New Friends, Surprises, and Terrible Photography.

So a lot's happened since my last update. I took off from Monson a day ahead of my "Summercamp" friends - it was too early in the journey for me to take a zero (no hiking) day. Hiking the trail by yourself is a different experience. Instead of throwing thoughts back and forth between a friend, you find yourself with no one to complain to, which makes for a very quiet hike.

It would be quiet, I guess, if it weren't for the symphony that accompanies a hike in the Maine forest. I'm not talking about the songs of the birds, the soft breeze through the evergreens, or the movement of a playful deer. I'm referring to a much closer orchestra - the low drone that constantly surrounds your head. First you have the black flies (deer flies). These gems of the forest are by far the most loyal of your winged companions. They will never leave you unless:

1. You end their life with a headache-inducing swat.
2. They achieve their goal and fly away with a piece of your scalp.
3. They leave you for a juicier, less jittery target.

The trick that I try to use (although useless when hiking alone) is to yell out to whoever is hiking in front or behind you, "Did you see that?" Then when they stop to follow where my finger is pointing in the woods I stand real close to them, wait until the fly has locked onto their head, then disengage to a safe distance. "Oh, I thought I saw a deer. Sorry."

Then there is the common mosquito. Until this hike I never appreciated the speed with which a mosquito can travel. Even at a light trot downhill I can look over my shoulder and see a cloud of the bloodthirsty trumpeters in hot pursuit - never further than six inches behind me. And maybe it's just Maine mosquitoes, but apparently they have developed an immunity to deet. Three nights ago I decided I was too tired to set up my tent and slipped into an empty lean-to; trusty bug-spray can at my side. After a few minutes of relentless attacks I brought out the can, spraying a wide perimeter of deet around my head and sleeping bag... It was like squeezing ketchup on a burger. Suffice it to say, ten minutes later I promised myself never again would I be too lazy to set up my bug-proof tent.

And lastly, the assortment of mini-bugs that are to blame for the majority of accidental ingestions and inhalations. These guys will make a direct route to the inside of you ear canals, nostrils, and eyeballs. Even when I have my headphones in they will fly as hard as they can into some part of your ear then ram the headphones trying to find a way in.

With all this going on I've learned that the best defense against this relentless host of attackers is ignorance. I pull my hat low, put in my headphones, keep my mouth closed, and my eyes down. They aren't going anywhere so I might as well learn to coexist. 

Which reminds me...I haven't yet introduced my hat. Besides, we haven't had a picture in a while.

I know...classy.

All this and I haven't gotten to any of the title topics. I can't believe I just wrote five paragraphs on bugs...

So quickly, two days after leaving Monson I ran into this guy named "The Rock". After talking a while I agreed to "walk" with him for the day. This was the biggest mistake/best decision so far on the trip. The mistake was that he was an ultra-marathoner, and trying to keep up with him nearly ended my life on several occasions (luckily I have 9 to spare...). The guy ran up and down Katahdin for crying out loud! The reason it was also the best decision of the trip was that he is a really cool guy and invited me to his parent's hunting cabin located less than a quarter mile off the trail. His mom drove up and made us steak, ribs, potato salad, and the best molasses cookies I have ever eaten. We swam, had a bonfire with s'mores, then fell asleep to Air Force One playing in the background. Rock's nephew came up and in the morning we all set off to hike Bigelow Mountain (after a huge breakfast of course). We called his nephew "Ice Breaker", after he told us he hoped to meet a girl on the mountain. 

The Rock, Ice Breaker, and 9 Lives

Those two decided to spend the night on the mountain, while I continued to hike to a campground near the bottom. We met again in Stratton, from where I am currently writing. Although Rock will be flying by me shortly, on pace to finish in 3 months, hopefully we can keep in touch. I am forever grateful to both he and his parents for their humbling hospitality and kindness shown to me.

I'll end this post with a segment I like to call Things that make me shake my head on the trail.

