Much to our disappointment we had to make the good-parenting decision and send Hunter home from Maryland. He has been doing fine, the week sitting in the boat during the aqua-blaze really helped the cracks in his paws heal up, but the upcoming heat and rocks of Pennsylvania would still be enough to do him in. We’re pretty sure he would be okay, if he had to walk it, but the risk of him injuring himself is just too high for our liking. We had the opportunity to send him back to Maine for about 4 weeks with my parents and it was one we just couldn’t turn down. We’ll be picking him up again somewhere around the Massachusetts/Connecticut border, which will give him an 800 mile section and a 700 mile section – not bad by any standards! Once he gets back to the trail we’ll be sure to update the world on how he is doing with the New England mountains, especially with how silly he makes us humans look climbing through a boulder field!