My friends Jan and Chip continued hiking on into southern Maine after we “crushed”  the Presidentials. I had to shuttle ahead (about a three hour drive) to start my solo hike through the Maine hundred mile wilderness. It’s the final portion of of the northern AT before the final ascent of Mt Katahdin. There are no public roads through this final portion of the hike, so in the past you had to carry enough food to last for the entire trek. Since I planned a reasonable “old man’s goal” of about 10 miles a day, that’s a lot of food. Fortunately, now there are private adventure companies that can meet you in the middle on one of the many logging roads and give you a prearranged food drop. That was my plan for day five. 

Ready to begin :

Here are some views of the first few days. A bit disappointed that I didn’t see any moose but I did have to fight off a killer 3 foot toad climbing up a tree along the way. 

One of the more memorable stops was camping on Jo – Mary Lake on Antlers campsite. I went swimming, fishing and woke up to a beautiful sunrise. 

Five more days in the Wilderness :

Finishing up with katahdin in the background :

I ended the 100 mile at Katahdin Stream Campground, hitched a ride into the nearest town, Millinocket, which was about an hour away. There, I was to meet my boys Ed and Ben to plan are ascent of the big one :Katahdin. 

Wednesday morning we left Millinocket at 5 AM to be ready to start at the base of the mountain by 7 AM. 

This was by far the biggest physical challenge of my AT hike. I was certainly glad to have my boys help their dad up, down and around some of the tougher climbs. Here are some views and moments:

I’m home two days now writing this post. Still with assorted aches and pains, but not unexpected. Great to be back close to family and friends. I’ll follow up with a post shortly to share some general thoughts and “insights” after my initial three months on trail.