Day 123 This has been an adventure of a lifetime. We are anxious to get home and excited for our next adventure. We slackpacked 18 miles with Buckeye. The smell of balsam fir trees throughout the forest reminded of us Christmas. We ended the day with another amazing meal by Honey.
Day 124 our first day in the White mountains. We slackpacked 17 miles up Mount Moosilauke with Buckeye. There were 40 mile an hour winds and hail at the top of the mountain. We picked up Justice, Buckeye’s dog, at a road crossing and he hiked the last 3 miles with us.
Day 125 Honey dropped us off to hike 16 miles in the White mountains. At the top of Mount Kinsman we saw a glider plane flying above our heads. We were exhausted by the end of the day and turned in early for bed.
Day 126 Honey dropped us off for the last time and we hiked 11 miles to a shelter. The climbs were tough but the views were worth it.
Day 127 we hiked 3 miles to a hut to get the left over breakfast. We waited 45 minutes and got cold pancakes with no syrup, bacon, oatmeal and eggs. The White mountains have not been blazed well. We hiked 1.2 miles on the wrong trail and ended up hiking 16 miles total. We stopped for lunch at a hut and ate black bean soup and cake for lunch. Blueberry worked for stay at a campsite while Dylan paid the $5.
Day 128 we stayed at lake of the clouds hut after hiking 14 miles.
Day 129 we climbed Mount Washington. We got left over blueberry pancakes at Madison hut. Our knees were hurting from the steep climbs but we hiked 15 miles. We picked up our weekly package and Pickle’s mom sent us some little candies. The Libby house B and B picked us up at Pinkham notch and we went in for a hot shower and resupply.
Day 130 we slackpacked 21 miles over Wildcat mountain with Maps, Buckeye and Jetson.
Day 131 we ate the hungry man special at the local diner before the owner of the Libby House took us back to the trail head in an 86’ Cadillac. We hiked 12 miles with Jetson, Buckeye and Maps to a tent platform overlooking Genetia pond. Life feels like these mountains we are climbing up and down. Through the ups and downs we have found new perspective in life.
Day 132 we hiked 15 miles over Mahousac arm and notch. It took us 1.5 hours to hike one mile over the notch. It was incredibly technical and difficult. It took us 12 hours to get to camp.
Day 133 we all hiked 15 miles, it thunder-stormed on top of a mountain, and we saw our first moose! It was a majestic thing to see standing 8 feet tall. We stayed at human nature hostel with 27 other hikers and owner Yukon who has been on the tv show naked and afraid.
Day 134 we had coffee and all you can eat blueberry pancakes before hiking 10 miles to a campsite.
Day 135 we hiked 17 miles to a lean-to with Buckeye, Jetson, Maps, Diablo and Wandering Dad. A hiker was taking a bath in the water source so we had to walk to another source to get our drinking water for the night.
Day 136 we saw a moose, hiked 9 miles with Buckeye to Rangeley, ME and got a shuttle to town. We picked up our weekly resupply box and Stephanie, Pickle’s cousin, mailed us a special care package with the most delicious food! We stayed at a hotel on the lake and went downtown to Sarge’s for lobster rolls.
Day 137 we ate breakfast at Moose’s bagel before hitting the trail. We hiked 15 miles today.
Day 138 we became “2,000 milers” today. Wow! What an indescribable feeling. We feel grateful for the journey and the time we have spent together but are ready to see our families.
Day 139 we hiked 16 miles and ate so many wild, Maine blueberries. We set up camp on a beach.
Day 140 the terrain was breathtaking. It was our first easy day in a while. We have 9 days and 155 miles to go. We hiked 15 miles to a shelter in the rain.
Day 141 in the pouring rain we took a canoe ferry across the Kennebec river. We resupplied and got milkshakes and BBQ sandwiches at Caratunk B & B. We hiked 18.7 miles to a campsite.
Day 142 we hiked 15 miles to a river with Oven, Blaze, Patches and Buckeye.
Day 143 we hiked 7 miles to Shaw’s and got picked up at 8 am. We “neroed” and ate a lot of good food before heading into the 100 mile wilderness.
Day 144 Poet and Hippie chick fixed us a huge breakfast before they took us back to the trail. It took us 8 hours to hike 15 miles to a lean-to that was full. It rained the entire 8 hours. We set up our tent in the rain. All of our gear including our sleeping bags and down jackets got wet. We climbed into our soaking wet sleeping bags after a long, tough day.
