make it past the next hill let alone mountain. After many painful steps David and I finished in good spirits, after all this was another day on the trail for the three Thru-Hikers who shrugged off the high mileage.
With some ice cream and junk-food for lunch, we left the three at the trail head with a few miles and vertical to climb before their dinner and bed. We will hopefully hear from them again before the finish!

Pete's Dad said...
Thanks, Paul, for the blog entry and pictures. That was an amazing day on top of Mt. Lafayette! Remember boys and girls, don’t wear cotton in the mist!How about those “White Mountain switchbacks”? 2,000 feet straight up or down through the rocks with a creek running through them. (I am not whining, Laura, just acknowledging the challenges - grin) Fortunately, the rewards were worth the efforts. Even if the views on the ridge were lacking, the freshness of the winds and the emotional highs were incredible. And much better views from the Twin Peaks the next day.Some of the highlights included Ben’s cooking (which Laura prepared last winter), stinky feet (which are not as bad on the trail), worshipping quick glimpses of the sun, leaning into the wind, watching Sparky light fires with wet wood and no white gas, and Snickers overdosing. Thanks, guys, for taking some of the weight out of my pack. I like the new “light philosophy” of your trip. And I promise never again to get on the bad side of the Trail Gods – they know how to bite back! My socks have not dried out, yet.After spending only three days with the Trail Dogs, I am blown away (literally on that ridge) with the magnitude of their accomplishments. They have been doing this for five months with another month ahead of them. So tell them how proud you are and support the shelter. They deserve it.Now that I have recovered from cramping thighs, calves, and feet, I find I really miss being with Tom Dooly, Pooch and Sparky the Eagle Scout. Gotta go, room service just arrived…-Ranger Doug, aka Pete’s Dad, aka David

and now for something not entirely different...

Tomorrow we head down to Clinton, NY, back to Hamilton to lead Adirondack Adventure. We will both be taking groups incoming freshmen into the woods to learn about college life, each other, and Hamilton life in genreal. However, this means that we now have to endure a near 15 day hiatus from the trail... ouch. We will lose our hiking legs, we will lose our toughness, we will not lose weight, but we will have a great time reuniting with friends long lost and taking lost of scared freshmen into the mountains for some lessons on real living. We are sad to say goodbye to many of our hiking companions as we will never see many of them again. By the time we get back on the trail, a few of them may have even finished!! But however long we spend away from the trail that we call home, there will no doubt be a quiet song in the back of our minds calling us ever north towards Maine. And when we return, north we will doubtlessly head. We have a target date now: September 24th. We think thats when this whole crazy thing will be done. That is over a month away, and yet we are mere 390 miles distant... so close, but there are a whole lot of pointy bits to go over before we get there.

We will spend tonight here in Plymouth, NH, in the heamaster's house at Holderness School (for the enevitably ungifted? ;-) The Peck family is hosting as the moment, recalling those days when we were in fact a part of their family, and perhaps still are. We will awake early tomorrow morning, look for our ride, and then be gone to NY!!

Sleep is calling,

TrailDogs

Just keep walking...

Its been a while, but rest assured, we contintue north. First, thank you to Bob and Ruth Bradley: your hospitality was truly astounding. We can't do what we are doing without people like you. We rested for a day at the Bradley's home in Windsor, MA, just east of Dalton. We were treated to delicious dinners despite a broken oven, two gorgeous Bernise Mt Dogs, a car with which to solve many a pack crisis, and hospitality to suit royalty. We truly cannot thank them enough, as with all of our homestays, for both putting us up and putting up with us.

We are now in Medon, VT, just west of Killington, in the home of Bruce and Amy Peacock, whose daughter Sarah is a current Hamilton student and great friend of ours. Once again, warm bed and filling meals are re-energizing us just in time to make our push into NH. Soon we will be getting off of the trail for 10+ days to return to Hamilton to lead Adirondack Adventure, a pre-oriention freshmen trip. First however, we must venture into the White Mtns. of NH for perhaps the hardest stretch of the entire trail: 3000+ foot climbs and lots of rocks lie ahead.

