"Welcome to Maine: The Way Life Should Be"

(Phone Message Transcribed by Bethany)

Today is September 5, 2007. I’m calling from the Carlow Col Shelter in Maine, on Sally's cell phone. We are at mile 1,893.1 and Lauren and I officially crossed into our final state: Maine. We were greeted by a sign that said, “Welcome to Maine, the way life should be.” So far, I can’t disagree with that.

We had a nice day of boundary trail work with Sally and Ellen. Lauren and I were responsible for what’s called swamping, where we pick up pine bowels and trees that were cleared and then Lauren followed up with nailing some boundary signs up along with some yellow paint. Anyway, we’re excited to be where we are! The temperatures are definitely beginning to be crisp, cool, and fall like. We’re looking forward to all of the great color and scenery that we have ahead.

Lauren’s ribs are still quite a bit tender, so she’s been hiking quite a bit slower because of that. Tomorrow we are headed through what’s known as the slowest mile of AT known as the Mahoosuc Notch. It’s about a mile of boulders and it’s kind of like a rubble field that we’re going to go through in the middle of the box canyon. I guess that’s the news from the trail. We’re excited to have less than 300 miles.

That’s it for now. Over and Out.