the simple life

So the journey continues. I suppose you could say we are still wayfaring north, but this time we are settling in. After hiking the trail, our mindset on living has changed. The desire to live a more simple, peaceful, and purposeful life has caused us to seek for something new. Kevin and I both decided that learning to grow our own food is very important to us. To feel connected to what we are putting into our bodies, to know the work that goes into growing and the satisfaction of harvesting our labor is what we want to experience.

 Through researching Organic Agriculture websites we found many intern positions on organic farms. On February 19th, we came to visit Willowood Farm on Whidbey Island. We met Georgie Smith, the owner of the farm and worked with her for the day. It didn't take long to decide that this was the place for us. We will be helping to farm 8 acres of a variety of organic vegetables including potatoes, onions, shallots, leeks, garlic, lettuce, kale, broccoli, cabbage, corn, carrots, pumpkins, beans, and much more. We will be helping Georgie sell at three farmer's markets on the island and to local restaurants.  

So here I am. I moved in March 1st with Kevin's help. (He unfortunately is committed to coach until March 14th, so will not be out until then.) We took a day to settle in and explore Coupeville, the town we are in. It's beautiful here and I have no doubt this will be a wonderful experience. We would like to share our happenings with you, so will try to post pictures often, and please feel free to share with us and come visit!

Coupeville, WA, located in Central Whidbey, a small town with a lot of character. 

The Coupeville Pier at Penn Cove

overlook at Fort Casey State Park- the fort was built at the turn of the century as part of the "triangle of fire" designed to guard the entrance to Puget Sound

an auxiliary structure at Fort Casey

 Admiralty Head Lighthouse- built to help guide ships into Puget Sound

Keystone ferry to Port Townsend

Enjoying the tour while enduring the strong winds!

On to Willowood Farm:

The farm is part of Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve- created by congress in 1978 "to preserve and protect a rural community which provides an unbroken historic record from 19th century exploration and settlement in Puget Sound to the present time."

view of barn in back of house

The interns live upstairs in Georgie's parents house....just happens to be a Historic Site!

This is our beautiful Victorian home for the next 8 months!

Here's where we get wood for the stove to heat our living room

After my first day of work I decided to ride my bike down to the beach

what a great way to end the day!

cool looking kelp

nice spot to catch a sunset

road home

view of the farm heading back from the beach-

interestingly enough, if you look up Ebey's Landing you'll most likely see this picture of the farm and house- we've seen it in several guide books and brochures!

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!

The Summit

the final day. september 30. day 188 since starting our hike on march 25. the day we've been waiting for . but really it didn't feel any different from the rest of them (except we had to drive 20 miles in a minivan to get to the A.T. trailhead)!
all-in-all, it was a perfect day. as the remnants of the hurricane stopped thru-hikers for a few days summitting, a bottleneck of us decided to climb on the same day. and what a day it was. there were low lying clouds for the first couple of miles as we started a steady climb along side Katahdin stream and waterfall. but once we hit the boulders and scrambling, we broke through the cloud to see another set of broken clouds above us, with the highest mountain peaks breaking through the fog below. outstanding. once we got up to the flat heath called Table Land, the fog rolled in and out with our last couple of miles on the trail.
as we got to in sight of the sign our pace quickened to the cheers of the other hikers already up (since 5 in the morning for Borders, Gonzo, Wurm and Just Mike!) we got to the famous Katahdin sign and got our summit picture just as more hikers followed us up. we stayed up with the band of 35 or so hikers to summit for a couple of hours or so. the best part was cheering everybody else in. you can see how much it means for some people who completed the trail. some tears were shed (especially by our good buddy Blaze), but it was a celebratory and humorous occasion with beers and wine passed around as the views peaked in and out of the mist.
even though we were done, we weren't done...we still had the 5+ miles to get back down the mountain - a good day hike i guess you could say. we went back to Millinocket for a celebratory meal and drinks. and as simple as that, its over.
but stay tuned as we now have time to add a few more things to the blog, like what our plan is now(not much here yet), a day in the life of a thru-hiker and why our walk north should affect you?! check out one of our most memorable days:

we won the A.T.

...and so did mr. winky?!

and so they say - the journey is not over.....

it has just begun....