Jack checking in from the Stratton Motel in beautiful downtown Stratton Maine. We hit the 200 miles left mark today in this wild and wonderful journey. Maine has been rugged yet welcoming. The towns are getting much smaller and the mountains much tougher. However our traversal of Avery Peak in the Bigelow Range up here should mark the last ridiculous ascent until Katahdin. When I say ridiculous, think climbing 250 flights of stairs in the 90 dg heat up here. Southern Maine has been wicked difficult, cutting our mileage up brutally. But the views have been spectacular and wild, lacking the roads and houses of my dear Mid Atlantic. Camel and Fungi are scheduled to have made there catch-up hike complete today and should be pulling in at any time. When we hit Monson in 73 miles we will be entering the portal to the END known as the 100 mile Wilderness (which is neither truly 100 miles or Wilderness). But its lack of adequate resupply does pose a unique challenge to us trying to go ultra light. To counter our food excess we will be sending home our cooking fuel, pot, warm clothes, and all other non-essentials. As this may be my final entry from the trail I will leave you out there with us feeling the constant hope that we will soon be under the shadow of that lonesome mountain, Katahdin, that sits so majestically amongst the cedar bog country of Central Maine.
-Peace, Corporate (Jack)