Maine Isn’t Easy But I am Happy to Be Here

Day 150 Route 2 To Gentian Pond Shelter — AT Daily Miles 11.8; AT Total Miles 1910.7

You know it was a hard day when everyone is trying to give it a rating at the end of the day. I think the average score was a nine in difficulty. Always tough when you have to start a day at a road and get back to the typical elevation that we hike at. I think it’s added tough when you are leaving a comfy hostel but have to go back out to the trail.

One highlight of the day was to run into a couple of different SOBOs, south bounders. They are able to give us a scoop of what we are coming up on. Their message is pretty clear that we’re going to have around another 75 miles of really hard followed by about 75 miles of mostly hard and then 120 miles of not so hard. I guess nothing is truly easy in Maine. We have three to four weeks left if all goes well. I can live with that. I have no other choice.

The shelter tonight is at a beautiful mountain pond. I’m going to walk down in the morning and hope to see a moose swimming around. I’m still hoping to see one before I finish my trek. I have a view over the mountain range across a valley and of the pond itself. If only I could own a cabin in a place like this.

Tomorrow could be a short day. We only need 10 miles to get to the start of a really brutally hard section. Plus, it’s supposed to rain. We’ll see when we get in those 10 miles whether or not the weather is nice enough for us to go ahead and push forward another three or four hours. We will probably have the answer around one or two in the afternoon tomorrow. If we can do it we can set up the next resupply sooner. This section, as I’ve said above, is super hard. On a positive note we will be in Maine tomorrow. It’s been a long time coming.

1,900 Miles

Gentian Pond

Gentian Pound Shelter

Day 151 Gentian Pond To Full Goose Shelter — AT Daily Miles 11.8; AT Total Miles 1920.5

We got an early start with intermittent rain showers in the forecast. Rain always slows us down. At a minimum we wanted to go 10 miles to a shelter and at the maximum 13 miles to a tent site past the hardest mile on the Appalachian Trail. In the end we got caught in a horrendous thunderstorm while going over one of the mountains, and made it to the shelter late and were quite drenched.

The day started extremely hard with a very vertical climb up Mount Success. That really set the tone for the day. In fact when we stopped for lunch a few hours later, we ran into a fellow hiker that had already stopped for the day. That’s how hard the climb was. And there were a few more very similar climbs to it that we had to do plus two alpine bogs to slog through to get to our shelter.

We did have a great milestone along the way passing into Maine for the first time. That’s the final state we need to hike in. It’s about 280 miles long. I understand the first half of that is pretty tough but the second half more normal hiking and beautiful scenery so I am really looking forward to it. First though the next two days are going to be extremely hard. We will need to get in good mileage to get to a resupply before I run out of food.

Tomorrow we will try to get an early start and do that hardest mile on the trail before rain moves in. With any luck, we will get in 12 miles of hiking setting us up for 14 the following day to get into town in two days. If it takes 2 1/2 I’ll be going in with no food left. I really should take a little extra food, but I always hate to carry the weight. I’ll try to be smarter and carry a few extra itemss just to be safe next time.

Maine!

“Trail”

Cloud Hiking

Day 152 Full Goose To Baldpate Lean-to — AT Daily Miles 14.3; AT Total Miles 1935.8

I was mostly dry, but my clothes were still very wet from the previous day when I got ready in the morning. It always feels so wonderful, not, to put on wet clothes first thing in the morning. We needed to get an early start since we had the Mahoosuc Notch first up which is considered the hardest mile on the Appalachian Trail. People can take up to three hours to complete it with all the scrambling and rock climbing there is. I was able to do it along with Airhead in about 90 minutes which I consider a success.

In addition to the Notch, we also had to climb the Mahoosuc Arm and Old Speck Mountain and get in about 12 miles to the shelter. That would still leave us 14 miles to get to the next road where we can get a ride into town for a possible night stay and a definitely needed resupply. Both of us are low on food right now and can only make it for a day and a breakfast. I shouldn’t have cut it so close but with the terrain it seemed like a good idea to have less weight in my backpack.

We arrived at the shelter in a light rain and soon it rained much much harder. We were lucky to get in when we did. At the shelter, it was a lot of fun to talk to the southbound hikers. They give us a lot of great information about what’s coming up for us in Maine. They are also good sources of information for the hostels and resupply options and even the details of Katahdin itself. With about 266 miles left to go we need all the good information we can get. It’s starting to seem more a possibility that I’ll be able to do this thing.

Finished the Notch

Tough Couple of Days

Baldpate Mountain

Day 153 Baldpate Lean-to To Andover ME — AT Daily Miles 15.6; AT Total Miles 1950.4

Another day of putting on wet clothes first thing in the morning. So much fun! At least it was a couple miles steep uphill climb to warm me up, which dries the clothing out. That’s the short way hikers out here dry their clothes. Wear them and the body does the job. When it’s so damp outside it’s  hard to get anything dry overnight. Another option sometimes is lay out the wet stuff during the day when you’re at the top of the mountain and it’s sunny. You do what you can do.

