What's ahead on the AT

For starters, 256.6 miles of trail. Some bogs. Some logs that, when you step on them, make you slide into the bogs. Two must-stay hostels: Shaws' Lodging in Monson [114.6 miles from Katahdin] and White House Landing [47.5 miles from K]. The "100-mile Wilderness."

And Katahdin, otherwise known as The End. Katahdin is a mountain 5,268 feet high in the middle of nowhere. A climb of more than 5,000 [no, scratch that; it's 4,000] feet 5.3 miles from the nearest shelter is necessary to summit it.

At an average of 10 miles of hiking per day, the end is 25 days away [Sept. 22 - my birthday]. I supposed when I started this hike, on June 10, that I would summit on or about Sept. 10. But I actually began my hike 100 miles behind the halfway point, which would make Sept. 17 the logical summit date for me. And if I average 15 miles a day, I will be summiting on Sept. 14. So sometime between Sept. 10 and 22 I'll be up on that mountain posing for the camera.

After that remains the question of getting home. Hitching 17 miles to Millinocket has to be done. Then it's a bus to Portland or Bangor, and hopefully a train down the coast. If no train, then a bus to Boston and I'm riding the Acela to good old, comfy Washington, D.C.