Bama➡️Baxter Day 161&162

Day 161: 18 miles

This morning when we woke up it was pouring rain so we slept in a bit later than we had planned. When we finally got up and started moving the rain had lightened up a lot which was great.

We had looked at the map last night and saw that the terrain today was going to be super cruisy. So we knew that we could easily get in the desired mileage, even with a later start. It’s so nice to be back to regular hiking again. Back to being able to hike at a predicable pace! 20 mile days are actually short days yet again.

We got walking and the day started off with a super gradual climb. If you hadn’t looked at the map you would have hardly known that you were climbing at all. Then the trail leveled out a lot and it was easy going for miles. The rain let up entirely about an hour or so in. I stripped off my rain gear which was quite the relief. I was burning up in there!

Then about 5 miles into the day we stopped off at a shelter to take our first break. All of us hung out inside and ate something. And after that we continued along. About 3-4 miles later we passed by such a gorgeous lake. The trail crossed right over the beach and I couldn’t resist dropping my pack and sitting down for a few. Staring out across the crystal clear lake felt phenomenal. The last couple of days in Maine have been a breath of fresh air. This is what I’ve been waiting for and needing so badly.

After spending some time there we kept going and walked another 6 miles or so. There was another shelter which was also right by a lake. We were able to go right down to the shore and take our break there. It’s been so nice listening to the sounds of the water flowing in and out along the shore.

Today we can really only do a limited amount of mileage because we are approaching the Kennebec River. This is the river along the AT that you can only cross via water taxi. The river is well over 10 feet deep in the center with a fast moving currently. So hikers are explicitly told not to attempt to wade across. The water taxi only goes across up until 1:45pm each day. So we knew this morning that we wouldn’t be able to get 20+ miles in that early in the day. That means we’re just going to set our selves up to cross first thing in the morning tomorrow. So we are really in absolutely no rush today!

We stayed by the lake for a long time before we decided to keep going. While we could have stayed at the shelter we wanted to get at least another handful of miles in. In this next stretch of trail we came upon a river that we had to ford. The water was very deep but fortunately slow moving. I took off my shoes and wore my sandals to keep my feet dry. People call sandals an unnecessary luxury item, but I use these things a whole lot.

After we crossed the river I put my shoes back on and kept moving. And we wound up finding tent sites about a mile before the Kennebec River. You’re not supposed to camp right by the river so these sites worked out perfectly.

Not long after we arrived and got set up it began to rain heavily. I was glad that I pitched my tent in a pretty decent site. But my tent was still wet from yesterday’s rain. I never got a chance to dry it out today. Though I still managed to stay nice and dry as it poured rain all night.

Day 162: 20 miles

This morning we woke up pretty early so that we could try to be the first ones a the Kennebec to cross. Only two people can cross at a time so we knew that it there was a long line of people waiting that it would probably take a while. We were only a mile away so we got down to the river in very little time. And there were only 2 other hikers already waiting there when we arrived.

Once we got there we sat down to wait for the the canoe guy to start coming across. And I was super glad that we arrived early. Because not 10 minutes later did about 5 or 6 other hikers arrive to take the water taxi across. We would have been waiting for a super long time.

The canoe guy arrived and he took the first couple of people across. Then we filled out the necessary paper work and he took Sweet Pea and I across. Boosted and Roxy had to go in a canoe on their own just because of space. But it all worked out perfectly.

On the other side we resumed walked and headed a mile or so to the next road. The guys had under packed food and needed to top off a bit to get to Shaws. So we walked down the road about a mile until we came to the Sterling Inn and Caratunk Country Store. Just before we got there the owner actually drove by and gave us a lift the remaining distance. That was super nice!

Once we got to the inn we dropped our packs and headed inside. And I cannot express to you how fantastic the resupply was inside. It was arguably one of the best trailside stores that I had ever seen. It was floor to ceiling with everything you could imagine. Their selection of dehydrated meals and other unique dehydrates and freeze dried options were immense. There were so many items that I had never heard of or ever seen before in stores. If I didn’t have a decent amount of food leftover already I would have probably gone crazy in there.