Overall, the hiking was actually kind of fun today. We went over three peaks of the Baldpate mountain range, which seemed kind of like walking on the moon with its bare rocky surface. Or what I imagine the moon would look like. There were views in every direction and the clouds were hanging low in the various valleys. That’s always one of my favorite things to look at. There were also a couple nice streams and waterfalls. 

Airhead and I were able to get to the trailhead pick up point late and in the hostel with just enough time to start the usual routine. There’s only a small convenience store in the town for resupply so it will be very limited. That’s OK because we have two days of hiking before we get into our next resupply so that’s not too bad. The convenience store also has a small diner so we’ll look at getting dinner and possibly breakfast tomorrow morning before we head out.

So plans have changed a little bit over the next few days. It looks like rain in the forecast in three days. The remnants of a hurricane are going to blow through and there’s a 90% chance of rain for two days. We’ve already got a place to hole up for those two days. I’m hoping the forecast gets better but at least we’re prepared. It’s really hard when we’re close to the end to not hike for two days but hiking the mountains in what’s left of a hurricane does not sound very smart.  

Morning clouds

Airhead Sighting

Rock Walkway

Day 154 Andover ME To Bemis Stream Stealth — AT Daily Miles 12.4; AT Total Miles 1962.8

Mornings that start out at a hostel are some of my favorite mornings. When I wake up, there’s usually someone that’s gotten up before me that has the coffee brewing. This morning was no exception. It was Airhead that was up with the coffee pot on. After 2 cups and a muffin, he and I were ready to head to the local diner for breakfast. It had been so long since I had eggs sunny side up. I had a couple with home fries, sausage, and sourdough toast. Like I said, it was my favorite kind of morning.

Our shuttle was ready to take us to the trailhead by 8 AM and off we went. Of course it was a couple thousand feet of climb immediately. At least the temperature was cooler which made it more bearable. Once over Old Blue Mountain there was little time to rest before it was time to climb over Bemis Mountain. That was the last really cheap climb before a steep descent or a few miles to Bemis Stream where we would camp for the night.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a solid 14 mile day to get to the next town, which is Rangeley Maine. We have beds booked so we can sit out the remnants of a hurricane that are supposed to blow through the day after tomorrow and the following day. The forecast is calling for a 90% chance of rain both of those days. I’d really hate to take two days off from finishing the trek but I even hate more hiking all day in a downpour. If the forecast changes for the better, we will cancel a night of our stay and hike.

Lots of Bogs

Above the Tree Line

Rooty Trail

Day 155 Bemis Stream To Rangely ME — AT Daily Miles 14.0; AT Total Miles 1976.8

We were up and on the trail by 7 AM, which is typically the case when we’re going decent miles into a resupply. The information from various sources was that this section of trail was not very hard. At the end of the day that seem to be a false rumor, as both of us were exhausted.

Most of the 14 miles was pretty up-and-down with only one hard climb. The worst thing, though was the constant roots that made stepping semi painful and all the mud and bogs that we had to be very slow and careful about getting around. That really slowed us down. For reference in previous states we hiked at about 2.25 mph but have been slowed to around 1.5 mph in recent stretches.

I would say the stretch was fairly scenic though. I love hiking in the pine trees and the green moss. It certainly looks like moose territory to me, but I haven’t seen one yet. I really want to see one before the end of the trick and hope to see one at the latest and the hundred mile wilderness.

By the end of the day we were at our pick up point by 3 PM, which was our goals so all worked out well. We’re able to get into the Hostel and get our showers just in time to go into a local restaurant for a well-deserved take out dinner. Well Airhead went for burger, fries, and ice cream, I went for the spinach, Cobb salad and beer. To each their own.

A Maine Pond

Clear Mountain Water

What a View

Day 156 Rangely ME Rest Day — AT Daily Miles 0; AT Total Miles 1976.8

Overnight it poured down rain. The hostel I’m staying at is more like a resort. It’s beautiful and I am staying in a three bed cabin. I could hear the rain on the roof the entire night and was so happy not to be in my tent. It’s also nice when you wake up at 6 AM to be able to go to a coffee pot and have breakfast without going to too much of her. Our hosts take care of us.

Today will be a resting and maintenance day while the severe weather passes. We plan to go into town around 10 AM to do laundry, resupply, check out the gear stores, and have lunch. Rangely is a resort town and is quite beautiful sitting on a huge lake. It’s a good place to hunker down for a day.

We need to pull together a plan for tomorrow. There’s supposed to be heavy rain again tonight which could make trail conditions tomorrow really bad. We have been cautioned about a specific river crossing in particular. Both Airhead and I want to get on the trail though and get our trek finished and at the same time know we have got to be smart about it. We have an option where we would hike 7 miles and then hike 2 bonus miles down a ski slope and come back here to the cabin. That would let the water levels subside. Then we would go back to the ski slope and take the gondola back up to the top of the mountain, which would be a lot of fun. We might also take tomorrow completely off. We might also just hike out of here as normal.

Cabin 43 Hostel

My Room

You’ll have to look at the next blog to find out what we ended up doing. Since I have Wi-Fi today, I’m going to wrap up this addition and get it to my special assistant, my wife, for publishing.