थे रोड इस लॉन्ग थे रिवर वाइड.. विल इ बे थे समे व्हेन इ राच थे ओथेर साइड?

So...i wrote an amazing blog update last night a nd was about to send it when the internet connection was momentary lost, and my update was permanently lost. terribly sorry, for it was a good one. not as much in the sprit of it today b ecause i want to go kayaking and fishing...........
Aaaaah! final frontier!! Natty and I strolled into Monson, ME about noon yesterday and are staying at the lakehouse hostel/B&B along with some other hikers...namely my dear ones Firecracker and Big Fish!! Hooray...been trying to catch those two for months, but it couldn't have come at a better time.we will hopefully all finish together, pretty awsome! after a 17? miler the other day we reaaly wanted to camp on this river we had been hiking along for several miles and were hoping to find a spot, when lo and behold there's FC and BF camped with a fire going already...room for two more?? Oh yeah!! It's been so long i've been missin' my homegirl, Firecracker....and Natty's heard all about them, so finally we all meet....yaaay! we stayed up late(by hiker standards, uh 10pm) around the fire, played some tunes. played the Hiker Funk song, written by Natty, myself and our friend who we haven't seen in awhile, Honey Dew. firecracker recorded it on her DVR and listened to it while hiking yeserday...cool.
So, Maine is incredible! How is it that i have lived here but had nooo idea how magical, and beautiful it is.from the rocky bald, above treeline mountaintops to the dence packed fir and pine trees, moss lined trails. Aaah...so much moss. just gorgeous. there have been so many opportunities to camp on rivers, ponds and lakes with beauiful views, wildlife everywhere. in some places there have been more moose tracks than people tracks. we saw a huge bull moose the other day. i was walking super slow and quiet(quite by accident, my knee was killing me and i was taking it easy) and iheard him before i saw him. he was munching away on something and breathing, prety loud. i tried to sneak up to take a photo, but he started walking away. how something so huge makes his way through these densley packed forests had been a mystery. i realized that they don't 'make their way through' if it's in thier way, they run into it and knock it down....how else could it work. i had to laugh at the racket he made, you'de think out in the natural world , the creatures could be a little stealth, not so with big moose. soo loud. just before mahoosic notch, we had seen a full moose skeleton off the trail. someone had taken it upon themselves to write out the word HELP! with the bones. i helped myself to a rib bone and put it in my 'voodoo pocket' on the side of my pack, along with my two turkey feathers (i used to have a snake skin) and now a tail of some animal(a mink?or a marten??) it was just sitting there on the trail....my voodoo pocket is nearly complete!
So we got a glimpse of the ol' final destination the other day, Mt Katadhin.....getting closer every step i take. It's pretty exciting. I'm psyched to be reaching the end, the top of the mountain. and i 'm tired of hiking. i'm tired of putting in big miles, not tired of hiking, and that's the problem. i like this ...a lot. i love hiking the AT. i love camping, walkiing somewhere and setting up camp...being outside, stopping by a river for a snack or a nap. looking up at the leaves lowing in the beeze while the fallish looking clouds roll across the sky. the weather is grand. and it has ben for quite some time now.....since august 30......i hope it stays that way, the forcast says it is possible. It's very rare to have the weather that we did through the white mountains and on. it's been cool, cold crispy nights and mornings, beautiful cool, warm or hot days, sunny with some good cloud cover.
too cool for a dip...too bad, there have been so many places to swim. i could totally come back and do the whole maine section again, or parts of it at a leisurly pace..it is that wonderful. the terrain is not too hard. what a treat after such strenuous hiking.
After the initial ass kicking we got the first two days into maine my legs had gotten to a point of exhaustion that i have never experienced. they would just burn and burn the second we would start to gain elevation. there was just no energy there. in Grafton notch, where my friend, ben, dropped us off after zeroing in bethel, we ran into a ranger who told us it just gets easier and easier all the way to katadhin.... i nearly cried. ...but he was right, hooray!
Maine is full of beauiful ponds and lakes, rivers. we had to ford a river the other day(cross in our crocs), and also we had to flag down a ferryman to take us across the kennebek river. it's too deep and wide to walk. this guy, hillbilly dave, a ranger, is available for ferrying evryday in season between 9am-11am and again from 2pm-4pm so you've got to get there, otherwise that's where you're camping for the night. anyway there was an orange flag there on th side of the trail, and he had been expecting us,his previous passengers told him so, so i waved the flag and he hopped into his red canoe, paddled on over and picked us up. it was super windy and we had our life vests buckled up tight, a sweet little ride.
so here we are in monson, the last outpost before the 100 mile wildrness... we are chillin' here today, being tuesday...soo many people rolled into town yesterday it was crazy!! and great! a lot of peoplr hitched up from wherever they were because of timing, and want to get to katedhin before the snow flies and then go back to finish what they missed. so folks i haven't seen in ages are poppin' in left and right...so fun to see everyone. saw C-Bass and Swift, George(or john-anna, or beefstick), Logan(joey, or finger-mullet) and Alan (maybe he's finger-mullet...they all just got new names)tough to keep track. a bunch of folks i haven't seen since the Doyle, of the infamous doyle!!!There have been so many amazing pepole i've met out here. really good people. people who believe in themselves and in their potential. This young guy, his name is 'You' said somehting at breakfast this morning and it made me so happy. it was such refreshment. he said, 'i have learned what a great young man i am and how much potential there is within me, and i'm going to travel the world.....' i don't know if i got that right, but his youth, his goodness and his confidence was powerful.there is so much potential wrapped up within every one of us and it's a mystery sometimes to unravel, but when you know it's there, it's impossible to ingore, and a disservice to ourselves and to others to ignore. so, you've got to be who you are, find out what you are good at, and do that....because the world needs you.
so i'm nearing the end but really (and,yah, this may sound cliche) the beginning.....
the road is long, the river is wide..who will i be on the other side?
it's been amzaing knowing how many people have been following this whole journey. it's filled my heart hearing people's responses, their encouragement, their joy in sharing these stories. i've been pretty happy about that. i definatley feel really blessed.
so, peace out ya'll.........i might just keep a running , sort of, uh, after trail journal too.....see what happens now.