We must keep walking, so keep us in your thoughts, and hoping all is well. Happy Trails,

TrailDogs

Kent, CT

A very long over-due THANK YOU goes out to our friends in PA, "Mechanical Man", "Crayon Lady" and the "BLUR". Barely a week before our arrival, they unexpectedly lost their beloved Dobie, Tank. In honor of Tank, this wonderful family opened their arms and gave us a place to stay while Roxi recovered from a GI bug. We gorged ourselves with visiting the Velodrome in Allentown and the water park at Camelbeach. Not to mention the "Blur's" bmx stunt show that can't be beat (we actually let a 9 year old jump over us on his bike). Thank you again and our hearts go out to Tank.

Now in Connecticut, we have been staying with the family of Charles Vick, a fellow Hamilton College choir geek, for the past few days. Though Charles himself isn't actually here, James and Kate, along with their daughter Sarah, have been incredibly gracious hosts, giving us beds, showers, amazing meals, and a ride to Six Flags!

The time spent in Honesdale and New Paltz, though wonderful, escaped us far too quickly. Set in a frame of mind of wanting to do everything while we were home, it seemed we had little time to actually relax (Ben's fault, really; we need vacations from his vacations). We spent a night in Honesdale, we took to New York City to visit friend David Lu and catch a Yankees game (Laura cheered for the Ducks), we even managed a trip to the outfitters in Kingston to buy new shoes for our continued journey. Joined by college roomie and friend Steve "Rock Hard" Morris, we set off early last Sunday feeling as though we needed to sleep for another few days.

Unfortunately, we were then hit by the biggest heat blast of the season: 100 degrees, 500% humidity, or so it felt. Thru-hikers were dropping like flies all around us as we ascended Bear Mt. We were so exhausted from slogging through the heat that Roxi insisted that Sarah Vick be called a bit early to come pick us up and bring us to cooler locales... namely Six Flags, of course! Though Roxi couldn't actually come, she enjoyed lying beneath the shade of an oak tree with a chew-toy on one side and her water bowl on the other.

After yet another day of riding roller-coasters and water-slides, Steve dropped us off, this time including Sarah, where we had earlier escaped. The weather cooler, our minds refreshed, we hiked into Kent yesterday evening.

This morning we were greeted yet again by cheese omelettes and English muffins (thank you Kate!!). While Laura finishes packing Roxi food, I have escaped to the computer to write to you folks ;-) We plan on departing later this morning and heading for Great Barrington, where we will partake in FarmCamp for a day; an organic farm offers a work-for-stay program for hikers, and Laura really wants to schmooze with the cows and pigs. Roxi, of course, will be jealous, but oh well.


The trail of late has been a bit different; instead of the wilderness that surrounded us through most Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, we have of late been in more of an urban hike. We cross major state roads, if not interstates, every day; we hike through or near towns almost every other day. Some stretches have delis at every road crossing, making the food we actually carry un-needed. Though passing giant oaks and thrilling views, we also walk over bridges and overpasses. This is a different AT from down south, though it be the same footpath. The spirit and goal remain the same, but the footfalls feel more determined, the ambition beginning to increase as our goal draws ever so slowly closer. Ice cream and hogies are welcome and we will never resist the opportunity to eat something offered to us. We have certainly passed from one part of the country to another and a significant portion of our experience is now behind us, not to be seen again. For example, the Roxi that started with us is no longer the same dog; she has matured, aged, and calmed. Whatever magic of the trail-life there is had changed her into an amazing TrailDog. She truly has become a hiker-favorite and is a joy to spend time with. I imagine the likewise changes have occurred in all of us who've come this far. Its difficult to see those changes now; perhaps they will not appear till we have reached our goal, left the trail, and are attempting to re-integrate into our normal routines. Well, we have hiking left to do (~700 miles or so), I will leave you here to go finish packing my pack. Happy Trails!

~TrailDogs

Home!!!

Just a quick note, there will be many pictues and stories to come shortly. First of all, a big shout out to Mechanical Man and Crayon Lady for putting us up for nearly four days as well as being amazing hosts (yay velodrome!!). Second off, we are home now in New Paltz, resting, relaxing, and greaing up for the stretches to come. In fact, some of may have spotted a certain Laura Talaga discretely meandering the streets of Honesdale last night in the light of the fireworks... see you all soon!

TrailDogs