I spoke with Derek yesterday. He'd left his cell phone behind at one of the hostels so we weren't able to contact him for a while. When he finally did call, we were already in Michigan for my mom's funeral. He was shaken, to say the least, and took a zero (or a do nothing) day. My mom had been one of Derek's biggest supporters and was very proud of her grandson for not only graduating from college last year, but for his courage to follow through on his hike. She was also very proud of the articles he'd written for our local newspaper chronicling his journey (I'd been mailing her copies).
On speaking with Derek yesterday, he'd just entered the state of Maine and was about 25 miles into it. This is the last leg of his journey which ends at Mt. Katahdin Mt. Katahdin reaches a height of 5,268 feet and is the highest peak in the state. It's situated in Baxter State Park in an area known as the Hundred Mile Wilderness (not to be confused with The Hundred Acre Wood). The second highest peak, by the way, is Sugarloaf Mt. where we skied some years ago. While it only goes up to about 4300 feet, the temperature in the winter never seems to rise much above 10 degrees, especially at the top. Brrrr!
Is he looking forward to the end? Yes, but he said he's also going to miss lots of things -- the heartstopping scenery, the friends he's made etc. Maybe, when he gets home, he'll post something here on my blog.
