Signing Off

It's all over! I'm back in Cambridge now. It feels a bit surreal that this thing I planned months in advance and took so long to complete has come and gone.

The last week was fantastic, and did not disappoint as a finale to this adventure. The final week began with 4 and a half days in the 100 Mile Wilderness, which was the longest stretch I had hiked without resupplying. I could have opted for a truck to drop off a food supply at a dirt road midway through, but I wanted the challenge of doing this self-supported. It was a very fun section of trail; some smaller peaks, dozens of peaceful lakes, an handful of river fords, and some tranquil forests. It got extremely hot, but I was never more than a couple miles away from a body of water to take a swim in. A fun part of this included seeing a lot of Juice and Rescue, we all were dropped off at the trail together, and ended up camping at the same place for all 4 nights on the trail. We had breakfast and dinner together each day.

After the 100 Mile Wilderness, I met up with Alyssa and Drew, who made the long drive from Salem. Due to restrictions at Baxter State Park, its very difficult to secure campsites at the base of Katahdin (the northern terminus of the trail). Alyssa dedicated the week to refreshing the website and calling the park rangers looking for a spot. She was successful! We were rewarded with 2 nights in an ideal location for the final climb up Katahdin.

The last day was perfect. We got up at 4:30 to beat adverse weather (that never came), and had a wonderful hike up to the summit. After we finished, we cleaned up in the creek and drove to a nearby pizza place/brewery with a view of Katahdin, before returning to our campsite for a fire + smores. Mom even tracked our location to the pizza spot and picked up our tab.

They also drove me back home, which saved a couple days of buses and an expensive last minute flight.

I've done my best to accurately record everything from the trip. Take a look at the data if you want

To answer what I think are the most common questions:

High Level Numbers

• 145 days, including 21 days without any hiking
• Total miles hiked: 2272.7
  • This is further than the official 2197.9 miles due to the approach trail to the start at Springer Mountain, the descent of Katahdin, side trails to summits and water, and getting lost
• Total elevation gain: 527k feet
  • A bit more than most estimates of the trail, which are usually around 515k
• Total hiking time: 869.5 hours
  • I guess I need to do it another dozen times to become an expert!
• An average day:
  • Including rest days: 6 hours of hiking, 15.7 miles, 3.6k elevation gain
  • Omitting rest days: 7 hours of hiking, 18.3 miles, 4.2k elevation gain
  • Omitting rest days and abbreviated days: 7.6 hours of hiking, 19.7 miles, 4.6k elevation gain
• Some superlatives
  • Most miles in a day: 29.2
    • A big push to get out of New Jersey, to make sure I got to a meetup with my mom the following night at a reasonable time
  • Most elevation and time hiking: 8029 feet, over 10.6 hours.
    • A huge day with Red Panda to get out of NH into ME. Only 20.8 (very difficult) miles.
  • Longest time between showers: 7 days, on 2 occasions

What did I do each day?

Where did I sleep?

How did things change across states?

I came out here inspired by my interests and my typical vacation format; get outside to beautiful places, convince/trick my friends and family to join me, and do big endurance challenges. While this trek delivered in all of those ways, it gave me so much more.

To my surprise, what I will remember first and foremost is the AT community. The people I met out here will leave a lasting impression. Seeing how generous, kind, compassionate, and helpful nearly everyone tied to the trail is, has given me a new faith in the world. I’ll be leaving more extroverted and more open to spending time with people I haven’t met before. I vow to do my best to pay forward the kindness and generosity extended to me out here.

This experience has shown me what happiness and fulfillment look like. Not that I haven't ever experienced these feelings before, but for the only prolonged time in my life, I wasn’t filled with ever-present thoughts of wanting things to be better and wondering how to fix all the things that felt suboptimal. I feel like I have a new superpower now: if things ever go downhill, I know I can return to the trail, and feel like I'm a part of something magical. This gives me a lot to think about, in terms of bringing components of trail-life into my everyday life.

I do want to say a big thank you to everyone who met up with me out there, hosted me for a night, cooked a meal, or sent an encouraging text. You know who you are.

For now, wish me luck on my return to the real world, and I hope to see more of all of you in-person soon.

Love,

Aaron/Tangent