Update!

Just to update people who find this blog and may have wondered whatever happened to us on the trail. 

We hiked until August 4, 2011. We were near the Appalachian Trail train station in New York state. We met a very nice guy at a barbecue place that offered us a place to stay for the night. 

Ann was not feeling well at all and we made the tough decision to fly home the next day. She was feeling terrible and we decided to make our way back home. We later found out she had contracted Lyme's Disease from a tick bite. We made it to the doctor and she took the appropriate Antibiotic and healed up just fine.  But, it was a scary experience. 

We made it about 741 miles of the trail. We are going to finish at some point, hopefully in the next few years. We have even discussed starting back in Maine so we are true "thru-hikers"

We will hopefully need this blog again to chronicle completing our journey! Thanks to everyone who helped us along the way!

Alex

July 20, 2011

Alex and I, "the beaver baggers", have been hiking for a month and a half now!  "The beaver baggers" is our trail name.  Thru hikers go by a trail name that is usually given to them along the trail by other thru hikers.  We are "the beaver baggers" because we got really hungry one night and had to kill a beaver for dinner.  It was a difficult task but alex beat him to death with a trekking pole.  No no, just kidding!  Out here beavers have caused many problems on our hike.  Some of our trails were flooded because of beaver dams and we heard rumor that a hiker was attacked by a beaver.  While some people  hang there food in the tree to keep it away from the bears "bear bagging" we like to beaver bag because beavers are the real trouble makers out here.

It doesn't feel like we have been camping for a month and a half at all because time is going by so fast and we have been so busy hiking.  Everything has been awesome.  Today we are in Manchester Center, VT which is mile 537 of 2,181.  About 1/4 of the trail!  My birthday was yesterday so we took a zero hiking day and it was so fun that we are taking another zero day today.

Otis "the dog" drove my parents up to VT to spend a few days with us which is amazing!  We stayed in a B&B in Danby VT Monday night and then they slack packed us 18 miles into Manchester Center,VT for tuesday night. We have been touring VT with them for the last two days while trying to rest and do some shopping at the outfitter.  I can't believe how hot it is here, the temp today is almost in the 90s.  I am kind of glad that we aren't hiking today in this heat.

I picked up some brand  new shoes at the mountain Goat yesterday.  They are Low top, non-GTX Solomon!  My old shoes were completely shot, the tread was worn smooth on the bottom and and I had worn several holes on the tops as well.  I am very excited about my shoes.  We are headed out to the trail again tomorrow morning!!!

Ann "little beaver bagger"

PS.  We just checked out the Bennington VT pottery factory which was fun!  They make some beautiful handmade pottery that I would love to buy when I am an adult.

Zero Day!

Hikers like to keep track of their mileage. It's not a bragging rights thing, well at least not for us, but when you're trying to hike this many miles you just think about the miles everyday. Today we did approximately zero trail miles. We did hike a few miles here and there for food and more food and to go to the Public library. AT hikers call it a zero day. It was glorious! We had a few good meals and ice cream, and then gelato and have pretty much been hanging out, relaxing and eating all day. We are in Rangely, Maine, which means we have completed about 220.5 trail miles. This terrain is tough and it is only going to get tougher as we head into the White Mountains! So, we decided we were due for a break. We have enjoyed this town; lobster rolls and canoeing on the lake and we went to a fresh market and stocked up on all sorts of delicious snacks. Back on the trail tomorrow.

A&A

189 miles done!

We've been bad bloggers! Mostly because the hiking has been tough.

Lots of bugs, bogs, rocks, roots and plenty of up and down mountains! Maine is wet and this makes the going slow and tough sometimes. Plenty of rivers to cross and swamps and logs to balance across.

Katahdin on day one was crazy! Lots of boulder scrambling and crawling up rocks on all fours. Immediately after that we headed into the 100 Mile Wilderness. That was tough and the longest stretch on the whole trail with no resupply.  Carried in about 6 days of food and it took us 8 to get through Katahdin and  the Wilderness.  So, the food was spread a bit thin.

We made it out to Monson and had a good time at Shaw's. Neat place! Did laundry, took showers and had a good meal.  The next morning we had Shaw's all you can eat breakfast. It was awesome!

We stopped again in Caratunk to pick up a Mail drop from the Post Office and stayed with a neat old guy at a Bed and Breakfast called Sterling Inn.  Had a great meal and some good Blueberry Beers at Northern Outdoors Pub and Brewery.

We hiked on to Stratton, ME and that's where we find ourselves now.  If this seems rambly it's because people are waiting to use the one computer at this place.

I will try to write again soon.

Alex

The journey to the journey

We are here in Bangor, Maine waiting for a bus that will take us in to Medway. From there we take a shuttle to the Appalachian Trail Lodge in millinocket. We took a cab from the airport that brought us to a outdoor store so we could buy fuel for our stove. Tomorrow morning at 7 we will be on our way up Katahdin to the start of the trail.

-Alex

The weather in Bangor, ME is 65 degrees and sunny. Yesterdays temperature in baton rouge, LA with with the heat index was 108, so we are really enjoying this cool weather! Bangor seems like a boring town, the sport shop (epic sports) was in down town. Everything is run down and most of the buildings are empty. Not too much excitement, just waiting for the bus to take us to millinockett.
Ann

Gear and Food

Ah, yes, the two things that will make this 2,181 mile trek possible.  The gear we bring and the food we eat. We have been doing a great deal of planning and thinking when it comes to what to eat and what to carry all those miles. 

We think we have a pretty good assortment of food for our mail drops that will supplement what we find in towns along the way, and we hope we have all the right gear for every situation.  As with most things in life, though, we just won't know until we are out there, in a hail storm, on the summit of Mt. Washington or some such peak, if we really brought the right "stuff".

We have been packing up a wide array of delicious snacks and dried goods.

Lots of freeze-dried meals to heat with our trusty stove.

 We have picked all the lightest, nicest gear we could afford.

And we will see how it all turns out. I am sure some things won't last. We may need a few more pairs of shoes and socks and maybe undies. And, I am sure we will send some things home along the way or have different things sent to us.  But, that is all part of the adventure.  If we knew exactly what was going to happen and what to expect, then it may not be worth all the excitement.

On our way to Katahdin, ME in...

18 days
9 hours
35 minutes

Thanks for reading.

Alex

26 Days!

We have been busy gathering all sorts of food for the trip.  We are packaging all the food into boxes to be shipped ahead to ourselves to receive in different towns along the trail.  It's a very interesting thing to try and plan ahead for all of the food we will need for four months.  We will also be able to resupply in lots of towns along the way but some towns just won't have what we want or need.  So it's going to take a lot of planning to make it all work out; planning that I haven't yet finished.

I told the company I work for that I wanted to go live in the woods for four months.  After the initial "what the hell?" everything seems like it will work out pretty nicely.  There may even be a job for me when I get back.  So that was a big relief.

Ann has her national PA board test scheduled for the day before we leave, June 3!  So, as I type this, she is sitting across the table studying hard.

We are very excited and I plan to do a blog about our gear and our food, since lots of family and friends have been asking about it.  Then we'll be blogging about the actual trip before you know it!

26 days
8 hours
31 minutes

'til we fly to Maine!

Alex