(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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