#atae

[mamabearcatfanart]

Because when I read @knittingknots little snippet Foundling this morning, I just could not help myself.

Puppies running in the sunshine - there should be more of it. And you know any child of Inuyasha's would 100% covered in dirt. Poor Kagome. I bet sometimes she wishes upon a star for modern laundry detergent.

[mamabearcatfanart]

So, earlier today I did this little sketch for @knittingknots

Atae, who's upset about something, and has decided a tree is the place to be, and his patient Papayasha is waiting for him to come down and tell him about it. And I had a little bit of time before bed, so I coloured it.

I haven't really met Atae properly yet - I've read a Tale of Ever After a few times, but there is no Atae in it - not yet anyway. It's still early days for Inuyasha and Kagome in that, with Kagome only newly returned through the well. But I can't wait to get to know him.

But he is there in some of @knittingknots other InuKag stories. And you can read all about the beginnings of Atae in Ten Months, which I've only just read, but can highly recommend ❤

[ataelol]

#dreamteam

[ataelol]

And just like that, it's over. 2,189 miles, a 6-month walk through the woods from Georgia to Maine, is done.

[ataelol]

This is it. 2,183.9 miles to get here. We woke up when we normally do, as there’s a bit of a rigamarole you have to go through before starting your climb of Katahdin. We visit the Rangers station to sign in, which is a safety measure, as well as a measure of the hikers passing through in a season. You get your permit and your number, which represents what number northbound thru-hiker you are. I clocked in at 702; for those playing at home I signed in at Springer Mountain 6 months ago at 645. Not bad! We also took basically EVERYTHING out of our bags. Neither Buff or I has slack packed this trip, so this was a new experience. WOW, how cool it is to hike with barely any weight on your back!

We got started around 7:30am, and took off. The first part of the climb was pretty standard–we follow a river for a while, climbing ever upwards, all while still in the tree line. We ran into our buddy Hawk here and caught up with him as we climbed. The views were phenomenal, even at this point. We’re going to have a beautiful day!! 🌞

After about two miles of this up, we hit the boulder scrambles. This is hugely technical stuff, with rebar posts that barely help, and lots of balancing and leaping. And it’s all straight up! Well, they never said it’d be easy, haha. I slipped and got a nice gash on my shin which hurt like a son of a bitch. Left a little of myself on the mountain!

I think the boulder was only about a mile, but it took for-ev-er. From there it flattens out for a bit, and then climbs up, all above the tree line. You’re almost ridge walking to the top from here. Still super rocky, but it was a nice approach; gave you a little breather to contemplate what was just ahead.

The whole time we're being passed by people faster than us, and passing day hikers that we're faster than. Some people got out a few hours earlier than us, so we pass them going down as we go up; everyone's congratulating everyone else, even if you're just up for the day. NOBODY is in a bad mood; the weather is as beautiful as you could want, blue sky, sun shining, barely any breeze. And at this point, it’s just a matter of time.

I wish I could explain what it felt like, to come to the end of something like this. The scale of it, the amount of time and the magnitude of effort, seemed to both expand behind pushing you forward, and shrink ahead of you as it all distilled down into one, earthly, tangible, real piece of wood. I didn’t feel sad for the end of it, or relief that it was over; I wasn’t even gushingly happy. It was hard to feel anything too profoundly, as though feeling any one emotion too much would hit you like a surprise wave, hijacking all your senses and leaving you dazed. Instead I focused on just the moment, approaching the sign as a small crowd of hikers slowly grew from technicolor dots into people, and the A-frame of the sign finally came into view.

[ataelol]

Last night living in a tent...surreal ⛺️

[ataelol]

Bidding goodbye to the 100 Mile Wilderness! This was a huge mental and physical grind. We had about 2 days that were 'normal', and the other 4 really took everything we had. I think it's a mixture of being tired and so close, but we spent most of our down time in here talking about how much we wanted to be done, and fantasizing about just skipping ahead to the end. I know!! C'mon guys, we'd never do it, but it shows you just how brow-beaten we are. I had heard about people getting to Maine, or partway through Maine and quitting, and at the time I could never understand it. 'You're so close, just dig deep and do it!'; but man, when you feel like you're running on your last fumes, it's tough. Our second half/last three days here we had to do 21+ miles every day to get to the base of Katahdin, as Buff had a plane ticket for the 16th, so we're 15th summiting or bust!