1. Finding moose scat on the tops of mountains. Seriously. When does a moose find time in its day to hike a mountain?? Isn't it busy doing important moose stuff like avoiding hunters and cameras? There's absolutely nothing for them to eat up there, and don't tell me they need their exercise. This never ceases to astound me.
2. The trail-makers. Imagine yourself walking along a beautiful lake. Nice, right? Unless you're on the AT. In this case you will go back and forth between walking next to the lake, then hiking away from it to go up a random hill a couple hundred yards away, then hiking back to it - in a zig-zag pattern. There's plenty of open woods to make the trail go straight if you're going to follow the lake anyway. I guess they just needed to stuff more miles onto the trail. Not bitter, just confused.
3. The Roaming Dude. Dude carries a 55 pound pack, has three mobile devices (all with backup chargers), and carries his food sack in his hands...which he throws in front of him. He doesn't filter his water, but he is on facebook, twitter, and youtube.
4. Fire-tower Arsonists. C'mon, there's no reason to do this. 

     5. My inability to capture on camera any semblance of life faster than a toad. A moose, a deer, a fox, a rabbit, several squirrels, numerous snakes, and an owl. I'm so disappointed I'm not even going to show you the toad.

I'm sure to have more of these by next time...

I was going to do a whole post on Northbound and Southbound hiker relations, but that can wait for another day. I also want to detail my gear at some point but for now, I'll end with a few pictures...

Me and the Kennebec River ferryman. When I asked for his name he responded, "Kennebec River Ferryman".

Yes, I am hiking mountains, too.

One way or another...

I'll leave you with a "live-update" video I made last night. Mind you, I was a little out of it when I made it...well, you can probably see for yourself. For those of you who made it all the way through this, Thanks! God bless!

LIVE from Monson, ME!

The view from the backside of Katahdin.

I write to you from the Lakeshore House Hostel in Monson, Maine - 114.5 miles into my Appalachian Trail thru-hike. This place is sweet - internet access, a real bed, tacos. I'm halfway through a half gallon of strawberry ice cream as I write this post. I'm going to try to stay awake long enough to write a decent post; my sleeping schedule has altered quite a bit, to say the least.

I'll start from the beginning: All went well with the ascent of Katahdin - EDokk and I cruised up and down without much drama.In fact, due to the lack of a pack and the addition of adrenaline, it has been the easiest summit so far. We got up there on a great weather day, as you can see from the picture above (as you'll begin to notice, I'm really enjoying the panoramic setting on my camera - I just feel like I'm not really capturing the whole setting if I'm not using it.) Anyway, for a non-panoramic photo, here's EDokk and I at the top.

Thanks E, wouldn't have been the same without you.

So here's what an average day looks like so far (and probably won't change too much for the rest of the trip.) I wake up between 4-6AM, eat, hike until about 4-6PM, eat, then go to bed around 7 or 8. There's not a whole lot else to think about other than how far to walk. So far, I've been going between 10 and 18 miles per day - depending on elevation and soreness levels. I've found that I feel every mile that I hike - I can't just "cruise through" a three mile section of the trail. When you're hiking over mountains (sometimes four consecutively) the going is slow, and it might take over two hours to hike a single mile.

I should mention that I haven't been hiking alone. After hiking down Katahdin I ran into a bunch of guys that are heading down to Georgia too. There's "Frog Morton" and "Moose Head" from Tennessee, "Smooth Sailing" from Georgia, and then "Aussie" from down under, as you probably could have guessed. These are their trail names, which have been given based on something that happened on the trail or some distinct quality about them.

My trail name was "Cotton" for a little while, due to the cotton socks I wore for the first few days which gave me huge blisters. That was before the group realized my incredible penchant for wiping out. I've slipped on more roots, rocks, logs, and mud pits on the trail than I have in my entire life. I once took my boots off to ford a river, then slipped on a rock and ate it - soaking everything I had on me. Another time I slipped backwards off a log at a swimming hole and landed directly in the center of a ring of sharp rocks. An inch either way and my trip would have ended with a cracked skull or back, but thankfully I walked away with a little cut on my foot. For instances like these I have been dubbed "9 Lives" - and I'm probably down to 6 at this point for the rest of the trail.

We've dubbed ourselves "Team Summercamp" due to the camplike structure we have right now - the more experienced hiker "Smooth Sailing" is our camp counselor. I'll have to break off from the group when Kristen comes to hike with me in 9 days, but for now we're just hanging out and having a great time.

9 Lives, Smooth Sailing, Moose Head, Frog Morton, and Aussie.

Here comes the most tragic part of the trip so far. Maybe four days ago we were walking together in a group when Frog turns around and yells "MOOSE!" I had been waiting for this since the first day I thought about walking the trail. I looked up and saw a bull moose just standing there, thirty feet in front of me on the trail. It was awesome. I didn't freeze. Instead, I looked down to take out my camera, tripped on a root, and crashed to the ground. The moose ran away before I even got up. Photo opportunity ruined. Still plenty of Maine left, I guess.

