Vacation from vacation

It has been 16 days since we were in Hot Springs, but it feels like forever.   My friend's wedding went marvously.  This is my favorite wedding picture so far, but I am sure there are more great ones on the way. (Photo credit goes to Katie Lauren)

In the week since the wedding Evan, my mom, and I have been touring on our way to Maine and throughout Maine.  We spent a few days with Evan's parents in lower Michigan mostly doing things like doctors appointments, resupplying food, and reassessing our bank account.  Thru-hiking has been more expensive than we anticipated, but we are hoping to make the trip on what we have left.  

From Michigan we worked our way through Ontario and into Quebec, staying the night in Quebec City. We spent the morning wandering the Old Quebec City area and learning a little bit about Canadian 

history.  It was all fascinating and we all had a great time.  Maybe, my mom will post a few pictures later. 

We had originally thought about making our way to New Brunswick, but decided against it after reading that Baxter State Park closes at 8:30 p.m. and we had to be through the gates before that time in order to get to our campsite.  So, heading south we made it to Maine fairly quickly. We stopped in Monson to drop off a resupply box for ourselves for after the 100 mile wilderness before making our way to Baxter State Park and our campsite at Katahdin Stream.  Weather and rain had been an issue in the past few days for making the climb to Mt. Katahdin, so looking ahead it seemed Friday, June 12 was going to be the best day. I will never know if it actually was up on the 5,247 foot peak, but it was a gorgeous day besides the blowing wind.  Hiking up an otherwise difficult and steep ridge line in gusting wind is just a tad harder and scarier.  But we made it and as with most mountains, the top made it worth every step up and down.  I did unfortunately loose my camera in the trek down, with all of our pictures from the top.  We are hoping someone turns it in to the rangers station yesterday or today.  

Baxter State Park is full of lakes, mountains and trails.  So, on one of the less good days (which turned out to be beautiful) we hiked a loop trail hitting 3 different "ponds" and spent some time canoeing on Daicy Pond.  It made for a wonderful afternoon.  

After spending 2 days in Baxter, we decided to head to the coast and to Arcadia National Park before heading back on the trail.  Well, we are heading out of the hotel and my last wifi access....as in mom and Evan have already packed everything out.  So not a lot of details I guess but an update none-the-less.  Off to the 100 Mile Wilderness tomorrow (about 8-10 days)!