The 96-Mile Wilderness

Day 198: 4,650 ft trail ascent, 20.5 (trail miles)

The morning started with breakfast at 8 at Shaws. Erik got to meet our new hiking companion over breakfast whom I had invited to hike with us the night before. We were stuck with him for the next three days until we got our food resupply drop, so I hoped he wasn’t too weird.

Most thru hikers hike with others along the way and make deep, lasting friendships with those they hike with. Erik and I were the introverts among introverts on the trail. Up to this point I had not saved anybody’s phone number in my contacts from the trail, and I had only ever texted two hikers in passing to share the guide I had taken pictures of in Harper’s Ferry for hiking through the White Mountains. We had talked to plenty of people, but we didn’t make any close friendships and kept to ourselves most of the time. So adding someone else to our group would be a first since my dad left us to hike faster about 300 miles into the trail. I didn’t know how this would go.

We made small talk with ETSY over breakfast, and we all had a laugh when he asked for more eggs since he doesn’t eat bacon and was told ‘we don’t do extras’. There were two other hikers total at the hostel besides us three, so it’s not like 50 hikers would be clamoring for more food. I chalked it up to end of season tiredness.

This next segment of trail is known as the 100 Mile Wilderness. There are no towns, paved roads, or electricity for the next 96 miles of trail. I remember hearing about the 100 Mile Wilderness before I started backpacking and thinking how extreme it sounded to hike 100 miles without access to civilization. And here I was about to do it.

Shaws Hiker Hostel was 3 miles from the trailhead. After looking at river level forecasts for the area, we opted to road walk the next 15 trail miles. This would give the rivers and streams another day to recover from the recent rains and get us past what my dad had said were his scariest stream crossings.

Erik and I had road walked the day before. Continuing the road walk in the morning felt like luxury. The miles sped by quickly with minimal elevation change. We spent the morning exchanging stories from our hike with ETSY. In complete contrast to the hike Erik and I had done, ETSY had started in May and flew through the trail with minimal breaks, passing us somewhere in Pennsylvania (we think when we took an afternoon off in Duncannon). He hiked home to Massachusetts, and then took a month off the trail for a pre-scheduled family vacation. He then returned to the trail and raced to finish before Katahdin closed. Other than the month off trail, he had only taken 2 days off from hiking. Wow.

We finally made it back to the trail on the northern side of a stream crossing. We were extremely glad to have crossed the stream on a bridge, it was roaring! I don’t know how deep it was, but the pace of the water would’ve quickly pulled me downstream if we had crossed and I missed my footing. I took a picture and sent it to my dad. Turns out this was the crossing that scared him the most during the entire trip, and he had crossed it when it was about a foot higher than we were seeing!

Back on trail, we soon passed our last hundred mile marker: 2,100. I had loved these markers along the way showing our progress. Every last we encountered reminded me this adventure was coming to an end.

ETSY was used to hiking more miles than us, but due to the road walk today we ended up further along the trail than Erik and I typically would make it, even with the later start after breakfast. Around the beginning of October I had planned out the rest of our trip and thought we would finish on October 19th. With the push from today, it looked like we could finish a day sooner than I had scheduled. While the forecast looked like it would hold, any opportunity to finish sooner was better security we could finish.

Just before we arrived at our campsite, Mother Nature provided us with a first for Erik and I on our trip: hiking in a hail storm. It didn’t rain on us, but hail started falling from some angry looking clouds overhead and soon covered the trail looking like snow. It was the strangest experience, and I was glad the hail was pea sized so we didn’t get hurt.

Day 199: 4,190 ft ascent, 17.5 miles

Meeting people on a long distance thru hike is an incredible experience. You have nothing to do but talk and hike all day. Conversations continue for hours and explore every inch of every topic. With ETSY now part of our group, we had fresh conversation topics and new ground to cover. We quickly shared our life stories in more detail than you would ever share with a stranger in a typical setting.

Looking back I think we all needed our new group right at this time. ETSY had been alone for most of his second leg of his trip. He is as outgoing as Erik and I are introverts. He seemed really energized about having trail company. I was able to reflect on our experience in a different way than I had before when sharing stories with ETSY. We had many shared experiences and knew different puzzles pieces that make up the story of the trail year to year.

It was a dreary, colder day. The days of hiking in my tshirt only a week earlier were gone. We came to the West Brach Pleasant River Crossing around midday. This would be the widest river crossing of the 100 Mile Wilderness, and according to comments I read in my guide app it would also be the coldest. Luckily the river wasn’t too deep here and I wasn’t worried about getting pulled downriver if I fell. I took off my shoes and pants in what was now routine and took off across the river.

