LEWISTON – Fourteen 4,000-foot peaks in four days. For fun.

“It’s probably not for everybody,” said Jeff Hunnewell, 41, of New Gloucester, of his most recent hiking expedition.

Hunnewell and his niece, Nikki Coutts, 24, of Casco, decided earlier this year to attempt to climb all of Maine’s peaks exceeding 4,000-feet, which, in itself, may not be that unusual. But they wanted to do it in just one week.

“We started off with Old Speck and climbed anywhere from two peaks to six peaks a day,” said Coutts of her adventure, which took four days and ended about a week ago.

“The first day was fun,” she said. “The second day we hit six peaks and it was about 10 p.m. when we got off the trail. I was physically and mentally drained and it was a good thing we had a few hours of sleep that night or I don’t know that I would have been on the trail for day three.”

The pair said they trained ahead of time, making at least one big hike a week, which allowed them to zoom up and down the trails faster than guide book predictions.

“We kind of wanted to push the edge a little, to see what we could do,” Coutts said. “Most of these are seven-hour trails. We spent six weeks ahead of time training for this and we were two to three hours ahead of each hike.”

But the effort took its toll on both.

“I wasn’t totally comfortable with the situation we put ourselves in,” he said. “That last day it would have been hard to turn around had the weather demanded it. It also puts yourself in a bad position to get that fatigued and tired and be hiking in that rugged of terrain.”

Hunnewell said the trip was full of bright spots, including befriending other hikers and getting a close look at a porcupine.

“We also saw some of the Canadian jays, which we call saber-tooth chickadees,” he said chuckling. Canadian jays, also known as gray jays, sport a similar black cap, but dwarf the Maine state bird in size.

Coutts said the only motivation she needed was anticipating the views from each mountain top.

“Hiking is one of those things for both me and my uncle, it clears the mind on its own; the views up there are just incredible, it’s really something,” she said.

Sleeping in a truck each night, the two dined on steak, hamburgers and pasta in the evenings. Equipped with just a small, hand-held global positioning system, hiking shoes and day bags, they munched on trail mix, granola and chocolate bars while on the trail.

On their final day, the climbers tackled the state’s highest peak on its tallest mountain, Katahdin, which was blanketed in 4 inches of fresh snow.

“So you can actually have goose bumps and sweat at the same time,” Coutts said.

Both Coutts, nursing sore knees, and Hunnewell, with heavily blistered feet, said they wouldn’t try to repeat the effort.

But Coutts said she would be attacking Katahdin again in two weeks and as for Hunnewell, he said his adventures aren’t done yet either.

“I’m one of those people that watches all the (Mount) Everest shows and dreams that would be something awesome to attempt,” he said. “I’m guessing next spring, something else is going to come to mind and we’ll start working on a plan.”

The 14 peaks climbed in four days by Jeff Hunnewell and Nikki Coutts:

1. Katahdin, Baxter Peak

2. Katahdin, Hamlin Peak 3. Sugarloaf

4. Old Speck

5. Crocker

6. Bigelow, West Peak

7. North Brother

8. Saddleback

9. Bigelow, Avery Peak

10. Abraham

11. Saddleback, the Horn

12. South Crocker

13. Redington

14. Spaulding