into the wild?

Here we go...the last 100 miles or so... the 100 mile wilderness. with sunny days ahead, rivers, lakes and waterfalls to enjoy and a near peak color of foliage, we were in for a real treat in the final stretch. brahma bull and sweet potato working hard for a hitch out of Monson.

The hitch turns out to be a logging truck and we join in!

And we walk into the wild. Now entering the 100 mile wilderness. We carried all our food and supplies for 100 miles planning to take 7-8 days.

Little Wilson falls. We camped here our first night in the wildnerness. Just a preview of the beautiful sights to come.

Brahma contemplating the ford across Big Wilson Creek.

The sun started to set as we descended Fourth Mountain.

The fall colors were emerging more and more everyday.

We wanted to explore a side trail in the wildnerness, the Gulf Hagas Trail. We made it to the first waterfall and realized it was hard to justify hiking more miles when we were already exhausted. We plan to come back when we haven't just hiked 2,000 miles.

Hiking down White Cap Mountain. This was our first major view of Katahdin and the last big climb until Katahdin.

Rock steps leading down White Cap made for some easier hiking.

And there we have it, 2,100 miles marked with Moose poop.

Not only was the lake a beautiful view, but it was a great place to take my first bath in the wilderness!

Cooper Falls. We stayed the night here at the lean-to. Labeled as the best swimming area next to a lean-to on the whole trail. The water sure was cold though!

Moose tracks in the mud and moose pellets were everywhere. However we never actually saw a moose!

There she is! The best view of Katahdin we had.

Perfect timing, we needed a little uplifting and this reminded us what we were hiking for.

On a misty morning we passed Rainbow lake where a couple was out fishing.

Beautiful fall day with a rainbow of trees.

One of the last shelters on the trail, Rainbow lean-to. the register entries got a little soppy here!

this is what it looks like when we walk...we're that fast...110 miles in 7 days (we we're running out of food)

Moose hunting is allowed in the wildnerness. Unfortunately hikers saw more dead moose in the back of pick-ups than live ones in the woods.

Entering Baxter State Park. Nine miles to Katahdin Stream. We found out this day that the Katahdin was closed. Therefore, we decided to hike the nine miles to the summit trail and then go in to Millinocket to wait out the bad weather.

The rainfall caused the water levels to rise causing us to ford some streams that normally aren't fords.

Due to the rain and wind, Mt. Katahdin was a class 4 weather situation, meaning the mountain was shut down for the first time this season. we had to wait it out a couple of nights in the nearest town to Baxter State Park, Millinocket. In Millinockett we stayed at the Applachian Trail Lodge of course.

And we slept.

And we recieved our mail drop from Kevin's mom with our celebratory wine. We also sorted out all our gear. With only the 5 mile summit to complete we packed up our tent and sleeping bags for good!