End in sight.

Hello from Stratton, Maine!

I am just under 200 miles from Mt. Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. It is a somewhat surreal feeling to be in Maine—“I’m walking to Maine,” is almost a fantastical phrase when you say it to people in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Then, in a blink, it becomes reality.

“In a blink” is fitting because the record of this blog will show that I wrote a post when I was in Duncannon, Pennsylvania and then leaped ahead to Stratton, Maine. In between was most of Pennsylvania, its coal mining history, its brutal rocks and its Wawas; New Jersey, its stellar delis, its many bears that are desensitized to humans and my beloved Granny; New York, with similarly stellar delis, fewer bears and the city skyline in sight for many miles; Connecticut, its boarding schools, quaint villages and surprisingly stunning vistas; Massachusetts, with its marijuana dispensaries, its losing NBA basketball team and its pocket of boreal forest; Vermont, with its bizarre post-hippie cult/commune subcultures, its iconic Long Trail and the beautiful Green Mountains; and of course, New Hampshire, home to the White Mountains, the most challenging portion of the trail and the place where I first fell in love with backpacking and hiking.

I am slightly sad that I was not able to write more frequently in real time. At times, it was simply a result of exhaustion and lack of free time. For other stretches, I lost the pressing desire to write extensively. But I do hope to take the handwritten notes that I’ve recorded each day and turn them into a long post on this page after I finish the trail. There are so many odd encounters and moments of beauty that I just can’t let slip away into the abyss of my memory, which inevitably will happen if I don’t capture them here.

For now though, I won’t be posting again until I reach Katahdin (unless some unforeseen problem takes me off trail—you never know!).

In these final days, I will be thinking a great deal about the many people who helped me along this journey, in ways big and small. I am so thankful to all of you who have read along and shared words of encouragement.

Love to all,

Andrew//Rebbe Mo