Maine. Goes. On.

Now I am sitting at the Rangeley Public Library of Rangeley, ME. We left Andover. We climbed some more mountains. We camped some more. The detailed stories of the last several posts have tired me, but here are the significant developments:

• The horrors of the Mahoosucs have diminished somewhat. There are still a few significant peaks between here and Katahdin, but we've had at least a little relief for now. Lots of lakes and ponds. More bogs than rocks, which I guess is alright.
• I bent one of my hiking poles. I took an awesome face-first spill on one of the few slippery-rocked uphills and fell right on top of it. Hopefully I will be able to somehow get it replace before the end, although it almost hardly seems worth it. It's just the principle of the thing.
• My Camelback water bladder is slowly leaking somewhere. I discovered this when my tent, the bottom of my pack, and my butt were perpetually soaked even after drying out overnight. I should be able to get this replaced also, but I've managed to jerry-rig it in the meantime.
• We scored some awesomely random trail magic, slackpacking, and a free place to stay in Rangely from some former thru-hikers who live/work in the area.
• We have 220 miles of trail left and three town stops.
• We will be summiting Katahdin around Oct. 5-6, which means that there are less than three weeks left of this insane 6 1/2 month adventure/trek/journey/escapade/quest/vacation/pilgrimage /amazing, terrible, fantastic, trip.

I think I feel like most thru-hikers do at this point along the way, which is to say, I'm not really sure how to feel. I certainly am tired of hiking, and I definitely do not want to continue doing it for several more months. But at the same time, it's all I have been doing (more or less) for the last six months. And suddenly, as soon as I come down of that last mountain, it's over. I'll be in a car, and then a hotel, and then on the way home - out of the woods, totally broke, away from hikers, trying to figure out how to continue existence in the rest of society. Not to mention the fact that I will have spent every day of the last two month with a person that I really love and then after a couple of weeks it'll be splitsville until a date TBD. All of this looming behind the immediately pressing issue of actually getting to the finish line in the first place. So I've got an interesting couple of hundred miles left ahead of me. I will probably savour and lament every one of them. But I definitely wouldn't trade them for anything.

UPDATE: Camelbak is sending a new bladder to Stratton! For free! Woohoo! Thanks, Camelbak, you're the best!