The transition begins back to "real life"

Good morning! Daystar here (now more often known as Macon), I'm in Chattanooga, slowly chipping away at putting my post-trail life back together. I've begun cleaning out my gear, and finding places for storage. It feels so strange removing myself from the items that were so heavily relied on for the past six months. All the things I needed for survival were carefully placed (or more often, forcefully smushed) in my backpack, unpacked in the evenings where I made my home for the night, and packed up again each morning. Life was so simple - hike north. Now I'm back in the world of multiples, options, and seemingly endless directions.

As much as I loved life on the trail, I am excited about the next chapter of my life. I have achieved my dreams of moving to New York City to become a magazine designer and of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. My dream now is to own my own business and to make a living as an artist: a graphic designer and printmaker. I began this dream as a side project several years ago, and I now aspire to turn it into a full time career. I loved the movement and flow of the trail, but I now look forward to being stationery and domestic: having the time and space to bake bread, start a garden, and make art. I love working with people, and look forward to designing and printing wedding invitations, baby announcements, personal stationery, and much more. It is such a satisfying and creatively fulfilling experience to take someone's vision and create a beautiful product.

I will continue to reflect and write on this blog where I left off. I want to reminisce and describe my adventures through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the hard trail in Southern Maine, the majestic 100 Mile Wilderness, and of course the surreal day summiting Mount Katahdin. After finishing the trail, I traveled with Gribley & Pants on Fire to the gorgeous island of Martha's Vineyard & historic Boston. This week, I drove to Damascus, VA to speak to future thru-hikers at Warren Doyle's Appalachian Trail Institute. I'm excited to share the details and photos of all these experiences in the coming weeks as I continue to get settled.

For now, I am off to my beloved state of Georgia to visit friends and continue my transition back to real life. I will drive through Chattahoochee National Forest, home of Springer Mountain, where this adventure began just over six months ago.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend. Check back next week for more posts!

Trekked Macon

Gentle readers, it is with great fondness for all of your interest in Macon's great trek that I will be signing off this blog and bid you adieu.  Missy has left for the ATL airport to pick up Macon this afternoon at 3:00, and I wanted to make one final post.

I went back to the beginning of the blog and re-read many of the posts. The names like Hiawassi, Franklin, Gatlinburg, Clingman's Dome, Damascus, Harper's Ferry, and on and on....seem so long ago and brought back so many memories.  However, it is with very mixed emotions that it is time to acknowledge that this trek is over.  When she started, we were, how can I phrase this delicately, concerned.  We worried about her safety, we worried about her health (injury), we worried about the wisdom of starting a business and then leaving it for six months, we were worried about ourselves bidding her farewell.  What we found was a strong, gregarious, adaptable, innovative, observant, tough adventurer we had as our daughter.  We found that the trail is a wonderful sub-culture that is supportive of these kinds of dreams, that takes in for its own all types, all strata, all persuasions of folks who are bound by a common love and adventure.  Macon has made many friends, many of whom I have no doubt she will stay in touch with for many, many years to come.  There has been a status for us too, kinda like the parents of a "starter" on the team that comes with being the parents of a "thru hiker" that has been fun and served to open many conversations.

I am so looking forward to spending some time with her while she figures out the next big adventure and to hearing the stories and tales of the trail.  The layout and designer part of her will have her edit, re-format, and basically clean up this very amateurish project of love.  So, with that I sign off, but you should stay tuned as Daystar has more to say to you!

We made it!!

