For months as a thru-hiker heads north on the A.T., people ask him where he is headed. He answers Maine, and at first it seems as distant as the moon. Then, after months of walking nearly every day, in a little clearing, he crosses over from New Hampshire and the end no longer seems so distant. In a few weeks Katahdin appears as a small speck on the horizon. For more than a hundred miles, it continues to grow until the huge massif is straight ahead. Many thru-hikers spend their final night on the A.T. at Daicey Pond, with Katahdin looming large above the water. From there, it is a flat
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