Day 145 we woke up and put on soaking wet clothes, socks and shoes. We hiked 15 miles to a tent pad by the river. We barely got our tent set up before it started pouring rain.
Day 146 we stopped on the top of a mountain to dry all of our wet gear on the rock slabs. We hiked 18 miles to a stealth spot on the pond.
Day 147 today was a great day. We saw a moose, got trail magic (beer, Gatorade and little Debbie’s) and a drop box from Shaw’s. We saw Katahdin for the first time. We hiked 22 miles to a stealth spot. Our snake count is up to 53.
Day 148 it was a long day. We haven’t taken a zero in almost a month. We hiked 21 miles to a lake and saw one moose. We saw a sea boat take off from a pond.
Day 149 we hiked 18 miles to the Birches lean-to. We set up our tent for the last time. On the way we stopped at the camp store for icecream and sandwiches.
Day 150 summit day. We hiked 5.2 miles up the hunt trail to the sign. The sign we have been dreaming of for 5 months. At times it felt like we weren’t going to be able to finish. We all were overwhelmed with emotion. We made it. Despite Lyme disease, anemia, and a brown recluse bite WE MADE IT!! We are 2018 NOBO thru hikers. We cried and took pictures for half an hour then hiked 4.4 miles down the Abol trail to be greeted by 2 familiar faces,
Pickle’s parents. We were so happy to see them and know that they were taking us home.
When everything felt like an uphill struggle we just imagined the view at the top. With enough sunscreen, positive thinking and determination you can do anything.
Happy endings come after a story with lots of ups and downs.
Despite Lyme disease, anemia and a brown recluse bite we made it!!
Thank you to all of our family, friends and sponsors that have supported us along the way. We could not have done it without you. A special thank you to Pickle’s mom, Patty Burke for mailing us our weekly resupply box and extra goodies. Thank you to Stephanie and Oz Osborne, Briley Booth Manderson and Jeremy and Monica McCracken for mailing us care packages. Thank you Walker at R&R cigars, Shirley McCracken, Greg McCracken, Debbie Sexton, and Bernadette Tucker for your generous gifts. We really appreciate all of the love and encouragement we received. Thank you Jeanny Gilpin for taking such great care of us on the trail. Thank you to all of our family that came and visited and loved on us along the way. Thank you Jennifer Strother for making us essential oil bug spray and coming to visit us.
We are sorry if we left anyone out.
Thank you to all of our sponsors:
Go raw, Dr. Kelly Ann, Mountain khakis, The paracord store, Sawyer squeeze, Mad hippie, Sweet earth natural foods, Primal kitchen, Sun potion, Four sigmatic, fifty50, Chico bag, Xero shoes, Ice mule, Betty Lous inc, Kuru, Swiftwick, Dick Stevens brand, Made in nature, Stronger bar, Buddha teas, Dang foods, Rickaroons, Perfect bar, Kind bar, Numanna, Probar, Oofos, Greens plus, Black Diamond, Omeals, Alpine start, Kar’s, Choice organic tea, Wild garden, Honest Tea, Traditional Medicinals, Purely Elizabeth, Organic Excellence, Rhythm super foods, Earthbound farm, Tree to tub, Enjoy life foods, Rawrev, Nelly’s organics, Food for life, Lotus foods, Sealskinz, Modern table meals, Tasty bite, Beanitos, Nutriom ova easy, Tough outfitters, Wild Zora, Nature Nate’s, Love grown, Sweet leaf, Suddora, Wise company, Know brainer, Legacy food storage, Seven Sunday’s, Emergency essentials, Power crunch, Kodiak cakes, Earthly choice, Crazy Richard’s, Clever foodies, Suja juice, Tofurky, WOLO snacks, Biotrust, Nugo nutrition, Mountain rose herbs, RW garcia, Uncle Matt’s, Hope foods, Mary Jane’s Farm, Zendesk, Biena foods, Sun Warrior, Bob’s red mill, Scramble, Bridgford foods, Yogi surprise box, Epic bar, Sockwa, Treeline coffee, One degree organics, Miracle noodle, Nature box, Tender Corp, Departika, Get unreal candy