By Aislinn Sarnacki The jagged backbone of a stone giant, Knife Edge stretched before us.

By Aislinn Sarncki I bought pepper spray a few days ago.

By Emily Burnham, Bangor Daily News Staff Mainers in the northern half of the state are used to seeing an eclectic array of people winding their way along the Appalachian Trail — usually, in the final few hundred miles of the more than 2,000 mile journey by foot that begins in Georgia and ends on Katahdin, a spectacular finale for one of the most epic hikes in the world.