Penny Per Mile

Thank you so much to everyone who donated to Penny Per Mile! It blows me away by how much people were willing to give. We were hoping that $1,000 would be donated over the course of the 4.5 months we were gone. Well I guess we had a pretty low goal because according to our survey, $2,179 were donated to Penny Per Mile!

Total donated: $2,179
Donated to REBUILD: $1,381
Donated to END IT: $798

Thanks again everyone! We really appreciate it, and I know the two ministries really appreciate it as well.

a BIG thank you

It has been a week since we finished, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped us along the way. Our experience would not have been the same without you. To everyone who sent us a package, took us into their homes, gave us rides, fed us, or helped us out in any way, we owe it all to you. There are far to many people to write it all out here, but we felt so loved and supported the whole way and it really made a big difference.

Matt and Mike Took a Hike

March 2, 2013 to July 13, 2013

We walked 2,185.9 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mt. Katahdin, Maine. 

We can see the end

We are sitting in Abol Bridge right now, 15 miles from the finish. We have been chilling here since noon.

We conquered the 100 mile wilderness! It was the easiest stretch for a while. And we bumped our miles down so we have been having a great time. We got a fishing rod in Monson and have been getting some fishing in on these beautiful Maine lakes. 

Life is hard on the trail. 

Our Trail Names

Well I guess as our hike is about to come to an end, we should let you know what our trail names are and how we got them. We apologize for not letting you know sooner, but earlier on when some people were asking about them, we didn't really have them yet, and we've also forgotten to write about them. 

So here they are:

Michael's trail name is dirty mike. One of the initial groups we were hiking in was called Dirty Mike and the Boys Plus Two Girls so Michael kind of adopted that name. The main reason for his name though is because he hikes without toilet paper. He only uses that luxury in towns, otherwise he just forages for his TP. He likes to use grass, moss, sticks, snow (when available), and smooth stones. He is a very dirty man.

Matt's trail name is Coups (pronounced like coops). He received that name because he has been carrying Chickfila coupons since the start. Ironically, the first Chickfila we stopped at (and one of the only ones), he forgot to use them so they haven't been as useful as he initially thought. They did end up saving him $10 at one point though. Gotta have those coups. 

One more mountain

We are sitting on White Cap Mountain, which is our last big climb until Katahdin. It feels so good, we are just going to coast to the finish line from here. We have made it over 2100 miles so far and are enjoying the 100 mile wilderness. Tomorrow we are going into White House Landing. These past few days we have been taking huge breaks and taking our sweet time. We do about an hour of hiking, then an hour of breaking. 

We're in the Wilderness

We walked, got great views, and have less than 100 miles to go. 

Crazy Views

We had an awesome 4th of July! We hiked 20.7 miles from Pierce Pond shelter to Moxie Bald. It was hot, sunny, and buggy, but we'll take that over rain any day. We took a lot of breaks and chilled in a river for a little too. We also crossed the Kinebec River which is too wide and deep to ford, so we took the canoe fairy system. 

Late in the day, we decided that it would be clear enough night to cowboy camp (sleep under the stars) on top of Moxie Bald, and man was it a great decision. We could see storm clouds to the south and later to the north, but it looked fine above us, and the Ayce weather report was nice too. We ate dinner and watched the sunset, and when it got dark we watched fireworks! We were hoping to see some from the bald, and throughout the night we could see about 15 different shows 360 degrees around us! They were all really small and below us, but it was still really cool. There was a couple really good shows to the north so we mainly watched those. 

Also, before it got dark, we got to see the best view on the whole trail, Mt. Katahdin! It was so far in the distance that you could only see its profile, but after 4 months and 2 days on the trail, it was crazy to be able to see the end. 

As the fireworks were settling down, we decided to spread out on the summit and go to bed. It was pretty windy, but after a few hours we were still awake. The wind was so noisy we couldn't sleep well, but it didn't really matter. The clouds cleared around us, and we could hundreds of thousands of stars! It was so incredible that we didn't even want to close our eyes. I saw satellites, 6 shooting stars, and even the Milky Way! Then in the morning we saw the moon and the sun rise. It was one of the worst nights of sleep we've gotten on the trail, but it was totally worth it. 

Today we did 20 miles into Monson, our last town. We resupplied and had some BBQ. We're staying at Shaw's tonight where we'll have an all you can eat breakfast before heading into the 100 mile wilderness.

Only 115 miles to go!

2000 milers

We have had a couple nice days lately. The rain finally broke and now it is in the 90's! The good thing about that is that there are ponds everywhere in Maine and we can swim in them now that is I'd hot enough. 

Other big news is that we hit 2000 miles! We are officially members of the 2000 mile club. That was very exciting. 

There is not much service in Maine so we might not have many more posts. But last night we were at Pearce Pond Shelter. So this morning we stopped by Harrison's, this guy who lives nearby and he made us pancakes, eggs, and sausage. It was so good. Now we are sitting on Pleasant Pond Mountain and hoping to get to Monson tomorrow. 

Strutting in Stratton

Here is another picture of our sunset last night from the ski chalet.

Today we did a somewhat easy 10 miles into Stratton, ME and got here by noon. We have been relaxing since at the hostel here. We got some good food and are excited to shower and laundry because it has been a while for both, and I mean a while. We are 3 miles shy of 2000, so we are excited for tomorrow!