Legs and Borders

Second stop on my journey through American east coast cities was the nations capital, Washington DC. I've stayed here at the Caravan Hostel located just under an hour walk from the White House, Capitol and many museums located in the area. On my first short walkthrough I went by the Capitol, White House and bought my breakfast supplies in Whole Food Market for the next few days. Second day started with a guided tour through the Capitol after which I went next door to the Library of Congress which had few interesting exhibitions, most notably "Two George's" highlighting the two opposing leaders George Washington and George III. After a short walk though U.S. Botanic Garden, I've visited the National Gallery of Art which hosted paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, DaVinci, Dali and Bacon. I could easily spend there the whole day as it was huge with separate exhibitio...

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...