I can’t quite believe it, but I’m in the homestretch of this sucker now. I have a little over two weeks and 200 miles to go.

 For most of the trail, any time a weekender would ask me where I was headed, I’d say “Maine.” Unfortunately, now that I’ve arrived in Maine, that clever comment doesn’t have the same effectiveness.

Also for the entire length of the trail, nearly anyone you encounter who knows anything about the trail says something to the effect of “wait ’til you get to New Hampshire and Maine. It’s awesome.” Well, New Hampshire’s under my belt, and I’ve cracked into the first portion of Maine as well. The thing is, all of the hype up to this point was absolutely right on. I’m usually one to build up anti-hype anticipation of things, so when someone tells me something’s gonna be awesome, i’m usually prepared to be diappointed. This hasn’t been the case one bit.

Two Mondays ago, we entered the White Mountains of New Hampshire, going over Mt. Moosilauke, a relatively tame affair save one 1.5 mile steep section, but we had a beautiful day, killed 2 hours on the summit and moved on. The next day, we went over Kinsman Mountain, which had some serious semi-rock climbing portions. This was our first real ass-kicking day; we covered 16 miles in the relatively slow paced 10 hours. Franconia ridge was the next section, but it was socked in with fog.here The next section we hit was Mount Washington and the Presidential Range. We had the misfortune of hitting this part in bad weather, causing us to have to bail off the moutain and bypass 12 miles of trail. Mt. Washington is known for some of the most fickle weather in the world, and currently holds the record for the fastest windspeed record on the surface of the earth, a respectable 231mph. We arrived in Maine a couple days ago, and had to go through a mile-long boulder field called Mahoosuc Notch. This section was unlike any other on the trail, as it required you to crawl under giant boulders, hoist yourself up near-vertical granite faces using roots as handholds, and just generally exert yourself beyond anything you’ve done before. We managed to move through it fairly quickly, covering the mile in 2 hours, including a 30 minute halfway break.

The area between Mahoosuc Notch and where I am now, Andover, ME, has been incredible as well. We’ve had the pleasure of going over mountaintops above treeline, with 360 degree views. And the nice thing about Maine so far has been how remote it is. In the Whites, you’d look out and see roads, houses, towns, and plenty other signs of people. When you look out over Maine, you see very little other than beautiful countryside. From what I hear, it only gets better between here and Katahdin.

So yes, I am indeed counting the days to my finish. It’s definitely going to be a weird feeling to step off the trail and know that I don’t have to walk with 50 pounds on my back tomorrow (yes, I finally weighed my pack and I’m at about 50 pounds with 4 days of food). The future beyond my finish still has a large question mark above it, but I’m definitely feeling rejuvinated and positive.

You may hear from me one more time before my finish, but if not, the next update will be from the other side of this.