I was the last of our group to start crossing. The river was COLD. Really cold. Erik was in front of me taking each step carefully. Even with his long legs he was moving too slow for me. The entire crossing was maybe 100 feet across? I sped past Erik yelling nonsense with every step to forget about the cold. I used my hiking poles for balance as I sped across to dry land on the other side. My socks never felt so warm when I finally could put them back on once I reached the far bank.

The day was otherwise uneventful. I still hadn’t seen Katahdin due to the overcast skies during every opportunity we should’ve had thus far. We set up camp at the Sidney Tappan campsite, Erik and I with our tent and ETSY in his hammock. We were in for our coldest night since Virginia and we were on top of the ridge. I was happy to have carried my cold weather gear as I got into my quilt that night.

Day 200: 3,050 ft ascent, 17.1 miles

The 100 Mile Wilderness was (northbound) front loaded with more elevation than the second half. We woke up knowing we would have our last 3,000 foot elevation mountain to cross (White Cap Mountain) before Katahdin. We were up and out at camp at daybreak. It was a dreary day with on and off rain and sun. I stopped at one overlook on top of a mountain and took in the valley below. The trees were yellow and there wasn’t civilization in sight.

We had one last ‘bad’ stream crossing within the 100 mile wilderness that we hit mid-afternoon, this time the East Branch of the Pleasant River. It was a fast flowing stream maybe 30 feet wide. There were large boulders crossing the stream that made the water maybe mid-shin deep, but my hiking pole didn’t hit bottom when I tested to see how deep it was around the rocks. The crossing at the trail had a couple of ropes hanging overhead for hikers to hold on to to help cross. Wise people sitting nice and cozy in regular society say it’s crazy to trust any ropes hung by others over streams. We were not wise people sitting cozy in regular society.

I wondered upstream looking to see if there was a better crossing point. The ropes over the stream were too tall to be useful for me at 5’1”. The stream was wider upstream which meant the water wasn’t flowing as fast. I decided this would be my route. ETSY had followed me but decided to go back and cross by the trail.

I stepped from large rock to large rock, staying above the water. A normal person thinking clearly would’ve planned a route across before they started. I was not that. So there I was three quarters of the way across the stream with the next rock a leap instead of a step away. I could make the leap, but I would have no idea if the rock was slick until I landed on it. I saw if I made it to that rock I would be home free to the other side. I looked over and saw Erik already across and ETSY close behind him. Not wanting them to wait on me, I decided to make the leap.

Of course I overshot the step and landed in the middle of the rock. I braced to slide but luckily my footing held. It was a stupid move to have made and I was lucky it had worked out. But that was this entire trail. It’s as much luck as determination to get to the end.

We made good time for the day and stopped about an hour before sunset. We had 4 miles to go in the morning to make our food drop that was scheduled for 11am. Since sunrise was near 7am, we knew we had plenty of time to get there. Erik and I set up our tent in a cleared area while ETSY continued down the trail a hundred yards to the Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to by a creek. (Shelters are more commonly named lean-tos the further north you travel on the trail. There may be some stat about where or when that changes, but as someone who didn’t stay in any  I didn’t pick up on any differences.)

Day 201: 1,020 ft ascent, 19.0 miles

We got to our food drop early. We had told the hostel we would be early if they wanted to be. Not much luck. We waited around for almost two hours for them to show up with our buckets of food and to take our trash. After that, we were all antsy to make some miles. ETSY took the lead and set a blazing pace. Although the climbs had eased, the trail was covered in large roots and rocks. Every step took concentration.

We were moving faster than I felt comfortable going, but I also knew that if we pushed we could get to Katahdin a day earlier than I had originally planned. I stumbled and struggled in the back of our pack.

We made it to another stream crossing. Erik went upstream and found a tree across the stream about 10 feet over the water. He sat on it and shimmied his way over. After he got to the other side, he insisted we find another way across because the log was bouncy and the fall would’ve been painful. So in a ritual that felt way too familiar now, I pulled off my pants, shoes, and socks, donned my crocs in 4-wheel drive mode, and waded across another stream.

We made incredible miles that day taking into account our two hour break with the food drop. ETSY was really hoping to get us a 20 mile day, but campsite spacing made us decide if we wanted the 20 mile day or to set up in the daylight. I was exhausted so I voted daylight; it won. We set up for the night by some picnic tables beside a lake. I was exhausted, but I knew we would be able to summit Katahdin in three days now because of that push. I started finalizing our plans for getting home as the finish line of the trail was coming into view.

Day 202: 2,490 ft ascent, 17.8 miles

When we woke up, it was spitting rain on our tent and ESTY’s hammock. We decided to wait it out, hoping it was just a passing storm. It was. We were able to get rolling about 30 minutes later than we had been but packed up in the dry.

