Days 137-138: A Change of Plans

Day 137, 9/12/23

Moxie Lake to ME Rt 15

24.7 miles, mile 2,083.7

I woke up bright and early at 5:00 a.m. so we could get an early start to this long day. Dad made some bacon and fried eggs and I put together some breakfast sandwiches. We were on the road at 6:00 a.m. Thankfully the hiking today was “easy” in comparison to what we have had. There was a stretch today that was extremely flat for an extended period of time! I was so happy to see that. We were able to keep a consistent 3mph pace the whole hike. That is also considerably easier to do without our full packs.

Very early on in the hike, I took a digger and fell pretty hard flat on my face. I laid on the ground for a bit to make sure I was actually okay because I fell so fast I didn’t really know what happened. The roots and rocks get much more slippery than you realize in the rain! It was a steady rain most of the day that cleared up to more of a mist in the afternoon. There was not much to see today other than the pretty moss along the trail. We ran into some friends Legs and Scissor Hands today, which was nice. There is the hurricane coming, so we will need to do some looking at the weather and make sure it will be okay to hike in. Tomorrow is a zero day to get laundry done, resupply, and get all our gear together again. I might fall over backwards with my full pack and five days of food in it after slackpacking for over a week!

Day 138

ME Rt 15

0 miles, mile 2,083.7

We have a big change of plans for the next couple days. Hurricane Lee will be hitting Maine when we would be in the 100 mile wilderness. With 1-3 inches of rain and 40-55mph winds possible as of the weather this morning, I do not want to be hiking out there. We are lucky enough to have the option to go home, so that is what we are doing! As much as I want to just finish this thing, I think it is the right call to stay out of a bad storm by delaying our finish date by 4-5 days. Sunday night we will come back to Karen’s cabin and get dropped off in Monson Monday morning. I’m excited for a couple days at home.