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Stephen Plante and Natasha Maier
We have started this travel blog so that our friends and family can take part in our excursion from the comfort of their home. So...welcome to Stephen and Natasha's summer adventures! As many of you know Natasha has recently moved to the great state of Colordao for the adventures. She has never hiked more then a few miles a day, never straight up a mountian and never ever with a pack that weighs as much as a small child. She has never gone multiple days without a shower. Stephen however is a hiking junkie...he has spent the last few summers hiking the Appalachian Trail, God willing he will finish it this fall!! And I hope to be there at his side. He loves the great outdoors and the idea of stepping out of society for weeks at a time. He has volunteered to the challenge (for lack of a better term) of attempting to hike the Colorado Trail and to finish the Appalachian Trail with Natasha, and to patiently teach her the ins and outs of hiking and camping. Thanks for your interest in our adventure and lets pray all goes well! LTD
Travel Blog Posts
October 15th 2012
We did it! Climbed Katahdin...it was hard and we had the weather against us. But before I get into details let me back up, as it has been awhile since my last blog. Last time I wrote we were off the trail, we went to our friend’s wedding in Plymouth NH, celebrated my bday and I had recovered from Giardia. On Sept 10th we set out for Monson, ME. Left our car at a hostel and had them drive us to Caratunk, ME. We took 3 days and hiked this section; it was tough to be out on the trail again after 2 weeks off. It was mid-September and the weather was finally cooling off. The trees were starting to change colors and the trail took on a completely different look. After arriving back in Monson, ... read more
September 3rd 2012
HI, I bet you have been wondering where the heck we are….a day after our last venture out I got really sick and ended up having to leave the trail and go back to the last town we were at, to see a Dr. I was very sick and dehydrated….I had giardia…what an ugly word for an ugly illness. I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. For those of you not familiar with it, it is a parasite that you get from drinking contaminated water. We are still not sure how this happened or why Stephen didn’t get it and I did because we have been very good about cleaning our water…but who knows. We got a hotel room in Bingham, Maine and allowed a few days for me to recover. I got a few ... read more
August 22nd 2012
Everyone needs to add the Maine Bigelows to their "must see" list. Very impressive! We might even say that we enjoyed them more then the Whites, which is a popular mountain range that we crossed in NH. We had a great week out and guess what....we stayed dry! We hiked along the historical Arnold Trail, which is the route that Benedict Arnold and an army of 1150 Revoluntionaries used en route to Quebec...in hopes of a surprise attack on the Brits. After hiking through all the bogs and muddy mess its no wonder the attack was unsuccessful. We ferried across the Kennebec River. The ferry consisted of one man rowing us across in a canoe, but I loved it...I got to sit down for a few minutes. We are now at the Northern Outdoors Resort where ... read more
August 17th 2012
Rain, Rain go away and DO NOT come back another day. This last week out was a wet one...it rained alot. We were walking in shin-high water on our way into Stratton. Maine is filled with bogs and beautiful lakes. The lakes are so natural and untouched...unlike the lakes that I am used to, filled with motorized boats and jet skis. we hiked over sugerloaf and saddleback mtns which are both ski resorts in maine. this year marks the 75th anniversary of the completion of the AT. the last section that was completed was over sugarloaf mtn. at the top they had AT celebration pins and a special register for hikers to leave reflection thoughts regarding their hike. it was pouring rain so we had to keep our entry short and sweet. tomorrow we take off ... read more
August 11th 2012
Maine has been great. We have enjoyed the terrain so far and we are looking forward to our next few days on the trail! Thanks for all the comments and support, we are having a wonderful experience. We started preparing right after Easter when we got the dehydrator from my brother. Due to my diet restrictions we decided to make all of our own meals, dehydrate them and have my mom mail drop them for us. Thanks Mom! (also for the weekly Prayer Stars and Trail Thoughts). We would also like to thank Rosemary for the amazing Gluten Free cookies that we get along the trail....keep 'em coming Rosie! Depending on how long we hike each day and how intense the terrain is we figured we are burning around 8,000 calories a day. I am eating ... read more
August 6th 2012
hi from andover maine! finally the last state. andover is very small, only one city block...but they sell ice cream so its a winner in my eyes! right out of gorhman we witnessed an older hiker getting airlifted off the top of a mtn by the national guard...pretty amazing to witness. he had a knee injury and was dehydrated. hope he is doing better. we hiked what is considered the hardest mile on the AT. the mahoosuc mile...up down around under large boulders. it had permafrost and went from really hot to really cool, around each rock. we took a lunch break and had an hour of natural A/C. it took us 3 hours to complete one mile. we are leaving for rangeley today...update again next week! current stat for last week. number of day hikers ... read more
July 30th 2012
hi! we made it to gorham. our ssecond city along the trail. terrain is still tough. we arent walking the trail, we arent hiking the trail, we are climbing it! hopefully thingss will get easier in maine, we are just a few days away from leaving NH. saturday one of our good friends got married and in honor of solveig and jason we hiked mt washington for them. it was amazing! it was raining and fog covered with zero visability when we got to the top and just as we started to climb down the clouds parted and we got a 36o view! very amazing! we gave tribute to the 151 people that parished while trying to summit mt washington in the past. i also did my firt work for stay at a hut along the ... read more
July 24th 2012
hello hello hello! how is everyone doing? we miss you. just had our first 4 days on the trail. the terrain is alot harder but its beautiful. my heart is still in colorado but the white mountains sure are pretty. the people we are meeting are great. we see alot of day hikers as the nobos or north bound AT hikers are behind us, i am ssure they will catch up soon as they already have 18oo miles under their belts, weirdest thing we saw on the trail was a man hiking in a skirt..actually saw two men wearing skirts..must be a new fashion i am not aware of...its really hot out, tomorrow we are headed to the presidential mt range to include mt washington the highest point in the northern AT. chat with you again ... read more
July 15th 2012
Road trip stats: Denver to Mass (via ND and Canada) 2800 miles 49 hours in the car (only 2 minor fights, not bad!) 9 states, 2 countries Drove past the rodeo, basketball, baseball and boxing hall of fame. Number visited = zero Saw the world's biggest cow, buffalo, Hersey bar, chainsaw, hat, chair and turkey. Had a blast, finally here and ready to start hiking. We leave this weekend and I will try to update as much as possible. Feel free to leave us emails and comments, we appreciate the support from all of our friend and family that have helped us make this adventure happen! Here's to one foot in front of the other for the next 6 weeks :)... read more
June 12th 2012
Section 2- South Platte to Bailey. After alot more training and trips to REI to try different socks out, I think I have finally found a good combo. I am wearing toe socks! They felt very weird but do the trick. We set out to do 25 miles in three days. We decided to hike 6.6 miles the first day and planned about 6 ish for the next few days. I was feeling strong! The weather was nice but a rain storm was lurking. Stephen found us a place to camp for the night just as the rain was starting to come down. It was the first time we had camped in a rain storm with our new tent! As we laid there listening to the rain come down faster and faster I began to worry. ... read more
Tot: 0.157s; Tpl: 0.006s; cc: 12; qc: 80; dbt: 0.0545s; 1; s:apollo w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 6.5mb
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