I summited today! I have completed the Appalachian Trail!! Off to celebrate, more info later :)

No News is Good News

Gentle readers, like me you are probably on pins and needles wondering how our intrepid crew of hikers is doing, Daystar in particular.  We have not heard anything, and really don't expect to, until tomorrow or Tuesday anyway.  Macon is in a very uninhabited part of Maine with few if any cell towers around.  Here is a link to a group that maintains the trails through the 100 miles: 100 Mile Wilderness Adventures & Outfitters .  Also if you are looking for more to read while we wait, here is the link to Tater Tot's blog :Lost and loving it

And finally, here is The Chairman singing what I consider to be Macon's theme song:

100 Mile Wilderness to Katahdin

Well gentle readers, this is it - the home stretch to Mt. Katahdin. I've been staying at Lakeshore House in Monson, Maine the past two nights and today we will head out into the 100 Mile Wilderness. I've got about 8 days of food on my back - the heaviest my pack has been. This has been an adventure of a lifetime and I'm so excited to achieve this dream. I'll continue to write summaries of my adventures in NH & Maine, but this likely will be the last post until I summit.

If you pray, pray for me. If you drink, raise a glass for me. Whatever you do - think of me and wish me good weather and no injuries for this last bit. Thank y'all so much for all the great support!

Here we go!!

*Daystar

NH - Hanover

 

Gribley and I walked into NH soaking wet. We'd gotten drenched the night before and also again during our slack pack. It didn't matter - we were so joyed to be in New Hampshire!! It represented so much - the second to last state, and also the big, bad, beautiful White Mountains that I had been fearing and was excited for. 

Hanover is a college city trail town (home to Dartmouth) and not even a mile into NH. The AT led us directly into downtown and we made our first stop at the outfitters. Mom & Dad had mailed my warm weather gear (warmer sleeping bag, fleece jacket, socks, warm long johns, and of course lots of goodies!). Posts Offices also accept mail drops, but they tend to have shorter hours, especially on weekends. Various outfitters and hostels have proven to be a better bet. 

I also had a package from Saloman - my third pair of hiking boots.

Gribley's mother sent him a similar package and after a big time of show & tell, we consolidated boxes and headed to Ramunto's Pizza to meet up with the crew we were slack packing with. Upon arrival we learned that hikers got a free slice! We did pay for a beer, and it was so nice to sit and relax. 

At this point I need to back up a bit - a few weeks earlier I posted something about my AT hike on my Facebook page and got a message from an old childhood friend, Jackie, that had moved away while we were still young. We had connected on Facebook but otherwise had not been in touch. She messaged me saying that she and her husband, Will, lived near Hanover and offered to have me & Gribley over for a night - warm bed, shower, dinner... all things hikers dream about! I excitedly agreed - in addition to the generous things she offered, I was so excited to see an old friend! We planned for her to meet us at Ramunto's. I bought her a beer and introduced her to my hiker trash friends. (Side note - "hiker trash" is the expression used by hikers to describe a group of their hiker friends. It is always said lovingly and with a smile. We are all otherwise more or less upstanding citizens in society, and it's so crazy to always be dirty and stinky, having to hitchhike around town).

After retrieving our packs from the uncle of the hikers who offered to slack pack us, Gribley and I left with Jackie to meet Will at the grocery co-op. We picked out lots of fresh veggies for a salad and chicken, sausage, corn and zucchini to grill. We drove back to their apartment and got started with the shower/laundry process. Jackie prepared dough for grilled flat bread and Will started making the amazing dinner. 

We went back downtown for gelato and then crashed pretty hard. We'd been so exhausted leading up to NH that it was so nice to be warm, clean, full and then get a good night's sleep. The next morning, they dropped us back downtown. We mailed home our summer gear and got groceries and eventually hiked out. Stay tuned for the next bit!

Daystar sent a blog text from Caratunk, Maine - 151 miles to go!!

Daystar sent this text earlier today:
We stayed at Pierce Pond (swimming, sunset, and wildlife) last night. Gribley & I got to the Kinnebec River (Kinnebec means "long, quiet river"; it is the most formidable unbridged water-crossing on the AT) around 9:30am, met the ferry guy, signed waivers, and crossed over smoothly in the red canoe (the ferry is "the official" white blaze route). Quick resupply at Sterling Inn (really cute B&B) and then got a ride to Northern Outdoors, home to Kennebec River Brewery. Next stop, Monson!

White blaze in the canoe

Daystar