I'm exhausted so I'll leave you with a few choice photos.

Here's your generic looking into the sunset shot.

A shot from the top of the fire tower on Barren Mountain. I carved my initials into an old piece of wood at the top.

And lastly, a sign you won't find in any restaurant. I crushed a 1 lb burger.

My group wants to take a zero day (no hiking) in Monson tomorrow, but I might push on ahead. It all depends on my feet/knee conditions. I'm excited for Kristen to join me in just over a week! Once again, i'll talk to you all again when I get the opportunity. Until then, thanks for reading and God Bless!

And...He's off!!

This is kmh signing in to update that tph has begun his trek!  He and erd just left on their way to ME for Mt. Katahdin.  Here are a few photos of the send off.

 

Family photo.

 

 K, T, and E

Lookin' good and ready:)

Go Tim!!

Here. We. Go.

Pretty happy with myself for finally finishing packing early this morning.

It's finally here.

No more planning. No more research. No longer do school or work stand in the way of the adventure that I've been planning for the past year (and change). I'm too excited to be nervous. I'm too cocky to be worried - or so I've been told. I'll work on that, but nothing can put a damper on the knowledge that later today I will be starting a multi-month journey amidst the best that God's creation has to offer. For weeks now people have been giving me this furrowed-brow look when I tell them I'm walking to Georgia by myself. This is almost always followed by a calculated question such as:

• What happens when you run out of water in the middle of nowhere?
• What happens if you run into a bear?
• What will you do if you run into a moose?
• Only two pairs of boxers???

The answers to these well-meaning questions are (in order):

• I have a water filtration system, and am never more than a few miles from water or a town.
• Depending on which book I trust I will either play dead, run away, or attack the bear. Great.
• Ride it.
• Yes.

After I assure them that changes of clothing are unnecessary because everyone else on the trail will smell as badly as I will, they lose the look and are excited for me. Some say they wish they could do something like this but can't due to [work/school/money/etc.]. It's true that I am greatly blessed to be in a position where I can go off for 4-6 months without any major consequences. I think this trip will be as important as a job would be for my future in different ways. For several months all I have to worry about is which campsite I want to pitch my tent at, and would I rather have the freeze dried lasagna or the freeze dried meatloaf? With all this free head-space I'll be able to toss around the big ideas, work on my writing, and be with God on His turf with no distractions. As they say, "Climbing mountains is the equivalent of churchgoing." (For more transcendental hiking quotes like this, please click here.) 

I'm also just excited to tackle the challenge of walking 2000ish miles, 5 million steps, whatever you want to call it. It's going to be really hard, and things that are difficult generally give you both a new perspective and a better idea of who you are as a person. Like Calvin's dad always told him in the comic strip, "It'll build character." Except I'm bringing this upon myself, but no matter...

So here's the plan for the next few days:

Later this morning I drive with E-Dokk to the base of Mount Katahdin in Maine, the first of many peaks that I will summit in the next several months. We'll camp there tonight then hike it on Wednesday.  Eric will hike one more day with me on the AT, then send me on my way. 

I'm not sure how many updates I'm going to be able to provide while in Maine. I don't have a computer, fancy phone, or anything else they have these days to get onto the internet, so I'll have to rely on libraries and other internet-laden facilities. And Maine has two of those along the trail. Goody. I'll see what I can do, but in the meantime please enjoy the polls on the right side of your screen. For the weight poll, my starting weight is 187.6lbs. And keep in mind I will NOT be counting the week I spend in Speculator, NY with my family at Camp-of-the-Woods towards my total day count for Maine or the entire AT. For those who are calling foul-play on this one, the week lost on conditioning will far outweigh and benefits of rest received. I'll try to add a new poll every once in a while to give you a reason to come back. I'll also be taking pictures and will try to incorporate some of them into my updates.

For anyone who is interested in what the Appalachian Trail looks like, or wants to get an idea of where I'll be at any point in time, go to this great interactive map. Thanks for reading and God Bless!

I'll try to update again soon, and if I don't it's probably because I tried to ride a moose...

I'm so freaking excited! Maine, here I come!