Legs and Borders

Three days in Boston. After finishing the trail I've decided to spend few days in in four big cities along the east coast to get some regular tourist point of view not just Appalachian Trail perspective on this side of US, which to be fair I really enjoyed.  First city on my list was Boston in Massachusets, I've stayed in Boston Homestel located in Dorchester area of the city which was also partially a Polish neighborhood, I've even found a church dedicated to Black Madonna from Częstochowa, my hometown! I decided to attend a Polish mass here as well, since it was weekend and it was quite an interesting experience. On my first day I've walked the length of the Freedom Trail, winding across many of the cities historical landmarks, it gave me a great overlook of the city. Many old houses and offices were scattered between skyscrapers most notably the Old State House. The trail ended with tall Freedom Tower, 294 steps of which tourist were allowed t...

"When you get to the top of the mountain, keep climbing." Jack Kerouac  It is over, and what a bittersweet feeling it always is, my body is ecstatic that it can get some well deserved rest but my mind would like to keep on going. We started the ascent onto "Momma K" as people tend to call Katahdin around here at 5 AM I left the campsite with Trademark and we went all the way to the end together which allowed for extra remarks and pictures along the way. We left some of our gear by the ranger station so the packs would be lighter on the way up, it was almost like slack packing. Hunt Trail was our chosen path up, it was steep and technical but in a fun and challenging way, good weather was definitely a deciding factor why this was the case. Around half way through the trail plateaued and has been quite easy from here all the way to the top. Views were spectacular with rock gardens, alpine plants a...

"Last night I slept on a baseball bat" Roper I've arrived at the Baxter Park rangers kiosk just past 6 AM, there were two other section hikers waiting for him to come, soon after we got joined by Trademark and Diehard. Promptly at 7 AM ranger Donald Duck rolled in to give us briefing and open sign in sheet for today's 12 spots at the Birches Campsite only available to thru hikers (or people who continually hiked here from Monson, 100 miles away). But before he started we saw Little Foot and her tramily of four walking down the road towards us, they made it here just in time! Donald told us about an additional sing in and free permit we needed to get from ranger inside the park to summit Katahdin tomorrow (it was all a bit convoluted but it worked out well). After all the information about "conservation first, recreation second" has been passed to us, we were free to go. Everyone but the two section hikers chose...

Only few more miles remain to the Katahdin summit, it was my penultimate night on the AT. In fact it was the last day of "full" hiking and wild camping as tomorrow I will be staying in state run Birches Campsite just before the final climb. It was a sunny and peaceful day with more Katahdin viewpoints, lakes, streams and moss covered boulders. I've managed to spot three mooses, one on the top of Nesuntabunt Mountain and two walking on the shore of Rainbow Lake all of them retreated the moment they saw me. Trail was quite rocky and rooty so the progress was slower but lack of elevation gain made the walk easier on the other hand. I've continued taking pictures of various fungi I saw growing by the path, there was so many different kinds of them! Trademark and Diehard booked a shuttle back to Millinocket on Saturday 12th of July (today was Thursday 10th), they added me to the list, it would leave th...

Big day with multiple views of the final destination - Katahdin. First thing in the morning I've climbed to the top of White Cap Mountain and got greeted by multiple views of surrounding mountains including the first sighting of Katahdin looming in the distance. Day was sunny and visibility was great. From that point on the trail got much easier, it was running along lakes and rivers with very little elevation change. Bugs were relentless though and having longer break presented an issue, even after spraying myself with Deet they would still find a biting angle. I've met Trademark and Diehard again and was hiking back and forth with them for the rest of the day. It looked like my schedule was overlapping with theirs and we even started to talk about ascending Katahdin together and getting a shuttle back to town of Millinocket afterwards. Steady stream of Sobo hikers continued, I've met two middle aged guys sitting ...