Date: 2013-09-28
From: Wadleigh Lean To

To: Hurd Lean To
Miles today: 19.6
Weather: broken clouds

FYI - I switched out yesterday's picture to today's and uploaded another picture for yesterday.*****So once we had light, we saw that it was Sriacha and Spider who came in late last night! We had not seen them since Delaware Water Gap, PA. It was nice to see them again.It was just a very, peaceful morning. It was hard to leave this beautiful setting in the woods. It was cold, guessing it has been hitting the high 30¢s and low 40¢s here lately. We have been seeing our breaths starting around 7pm at night and early in the morning since the beginning of September. I stopped at the privy and found a journal. I enjoyed reading it even though I am sure it being very unsanitary. Oh well. I hiked to the first mountain and saw my first view of Katahdin. Over six months I've been waiting to see her and there she was, only 30 miles away. It mentioned on a sign that it was only 16 miles away as the crow flies.   I took advantage of having phone service there so I called a few people and found out we had a surprise waiting for us in Millinocket. It was supposed to be a surprise for both of us. Mom caught up to me while I was on the phone. I was so excited that it was hard to sit still. I didn't tell her a thing. I was constantly sprinting ahead then having to wait for mom. We came to a road crossing and mom had to eat, again (I think this was the second time this morning). We were taking a break near a river when Steady Eddy showed up on the trail and she began asking him about his ¢after trail life.¢ Steady Eddie was from Minneapolis and started about the same time that we did in March. She also asked him if anyone was coming to summit with him. He said no. She said that she has heard of friends and families meeting up with thru-hikers and summiting with them and thought that would be very cool. She then made a comment; "I was really hoping someone from our family could summit with us." I had the biggest smile on my face and quickly took off again.   I am so terrible at keeping secrets. We arrived to the next shelter and sat for a while. I could tell that Mom really needed some motivation today so I hinted that we really needed to get to Abol Bridge today. She said that is 23 miles away from this morning¢s shelter! She then started questioning why do you want to? I said, again, we really needed to get there today because we should try surprising Bluegrass with Bella at Abol Bridge. I am so terrible at telling lies too. She got up and off we went. The day was going pretty good with nice and easy trails. I stopped right before climbing Rainbow Ledges and waited for mom. When she came up the trail, I could tell that something was wrong or bothering her. She told me that for the past few months she's been feeling like someone has been following her and she has felt it especially in the past few weeks. She explained that she has felt the presence of her brother, Craig, and her Grandfather Braunz during those times. This morning, she now feels a whole group of people like her brother Craig, Grandpa Braunz, Edna (my Grandmother, her mother-in-law), Grandmother Braunz who is holding an infant, her grandma and grandpa Mayo, and a few others whom she couldn¢t tell who they were. She felt that they were all there to support her during these final days. She also shared that she has been thinking about this journey ending and that she already was missing the woods. We both began to tear up. I left to climb our last hill, Rainbow Ledges, and the water works began. The trail became so blurry I had to stop to keep wiping away my tears. We got to our last little mountain at dusk. It was gorgeous with great views. The colors of fall were prevalent and the sunset was at its best. I had phone service so I made a few more phone calls. One call was to Bluegrass to let him know where we were. He said that he summit Katahdin with Aquaman, Lone Wolf and Home Brew yesterday (Friday, September 27) and it was awesome. He also said that he wanted to summit with us too and would wait for us somewhere in the woods before Abol Bridge. How cool! We then started our descent with darkness approaching fast. We ended up hiking for about 90 minutes in the dark. It wasn¢t too bad but you had to watch every step over roots and rocks. After about 90 minutes, we came across this stream with huge boulders and down trees. We had to get on top of the rocks and a down tree in order to cross the stream. I was in the lead and started to go one direction when mom said that there were headlamps in the distance so go towards the light. Fortunately, it was Spider and Sriacha that were just in front of us and were making their way to the very last shelter on the trail, Hurd Brook Lean To. We only had three more miles to go until Abol Bridge. There were three people at the shelter (Siracha, Spider and Steady Eddie) and they convinced us to stay there for safety reasons. We agreed and decided we would wake up early and surprise Bluegrass in the morning. After eating, we all laid in our sleeping bags and joked about all the things we're going to do once we are done; like taking multiple showers in one day, having easy access to blankets when we're cold, and visiting all our favorite restaurants and eating all our favorite foods for the first week. After further discussion, we found out that Steady Eddie lost 100 lbs since he first started! Congratulations, we were all excited for him. Well this is our ¢last¢ night in the shelter. I'm filled with over-whelming feelings and sadness and yet I am excited too. This has been a great journey and I am so happy to have shared it with my mom. We have 13 miles to go tomorrow and then we summit with a very special surprise on Monday, September 30. ¢Good night Neverland¢¦one more time.¢ Twix