But the story of our thru-hike doesn’t quite end there. We still have an 80 mile section that Bunny tried to skip in Virginia that she was hoping I’d forget about, but I am a purist and a good husband. She tried suggesting that I rent a car and slack pack her through the area to try to make her life easier. She was merely kidding because we both know the minute that I’d drop her off in the morning, out would go her thumb the second I left. I agreed to do only as a good husband would. I will hike the 80 miles with her to make sure she covers every inch of trail. One day she’ll thank me. Today is so far from that day that we can’t even see the light from our dying sun.
That’s just the start of our post-Katahdin hiking experience. In the mean time, we still need to explain about the breaking up of the fellowship and how we are to get back down to central Virginia to finish up.
We had a hard time believing we didn’t have to get up and start walking again this morning. Instead, we slept in until almost 8 before we gathered together at the hotel continental breakfast where we had our first meal of the day while trying to decide where we were going to go have second breakfast. We know we’re going to have to cut back on our eating now that we’re not putting in the miles. We choose to work towards that end by only having 4 meals today—baby steps. It was agreed that second breakfast would be at Appalachian Trail Cafe as soon as we could round everyone up.
There’s a tradition at the Appalachian Trail Cafe that every thru-hiker signs a ceiling tile. This usually takes 7-8 2’x4’ tiles every year. They keep this year’s tiles on hand and a few select tiles from previous years that they actually place in the ceiling. We all signed our tiles as well as looked through this years to see which of our trail friends had already signed. The number of people we knew was beyond count. It seemed like everyone we have ever met or talked to has passed us.
We spent the rest of the first day doing laundry, packing, loading the car, driving down to Portland, breaking to eat lunch, making frequent bathroom stops, and snacking—we don’t want to cut off the supply of food too quickly and send our bodies into food shock. We dropped Bear, Sassy, and GCN at a car rental location before proceeding to Peter and Marcia’s new house. We are planning to meet later. Naturally enough, for supper…our last supper as a tramily.
Everyone met up at Peter and Marcia’s house before heading to downtown Portland for supper at B Good. Portland has a thriving downtown with excellent restaurants, a local art scene, and a bustling harbor. B Good can be described as a locally sourced, organic, fast food restaurant. We need to transition to healthy food again after 8 months of mostly crap. I’ll admit, M&Ms, although delicious, are not a healthy choice. With our diverse geographic locations across the country—Bear and Sassy from Huntsville, AL; Bunny and I from the Midwest; Peter and Marcia from Maine (not lifelong residents which means, even after 20 years, still outsiders); and Good Chip Norris from NJ—GCN offered to act as translator for the rest of us since he from the geographic midpoint. Peter started talking with his ME accent with GCN quietly taking it all in. He then turned to us to translate “I have no idea what the hell he just said.”
GCN got up at 4 the next morning and walked to the bus station becoming the first to break away. The rest of us met up at the Bayou Kitchen for breakfast before Bear and Sassy headed back to their car in NH. Our tramily was officially dissolved after 75 days of constantly being together. It felt strange to not have Bear and Sassy with us, but at least we had Peter and Marcia who we’ve been friends with since we met in Scotland on the West Highland Way. Marcia had to work, so Peter took us shopping for resupply before we headed to Mackworth Island.
Not only did Percival Baxter give people of the state of Maine the State Park bearing his family name, he also built a school for the deaf on the island the family used to own and live on. We walked around the island, all the while amazed at Perceval’s generousity. He was a state representative, a state senator, and former governor of the state after earning his law degree from Harvard. His family had made its fortune in the canning industry which he inherited. He never had children of his own. He did have dogs which are buried on Mackworth where he had a requirement that they were to remain and have the grave preserved.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the Bayou Kitchen, once again. On todays agenda was a visit to the Portland farmers market. The main emphasis was for Bunny and I to rest and relax while spending time with the oldest friends we have as a couple. We spent a leisurely afternoon walking around cemetery close to their house which is the location of the Baxter family graves. We enjoyed the beautiful fall colors and got to personally extend our thanks to Percival Baxter for his generosity. In recent times, Baxter State Park has considered not allowing the AT to have its northern terminus on Katahdin because of some poor behavior on the part of some hikers. I can’t imagine a more fitting end to the journey (and ours was on a crappy day).
The next day, our last in Portland, Marcia had to put in a couple hours at work again, but we still managed to spend time in the afternoon walking through the cemetery again before connecting up with the city wide Portland Trail. This is not a paved trail running through town, but an actual wilderness trail in the heart of the city. Portland might only be a city of less than 70,000, but it has everything you’d expect a much larger city to have.
The 3 days in Portland went by way too fast. Peter and Marcia have been trying to sell us on Portland as a final destination for us when we get done hiking. Once again, they have done an excellent job. In between walks and activities, we managed to get our gear cleaned up, get resupplied, eat home cooked meals, listen to some music, and play cribbage. We had so much fun, I didn’t even bother to pay attention to who won at cribbage. This isn’t surprising since I tend not to be the least bit competitive.
EFG