I shopped around for a while and got some nice goodies. Then got a few beverages, some hot pockets to microwave, and a mini tub of Ben and Jerry’s. They even had medal spoons in the freezer for you to use with the ice cream. This place thought of everything.

Recently when we were in North Conway I bought a new Platypus water filter. But from day one the flow was horrible and it hardly worked. It was literally worse than the filter that I had been using for 1500 miles and had never once back flushed. So I’ve been borrowing the guys filters recently to use. I was tempted to buy a new one at this store because they had the main three brands of water filters. But I didn’t want to be carrying around 2 filters for days. I figured I’d wait until Shaws and then hopefully mail the faulty one back to REI to get a refund. The damn filter was $50, so you best believe I want my money back considering it never once worked well.

After I got everything inside I went to pop my hot pockets in the microwave. Then sat on the porch to eat my small cup of ice cream. We hung out with another hiker who was there and talked to a couple SOBOs. This inn was so damn cool! If we had known about it I probably would have wanted to try and stay here over night. I went upstairs and checked out the bunk area which was super clean and had big windows. I can’t remember the last time that we stopped at a hostel or inn that was so incredibly nice.

We hung out at the Sterling Inn for a while snacking and charging our stuff. Then around 12:15pm the guy gave a bunch of us a ride back to the trailhead. We still planned to get some pretty solid mileage in for the day if we could.

When we hit the trail we did 7-8 mile right off the bat. The trail was mostly all uphill but was perfectly gradual. It felt so good to just walk for once! Not dealing with the technical terrain anymore has been such a delight. I missed the walking. New Hampshire and southern Maine certainly weren’t walking. That was scrambling and often times rock climbing. Now we’re back to just walking!

Up at the top of Pleasant Pond Mountain I caught up to Sweet Pea. He was hanging out and feasting on blueberries. I dropped my pack and joined in. They were so ripe and delicious. It feels like such an amazing reward every time that we get to enjoy fresh berries on top of a mountain.

Boosted caught up and we all hung out on top of the mountain for a while. I ate a pumpkin and cream cheese Whoopi pie which was off the charts. I can’t remember the last time that I had a Whoopi pie. And this one was killer! Then after a little while we continued along on the trail. There was a brief descent and then we arrived at Middle Mountain. And after that we got to enjoy about 6 or 7 miles that were all either a gradual descent or relatively flat. That was lovely.

On this next stretch of trail I wound up going by a hiker who looked familiar. And he stopped and asked me if I hiked the PCT back in 2017! It was One Eleven, a hiker who I had met back then on the PCT. I couldn’t believe that our paths were crossing on the Appalachian trail. He was out doing a section hike for a few days. The coincidence was just unbelievable.

The guys and I wound up stopping off for a quick break just before the Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to. I needed to get some water so it seemed like as good a place as any to stop off. We sat there for a while and all ate something. Then continued along to do the climb up Moxie Bald Mountain.

Yet again it was a nice gradual climb. I was out in front feeling really good. When we got up towards the top we got some lovely views and the sun was beginning to set. We go water so that we could try and find a camp site up near the top. But we had no such luck. We wound up having to descend all the way to the Bald Mountain Pond Lean-to to find camping. I was shocked that there was nothing before that.

On our descent the sun fully set and it became dark. I never pulled out my headlamp so I was just trying to stay close enough to Boosted that I could use his light in front of me to guide me. But in the end I had to just whip out my phone and use the flash light so that I didn’t trip over anything and eat shit.

We got to the shelter and looked around for tenting. But there were so many people camping around it was really hard. In the end we found a site down by the pond but it wasn’t great. The guys and I made it work though. We set up our tents around 9:30pm. Then we all hung out for a bit before calling it a night.

I was pleasantly surprised that even after getting back to trail around 12:30pm today we still managed to get 19 more miles in! I missed this for sure. The days of cranking out easy miles. It’s such a wonderful feeling.