Auto Immunity: The Mountain

Greetings all ya'll,

Last time you heard we were getting ready to get a ride up to Baxter State Park and climb Katahdin. Well the ride went off without a hitch and we got up to the park with the help of Paul and Nancy. They drove us in their pickup truck and helped us get into the park and to our campsite.

We luckily got a campsite at the campground that we wanted because it said that they were all full but we talked to the park ranger and there was one available that we snagged. So Paul and Nancy drove us up to the site and dropped us off with all of our stuff and our bikes. We said our goodbyes and they left as quickly as a drop of water in Kansas.

Thank you so much Paul and Nancy for everything you did. It was a lot of fun and we love getting rides places now so your help was and still is much appreciated. Also the french toast was delicious.

Once they were away we set up camp and had some lunch. Shortly after that we got a little fire going and watched that for a few hours before having dinner and getting ready for early bedtime. You see our plan was to hike up to Baxter Peak so that we could watch the sunrise. The hike was about 4 miles from our campground to the peak and all the signs said that it would be an 8 to 10 hour round trip. With this in mind we decided to leave at 2 a.m. to get there around 5:40 when the sun was scheduled to come up. So we went to bed at 6 p.m. so that we could be up there.

The hike was a bit through the woods but then hit the rock slide that would account for most of the hard part of the hike. The "trail" was nothing more than a endless boulder field that gradually got steeper and steeper until it was what felt like straight up the mountain. Well we crushed the hike and reached the summit a bit too early. About an hour too early.

Arriving at the summit at 4:30 a.m. we had some time to kill so we hunkered down to get out of the wind and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. By the way it was a bit cold on top of this mountain and all we had were pants and long sleeve shirts. So while we began to lose feeling in our fingers the sun took its merry time coming up.

It felt like forever but it finally happened. The sun rose in all its glory and we danced in its warmth. It was about this time that a pair of hikers reached the summit. They had hiked 40 miles in the last 24 hours to reach the summit and finish their thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. They walked from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katahdin in Maine. Just over 2000 miles. Their names were Bearhat and The Sour Patch Kid.

We conversed with them about the challenges of each of our journeys and what made them great. With the sun warming our fingers back to life and good company in the other hikers we sat in aww of what we had come up and the views that we could see all around us. It was a great feeling for us but I can not imagine what it must have felt like for them. Probably similar to how we felt seeing the ocean. It is such a long time coming that when it actually happens it is too much to take in at once and you really don't feel anything until you look back on the whole thing and realize what you have done.

My (Matt) personal feelings on the subject are that the beggining and the end are the strangest parts of the adventure because it doesn't feel like you have really done anything because when you start you haven't and when you finish it is just like any of the other 80 days except that there is an ocean or a mountain. It feel great but the real fun is all the stuff in between and the times you have getting places. When you sit back and think about all the things you have done and all the people you have met that is when you realize that it was never about getting to the other ocean it was about meeting people, seeing things and learning from others and teaching them a thing or two along the way. That is what makes this kind of trip so much different than one you might take in a car. You really appreciate every single day and what happens instead of just looking straight ahead at what is to come.

So anyways... after having some sentimental moments with the hikers we headed back down the trail to get back to our campsite and pack up and bike out of the park to somewhere. The way down the trail was much worse than the way up since every step has as much impact as hopping down a few feet except we had to do it a few hundred times. After a few hours we arrived back at camp and took a well deserved nap. zzz...

Upon waking up we started down the road with every intention of trying to find a ride as far south or east as we could. At this point we are all exhausted and really don't mind if we don't bike. Well it turned out that most if not everyone was heading into the park since it was a Saturday so we did not score a ride. After 25 miles we were in Millinocket Maine. You could call this the middle of nowhere.

Here we stopped at the AT Cafe and refueled on some grub before heading on the road toward the town we wanted to get to which was Lincoln. We arrived on the outskirts of Lincoln and starting trying to find a place to stay. Chuch number one. Locked. Church number two. Locked. It was just after church number two that Joey spotted a sign that said "bean supper" at a VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) post number 1438. We doubted going up to it for a second and then we realized that we should never doubt things so we went up to the door, looked in and there were people! Yay! So we walked in and they instantly asked us if we wanted some food. We told them what we were doing and asked if we could stay there. All they said was that first we should eat.

So we got some beans, three kinds to be exact. Hotdogs, macaroni salad, potato salad, biscuts, raspberry pie and CAKE! To be short it was a lot of good food. We arrived about ten minutes before they were shutting down so we quickly ate our food and went outside to set up our tents because they said that would be alright. We were in our tents getting ready to sleep when a van pulled up and asked if we wanted to come back to their place and take a shower and sleep inside.

It was one of the ladies from the bean supper, Louise. She came back to help us out! Her and her husband, Bob, let us put our bikes in the VFW post and then we got in their van and headed back to their place which was a few miles away. At this point we took showers, watched a bit of the Redsocks game but it was going on a 18 hour day and we were so tired that we took our leave and went to bed.

We awoke this morning and had some delicious homemade egg, cheese and bacon croissants with fried potatoes. We then worked in another car ride to our next destination which I am blogging to you from now in Veacie Maine. Thank you so much Louise and Bob. You two were nicer than we could have imagined and today we are so sore from hiking and biking that the ride would have been terrible and we are forever greatful. Tonight we are staying with Charlie and Sarah who are yet another gracious warmshowers host. From here we go to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park tomorrow and watch another sunrise the next day. Stay tuned for our next blog and keep telling people to donate. We are still trying to reach 20,000 dollars! Good Bye, Good Bye, Good Bye!

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