(Written 10/4) Well folks here it is. After much personal debate and battling with myself, I have decided that after I summit tomorrow I will be finished with my hike for the season. The ghiardia is continuing to take it out of me and my budget is dried up. This is a bittersweet decision, but I know its the right one. As long as I get to Harpers Ferry by July 5th next year my hike will still be considered a thru-hike. I'm not upset at all though, I started this hike with the intentions of summiting Katahdin, and in less than 12 hours I will conquer that goal. We are inside the boundaries of Baxter State Park! We exited the hundred mile wilderness today, and were met face to face with that great mountain. It could not have been a better welcoming. We are staying inside the park tonight at a campsite called The Briches, it consists of2 small lean-tos and is reserved only for long distance hikers. Tonight we are gathered around the fire ring for our final fire of this amazing trip. I spoke with my dad today and explained to him my plans after Katahdin. He told me he was proud of me. It meant a lot to me, I'm glad that after all my bullshit, bad decisions, mistakes with the Navy,and genuine lack of motivation, I am still able to make my parents proud, I'd almost lost hope. Thank you Mom and Dad for every inch of help you have given me. Morale could not be higher. For some It may be hard to believe, but this trip, though not at all conventional, has done a ton for me personally, both mentally and physically. Mostly mentally. Life can pass you by so quickly if you let it, but you also have to take your time to get where you want to go, its a balancing act that I think I'm starting to get. I'm very excited to see what it does for me back in the real world. Tomorrow we will wake at 6 and prepare for our final climb up this beast of a mountain and after a 5.4 mile climb we will reach our ultimate goal, Baxter Peak, Mt Katahdin. Then just as quickly as we began it will all be over,after a brief stint in town for beers,celebrations, and goodbyes I will board a trail bound for Georgia or Illinois. Back to the real world, to the daily grind but like so many others after me and before I think I'll be lost, if only for a brief time and without white blazes to guide my day who knows what life holds. I guess now its time for me to blaze my own trail.

-Fresh and Bella the Mountain Dog
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(Written 10/4) Well folks here it is. After much personal debate and battling with myself, I have decided that after I summit tomorrow I will be finished with my hike for the season. The ghiardia is continuing to take it out of me and my budget is dried up. This is a bittersweet decision, but I know its the right one. As long as I get to Harpers Ferry by July 5th next year my hike will still be considered a thru-hike. I'm not upset at all though, I started this hike with the intentions of summiting Katahdin, and in less than 12 hours I will conquer that goal. We are inside the boundaries of Baxter State Park! We exited the hundred mile wilderness today, and were met face to face with that great mountain. It could not have been a better welcoming. We are staying inside the park tonight at a campsite called The Briches, it consists of2 small lean-tos and is reserved only for long distance hikers. Tonight we are gathered around the fire ring for our final fire of this amazing trip. I spoke with my dad today and explained to him my plans after Katahdin. He told me he was proud of me. It meant a lot to me, I'm glad that after all my bullshit, bad decisions, mistakes with the Navy,and genuine lack of motivation, I am still able to make my parents proud, I'd almost lost hope. Thank you Mom and Dad for every inch of help you have given me. Morale could not be higher. For some It may be hard to believe, but this trip, though not at all conventional, has done a ton for me personally, both mentally and physically. Mostly mentally. Life can pass you by so quickly if you let it, but you also have to take your time to get where you want to go, its a balancing act that I think I'm starting to get. I'm very excited to see what it does for me back in the real world. Tomorrow we will wake at 6 and prepare for our final climb up this beast of a mountain and after a 5.4 mile climb we will reach our ultimate goal, Baxter Peak, Mt Katahdin. Then just as quickly as we began it will all be over,after a brief stint in town for beers,celebrations, and goodbyes I will board a trail bound for Georgia or Illinois. Back to the real world, to the daily grind but like so many others after me and before I think I'll be lost, if only for a brief time and without white blazes to guide my day who knows what life holds. I guess now its time for me to blaze my own trail.

-Fresh and Bella the Mountain Dog
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(Written 10/3) At this point I'm certain that the first 50 miles of the hundred mile wilderness was blazed by Helen Keller. The trail was awful, nothing but mud and roots, half the time the trail was basically a creek. At the Fourth Mountain Bog a sign read "please stay on the bog logs". This ended up being impossible due to the fact that more than half of them were broken or under a foot of water. What the first half lacked the second has made up ten fold. Stream fords are a daily occurrence,and with all the rain we've had some were pretty treacherous. The trail has leveled out all but for a few small bumps here and there. Now onto the bad news. I spent Thursday in the hospital. I went to bed with a stomach ache Wednesday night, to awake with cramps and some horrendous diahreah (sp) at a logging road 5 miles from the shelter I called it quits and was lucky to get picked up by a Maine guide who was going down the road. It was 25 miles to the hospital. The hospital was tiny compared to what I'm used to. 14 beds in the place. The staff there took excellent care of me big thanks to Andy, Michelle,and especially Brenda and her husband. They believe I have Ghiardia and so do I. The time I spent there was miserable, lots of fluids and little rest. Depression also set in because I thought I was done for. Dutch had gone on ahead and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get back out, much less catch him. The next morning my nurse Brenda's husband drove me back out to the trail a little ahead of where I originally was picked up. Luckily due to some seriously crap weather I caught Dutch 4 miles in at the next shelter. For anyone not paying attention, yes I am hiking with ghiardia, I'm not quiting this close to Katahdin. It sucks but I love it. We've been putting in big miles and everyday we have been rewarded with amazing views of that great mountain. Today we hiked 17 miles, well hiked 15 and boated 2! We found an abandoned boat and were able to get her floating. So we sailed the slack waters of the Rainbow Stream. It was amazing! No one hiking this year has done that aqua blaze,without a doubt we are the only ones. Tonight is our last night in the hundred mile wilderness. Tomorrow we will enter Baxter State Park and Tuesday morning we will make our summit. I can't believe it, 3 months to the day that I started I will be finishing the 1st half of this amazing journey. I have soo much more to type but I need to send this before my phone dies.

-Fresh and Bella + Dutch
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