I have finally reached the end of the Appalachian Trail. It’s been a crazy and wonderful trip. I’ll get around to writing down some memories from the sections when I get home. I’ll also get a summit photo here as soon as I can get it off my camera.

My final days on the trail couldn’t have been any better. The hundred mile wilderness was very pretty. I hiked it with my good friend, Mooch, and took it very slow. The beginning of the Wilderness had a few climbs and from Whitecap, I got my first view of Katahdin.

The day after was “Bucket Day”! Since the Hundred Mile Wilderness is roughly, you know, a hundred miles, a few services are available to leave food about halfway through. As Mooch and I planned going slow, we split a bucket. The bucket was obviously loaded with treats too heavy to carry. I had packed in a nice bottle of Scotch. Here’s Mooch grabbing ours out of the pile:

After unloading ours, Magician came down the trail. He had one of the best ideas. He got 3 buckets full of beer to surprise and share with all the other hikers. He doesn’t even like beer! We hiked a short distance to the next campsite where I gathered firewood while the other hikers helped carry the beer. It made quite a pile, I forgot to grab a picture once it was all unloaded.

I had been carrying about 3 lbs of smores stuff, so I was happy to have people around to share with. Magician camped there a few more nights, since we barely made a dent.

One of the best nights was at the Antlers Campsite on the night of the eclipse. I camped out on a little point and had the lake wrap around 3 sides of me.

The moonrise was amazing, as was sunset, sunrise and moonset.

Here is moonrise:

And a decent photo right at sunrise:

We had a few more nice days before the rain came. And boy did it come! Luckily this was our last night and day before Golden Road, the end of the Wilderness and a chance to go into Millinocket to dry off. Luckily we both got hitches, though separately. Neither of our rides had room for two.

The next day brought dry weather and my second to last day on trail. I was pretty crushed though. With all the rain, the rivers were running high. It was impossible to ford one river and I had to take the high water bypass. It skipped a mile of trail and was the first time I didn’t pass a white blaze on the whole trip. My friends proceeded to tease me the whole time. The day was easy though and I shared a lean-to at Katahdin Stream Campground with Mooch, Sputnik and Fair Enough.

The next morning I shot up the mountain. Unfortunately all my pictures are on my camera and I don’t have a way to get them off right now (the trouble with living in the woods). It was a fun summit and I’ll post some as soon as I can!