LOVE AND GRATITUDE TO ALL!!!!!!!

your (almost, there is another many names) one and only

~MANY NAMES~

थे एंड इस नार......और शौल्ड इ से, थे बेगिन्निंग

Hello ! Hello! greetings....it's going to be nearly impossible to write eabout evrything that's been going on...just got to stratton, ME and the library will close in ten minutes..i will do what i can. perhaps, begin with the present and work backwards????
Or not...... i really don't like not being able to write everything i want because the quality is lacking, so i 'm wondering if i should tell at all..or do an outline and fill in later...okay..

so my birthday, august 29th has been named the 'bad saturday' due to remnants of a hurricane....we (natty and i) hiked 18 treacheruos miles to franconia notch on this day...thankfully to warm dry birthday shelter for food showers and rest.....next day we meet up with my most excellent friend anika, who came to hike part of the whites with us. the weather cleared up and it was spectacular...a super diffucult hike, and for 3 days anika, natty and i went over the beautiful franconia ridge,and other mountains unbelieveavle......magnifecent views...after all this time hiking this was the most beautiful by far, and the most difficult (sorry anika, i hope you still like me) down to crawford notch...anika went home .....natty and i coninued up to mt. washington and summited the next day...there are a bunch of cool things that happened in the whites , but alas....no time
got to gorham,NH for labor day weekend...went into town for big giant breakie and got a message from my dad...the Whole fam was in norway ME fro the holiday and dad offered to pick us up for the night....oh yeah, how couold we say no. 'Jay's shuttle service' was there within the hour and went back to the lakehouse for a day of superior R&R...so much neede...some real exhaustion had been setting in..can't even describe
dropped us back off in gorham the next day and we ventured off to finish new hampshire and enter ME......heading for the infamous 'Mahoosic Notch' debatably the most difficult mile on the trail......well it turned out to be crazy fun..just super technical manuvering and a littl sttrategy was needed to get over some difficult rocky areas...but super cool. all these rock slabs fallen on each other creating little caves and such...a giant playground. you could hear water running beneath the rocks and there are some spots with perma ice keeping things real cool down there.
I gotta go....sorry.....180 miles to go

~MANY NAMES~