What I Learned On Katahdin

This is part way down Knife's Edge, and still six hours to go in our hike. Phil coined the phrase 'blue blaze of sanity' since the fact that there are trail markings is what makes doing this not completely insane.

In the entire history of my blog, I have never thought about and rewritten a post so many times. I didn’t want to sound nonchalant about doing some stupid, dangerous things and at the same time, I didn’t want to sound overly dramatic. Here is my attempt at balance, and my cautionary tale.

This past weekend, I hiked Mount Katahdin with my British friend Phil. He had always wanted to go but thought it was too dangerous to attempt alone. I said when he visited Maine again, we’d do it.

He arrived on Thursday from London and Friday morning, we headed into the North Maine woods (Millinocket more specifically) and made camp. The next morning (3:30 am more specifically) we took down camp and headed into Baxter State Park.

The plan was to park at Roaring Brook Campground, hike the Helon Taylor trail, take Knife’s Edge to the summit of Katahdin, hike down Cathedral then Chimney Pond trail back to Roaring Brook. It is a long and difficult hike under normal circumstances. Attempting this in October is not something I plan to do again, mostly because I was really stupid about it.

Naming Your Own Price: How Much Does It Rock?

Nothing like figuring travel logistics over email to drive connected people to save a few bucks.

My friends Lydia and Travis are getting married this weekend. About a month ago, ten of us who went to college with Lydia tried to figure out group hotel rooms through a series of emails over the course of about a week.

I had first seen my friend Bailey use Priceline to get us a cheap rental car in Vegas. I was impressed with her internet savyness and her ability to save us about 25% on the rental. When Bailey suggested we use the site for the hotel room, a few of us jumped on it.

Four of us formed a Priceline bidding team, each taking a turn to bid on a two star hotel in Ellsworth Maine (hint: there’s one on Priceline so we knew it was the hotel the others were staying at). If you bid on something and Priceline doesn’t accept it, you are locked out of bidding for a certain amount of time so having another person or two can be critical.

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