The trail wound from lake to lake, and alternated between mud pits and sketchy board crossings over water of unknown depths. The mud and roots were relentless all day. I was on the lookout for moose at every lake but never saw any.

The clouds lingered all day. I still hadn’t seen Katahdin. It turned into another head down and make miles kind of day.

It was nearing 5 o’clock when I started looking ahead for camp spots ahead. Another bad stretch of options. We were walking beside Rainbow Lake, but had a small climb away from the lake and wouldn’t have another water source for a little while. There weren’t many comments about reliable stealth sites in that stretch either. We decided to set up beside the lake in a small area off the trail that barely fit our tent but had plenty of trees for ETSY’s hammock.

Our tent was set up with our feet on a downhill slope. We had set up in worse spots. I’ll admit I chose where we set up. Erik’s inflatable sleeping pad ended up on a pretty large rock by his feet. We didn’t think much of it as we set up because it wasn’t sharp.

In the middle of the night, we got a very rude reminder the rock was there. We woke up to a loud crack that sounded like a gunshot. Then another one. Erik and I quickly realized it was the seams of his inflatable pad popping! The stress of the downhill and the rock was too much for it. It was still holding air, but every time Erik moved another seam seemed to pop. Eventually we went back to sleep, but we were both concerned about what the carnage might look like in the morning.

Day 203: 1,900 ft ascent, 17.5 miles

Erik’s pad barely survived the night inflated. Any time he moved another seam popped. He only needed one more night but it didn’t look like it was going to happen. We had no choice but to pack up and keep going. We would try to figure something out that night at The Birches, the shelter in Baxter State Park for thru hikers.

We took off down the trail, excitement building with each step. We had just a few more miles left in the 100 Mile Wilderness before we entered Baxter State Park. It would then be a cruisy 10 more miles to our campsite for the evening.

Within a couple of hours we came to the sign signifying the start of the 100 Mile Wilderness for Southbounders. We took some pictures and then exited the forest onto a logging road. The road was lined with yellow-leaved trees, the thru-hiker’s yellow brick road.

We passed over Abol Bridge and I got my first view of Katahdin since I first summitted it in 2018. I got chills. I was going to do it. I would be a thru hiker. The feeling was incredible. To take on such a big thing and to be able to see the end after so long was rewarding. The hiking felt effortless as we almost skipped down the road.

The campground store outside of the park was closed, another benefit of being late in the season. Luckily my dad had given us a heads up it would be closing when he hiked through a month prior so we had planned accordingly. On down the road we went.

At the edge of the park boundary was a kiosk for thru hikers. The Birches only allows 12 thru hikers per night and you have to sign up for your spot. I had read horror stories of people getting up stupidly early to stand in line for a spot. We walked up a little before 11 and took the first three slots at the shelter. We may not have gotten food by being late, but we got to hike on our schedule.

The next few miles the trail meandered beside a river. But it wouldn’t be the AT without one last laugh from the trail. We came upon one last stream crossing that wasn’t rock-hoppable. ETSY found a log and was able to shimmy his way across without taking off his shoes. I didn’t trust following him. I went upstream looking for a spot to cross but no luck. Reluctantly I did my stream crossing routine one last time, removing my shoes, socks, and pants, slipping on my crocs, and gritting my teeth in preparation of the cold water.

We got dried off on the other side and began again down the trail. Before long we made it to the ranger station where we needed to check in and get our permit to summit Katahdin the next day. I was issued permit number 1,240.

After some rules/words of advice from Ranger Donald Duck, he told us he thought we would be the last group of thru hikers to summit for the season! They coordinate with the Hostel in Monson to know who’s out on the trail and nobody had left behind us. The forecast showed a storm coming in later in the week. Tomorrow would be Wednesday, and they were targeting Friday as the last day the summit would be open for the season. Two days to spare!

We hiked to The Birches and set up camp. ETSY stayed in one of the two shelters by himself, Erik and I in our tent. We tried to blow up Erik’s pad but at this point it wouldn’t hold any more air without popping more seams.

I don’t remember what the temperature was forecast for that evening, but I think it was in the high 40s- low 50s range. Not warm but not freezing. Without knowing what else to do, we took every piece of soft gear we had between the two of us and laid it on top of Erik’s deflated pad to make a makeshift sleeping pad as much as we could. The cold from the ground was the biggest concern even though we were on a wooden tent pad. I went to sleep knowing it would be a long and cold night for Erik, but not knowing what other option we had. Even if he didn’t sleep much tomorrow would be our last day on trail.