mt. marcy

From North Carolina, I flew to Boston to meet Revekah for backpacking in Maine. The adventure started on the plane ride. I took a 7 am flight and was looking forward to sleeping on the plane, until the guy next to me wanted to talk. I told him I was driving to Maine to backpack. He asked if I was renting a car and if he could get a ride home. My flight came in three hours before Rev's, he seemed pretty normal, so I said "sure, this will be my good deed, in case Rev and I need a ride in Maine." So I gave my new friend, Colin, a ride to Cambridge. I got to see Harvard Square and get told to f-off by more than one lovely Boston driver.

I then picked Revekah up and we headed north to Portland, Maine. We stopped at EMS (the east cost version of REI) for camp stove fuel and iodine tablets to put in our water so we would not get giardia from the trail water. At EMS we got a list of drivers who we could pay to give us a ride to where we wanted to start hiking. The nice folks at EMS also tried to sell us some $50 bear spray, in case we were attacked by a bear, but we opted against it- I had a whistle that could scare any bear away.

After getting our hiking supplies, we checked into our little bed and breakfast and started eating and shopping around downtown Portland. Portland is a foodie's dream and has lovely little boutiques. I got a seabag, made from recycled sailboat sails. We ate pizza, lobster rolls by the shore in Cape Elizabeth, and pie. The following morning we showered for the last time for a few days, purchased bagels, and headed to the parking lot by the Grafton Loop Trail. On the way there we stopped at a little diner for hot dogs. The placemats had a 50 state word-search on it. We decided that we could not leave the trail without finishing the word-search.

Here we are starting the Appalachian Trail (AT), right before our driver told us we were headed in the wrong direction.

On the AT.

For more pictures of NC click here and more of Maine here.