Quiet Moments in the Wilderness - Photo Essay
It’s been one full year since I was last in the 100-Mile Wilderness, the most remote stretch of the entire Appalachian Trail and nine years since my first encounter with its beauty. I revisited that section for a few reasons — to join a friend for a bit to celebrate the final miles of her five-year section hike of the AT, to photograph all the shelters for another friend for her upcoming photo book, but mostly to try and savor the moments of solitude that are so scarce in this city.
It is a place that I had walked through just once before in 2011, at the end of my 6-month traverse on the Appalachian Trail. Except for a few logging roads, it is the last (and longest) stretch of unbroken trail on the entire AT, and acts as the final countdown to Baxter State Park and the summit of Mt. Katahdin, the Northern Terminus of the trail. In 2011 Hurricane Irene came barreling through Maine during my time in the 100-Mile Wilderness and it scattered those that I was hiking around. Many either hiked ahead to try and hunker down in the one hostel in the middle of the wilderness, or held back in Monson to wait it out.
My dad and I chose to head in to the woods, but did so with extra food so we could sit out a day in a shelter should the weather prove too dangerous to travel, which, as suspected, it did. When the storm cleared and we had spent 36 hours in the Wilson Valley Lean-To, we re-emerged to trail with a newfound respect for the power of Nature, and had the trail primarily to ourselves.
At first foreboding, I quickly realized it was a fitting way to end a 6-month journey. The lack of other hikers allowed for my mind to truly contemplate the entirety of the journey that my legs had brought me through thus far. But having been set back, we really had to crank up the miles in order to make it in time to meet my soon-to-be husband who was joining us for the final summit.
I knew the 100-Mile Wilderness was special, but I didn’t get to sit with it — I was in a hurry. Like so many thru-hikers at the end of a long, long journey, I also just wanted to get home, rest my legs and be done with hiking for a while. Yet I knew I would revisit it one day and I’m so glad that got to hike it again last year. I was finally able to sit and enjoy the quiet peace of lapping waves of a lake, to stay up late and stare at stars, to get up early and watch the sun rise and to just simply be.
