Mountains of Maine

I had beautiful weather crossing the high peaks of Maine. Last time I hiked most of those peaks was up to 14 years ago (my first ever backpacking trip, over the Crockers and Sugarloaf!), so I had remembered the trail as being VERY tough. It definitely was rugged, but I had a lot of fun hiking through them. I saw a MOOSE on Spaulding Mountain ridge. I beat my dad to the trail work site just north of Rt. 27 near Stratton (and he only had to day hike 5 miles to the site. I walked 12 miles). We helped to install some new bog bridging with some other AMC/MATC (Maine Appalachian Trail Club) folks. It was fun to give back to the trail, while still on my thru-hike. My dad then joined me to cross Bigelow Mountain—my favorite in the state. We had gorgeous weather, but it was a little too hazy to see Katahdin. We even found the machete used by Myron Avery when doing trail work!! Myron Avery, of North Lubec, Maine, was one of the founding fathers of the Appalachian Trail. He is responsible for laying out most of the original trail in Maine, and for getting the trail into Maine in the first place (the northern terminus was originally going to be Mt. Washington, NH). Bigelow was Avery's favorite mountain, so when he passed away his family cemented his machete near the summit of Bigelow.