Today’s post is a part of my “Lessons From The Trail” series about my time on the Appalachian Trail…this is the next to last post.

Reading my journal makes me want to be back out in the woods.  The energy and excitement exudes from the journal entries about these last few days on the trail.  Today we are going to pick up in Caratunk, Maine and continue on through the 100 mile wilderness all the way to Abol Bridge at the base of Mount Katahdin.  I hope you’ll stick around till the end of today’s post for the lesson I learned from the trail and some of my favorite photos from the trail.

One of my favorite photos from the trail came from Harrison’s Fish Camp.  The good folks at Harrison’s had a 12 pancake breakfast that they fed thru-hikers.  We had started early in the day to make the little side trip to Harrison’s.  The scratch-made pancakes did not disappoint and as you can see I’m pretty sure my eyes were actually bulging out of my skull.  I can’t even imagine eating 12 pancakes now but at that time it was more of an appetizer.

The energy from those pancakes fueled my hike to the Kennebec River.  The Kennebec is the largest river that hikers have to forge on the AT.  Water is typically waist to belly button deep but a hydroelectric power plant upstream can release water without warning that can raise the river level several feet within minutes.  (By the way, I can’t swim so this was a big deal to me.)  The smart folks at the Appalachian Trail Conference pay a man in a canoe to ferry hikers back and forth across the river during peak hiking season.  Yea!

We spent the night at the newly opened Caratunk House, a bed and breakfast that also had a hostel that catered to hikers.  The hiker section was a loft in a barn that had been converted into housing.  It was an amazing place for hikers to stay.  Our stay also included a professional foot rub from one of the owners who was a massage therapist and a former thru-hiker himself.  In theory a foot rub sounds good after several thousand miles of hiking, but my feet were so tender that I couldn’t even tolerate one minute of the rub before I had to get up off the table.

Little Bear joined with Almanac, Profile and myself for the final push to Mount Katahdin.  On August 12 we got our first view of Mount Katahdin even though we were still over 100 miles away.  The days in Maine were glorious!  The end was in site but we were in no hurry to get there.  We spent a good part of the day on Moxie Bald filling ziploc bags with wild blueberries.  We gorged ourselves on these wonderfully delicious berries.  The only bad part of Maine was the bugs.  We were all forced to tent at the shelter because the bugs were so bad.

At 5:30 in the morning Little Bear shook my tent and told me to come out and see a moose feeding in our pond.  It was amazing to be less than 100 feet from this massive animal.  The moose was standing out in the shallow part of the pond feeding and wasn’t too bothered by our presence.  We hiked on into Monson, a small town with about 10 businesses.  The pie lady was in Monson so we handed over our ziploc bags full of blueberries for her to bake into a wonderful pie.  We wound up spending a zero day in Monson just to take a rest before the 100 mile wilderness and to enjoy some real Texas barbeque…in the middle of nowhere Maine!

Coming out of Monson is the 100 mile wilderness.  Trail guides warned extensively about the dangers of the 100 mile wilderness.  There were slick rocks, steep drops and only logging roads to cross.  This is the longest section of the Appalachian Trail without a road to catch a ride on.  As we started our hike we heard about a fellow hiker who had slipped on a rock just a mile into this section of trail and fell, broking his shoulder and ending his hike.  The rocks were slick as snot but the day went without incident for us.  Our enteretainment for the day was watching a large group of kids try to get across a river ford.  Half of them got dunked.

The next few days were challenging and gave credibility to all the warnings about the 100 mile wilderness.  There were steep drop offs of 5-10 feet that had to be navigated with a pack.  There were some sheer drop offs where hikers had to climb down ladders that had been bolted into rock walls.  To make things more  challenging it rained every day.  Walking in soaked clothes and boots can lead to all sorts of issues.

Just over half-way through the wilderness I was in for a big surprise.  We came to a logging road crossing and there were my parents in their little red rental car!  They had come back up to tour some more and help me finish the trail where they could.  They had brought a hiker feast into the 100 mile wilderness for the hikers.  My parents were trail angels!  They even brought a sausage biscuit for A&P’s dog.  Even when you think you are in the wilderness there are people who will come find you!

It took five days to make our way through the wilderness.  We made it to Abol Bridge which was just outside the 100 mile wilderness and only 5 miles from Mount Katahdin.  It had taken just over five months to cover the 2,160 miles that had led to this point on the trail.  It was amazing to look up and see the mountain.  I decided to head into town to spend some time with my parents and to wash the wilderness funk off.

This was an amazing section of the trail!  And there is a powerful life lesson in this section of the hike.  There were many serious warnings about the perils in the 100 mile wildness and we saw for ourselves that there was great danger.  But even when we think we are in the wilderness we are not alone.  There are other people on the journey with us who can help us and who can look out for us.  There are also those special people in our lives who will seek us out and find us when we are in the midst of the wilderness.  Their love and compassion will help us carry on and find our way to the other side.

Make sure to come back next Wednesday for the final installment of my “Lessons From the Trail” series.  This has been such an enjoyable series of posts to write.  Thanks for reading along.