I got to the Hostel of Maine in Carabassett Valley, ME just after 4:30PM on Sunday July 29th. I decided to splurge for a private room - I had spent most of the past week in the rain, everything was soaking wet, my tent smelled like a swamp, and I smelled just as bad. I didn't know where Quesadilla and Overdrive were, and I was pretty sure that Coors, Strider, and Bird were going to end up a day ahead of me again. But they wanted to finish the trail as soon as possible, so I would have lost them again anyway, even if I hadn't gone into town for the night.
The Hostel of Maine is a ski lodge in the winter, hiker hostel in the summer - it recently opened and was clean and welcoming. After a hot shower I laid out my things to dry. I chatted with other hikers hanging out in the common areas, I had never met any of them before. I spread my tent out on the lawn and when it wasn't dry by the evening the hostel owner let me put it in their boiler room in the basement, which was hot and dry.
There was a section hiker who had just completed the Bigelows - the next Mountain range I would be hiking over. He warned me that they were very challenging, with steep rocks - I told him my intention of hiking 23 miles the next day and he thought that was too ambitious. I got nervous. The following day I would get to the Kennebec River - the only river on the AT that you are not supposed to ford. There is a ferry - a canoe - to take hikers across. But it only runs from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM and if I didn't hike the 23 miles the next day (7/30), I wouldn't make it to the river in time to catch the ferry the following day (7/31). Hiking 23 miles in a day had been no big deal - but southern Maine had really shattered my confidence. The Bigelows were the last of the 4,000' peaks until Katahdin, they were commonly known as the dividing line between the tougher trail in southern Maine and easier trail as it approached the 100 mile wilderness.
I spent the afternoon napping and ate pizza for dinner. The hostel served breakfast the next morning at 7AM (Monday July 30th) and since there was only one other hiker taking the 7:30 shuttle back to the trail with me we took our time getting ready. My tent was the driest it's ever been - the smell was only marginally better. The hostel was very homey - I didn't want to leave.
The sun was out when I got back on trail at 8:15AM and I felt renewed. The first two miles up Bigelow were flat and smooth - a nice warm up. I was expecting the climb to be tough with lots of rock scrambles, but it wasn't harder than any of the previous climbs. This is why I keep telling myself to ignore everyone else's description of the trail! I even took two of the side trails to view points - the views just got better and better and I continued north. I took a snack break at the top of the West Peak (4,145') and met a couple of "peak baggers" who were working on summiting all of the 4,000+ footers in the northeast. They mentioned that they saw two thru hikers, one wearing a Hawaiian shirt with curly hair, which sounded like it was probably Coors. I was surprised that they were so close.
The stretch of trail between West and Avery Peaks was easy, the weather was perfect, and I had a smile on my face again. At Avery Peak (4,088') I still had 14.6 miles to go - a SOBO hiker at the top of Avery thought I was overly optimistic. This again!?
The view from Little Bigelow was more tree covered but there were wild blueberries everywhere. Most of the mud was beginning to dry which made the descent much easier. There were a couple of miles of flat nice trail along East Flagstaff Lake. There were two short climbs in the last four miles and my legs were getting heavy and a pain was developing in my heel. I got to West Carry Pond Lean-To (AT Mile 2025.7) after hiking 23 miles at around 7:15. Coors was sitting on a bench eating dinner. Strider was also there pitching his tent. After a short awkward exchange we were back talking like old friends. Apparently they hadn't seen Bird in a day and a half - he had gotten up early one morning and started hiking without saying a word to Coors and Strider and when they got to their agreed upon camping spot he wasn't there.
The shelter was full of SOBOs so I set up my tent near Coors and Strider. Everything was dry for once getting into camp, but my tent smelled awful. All of the miles I had done the past few days put me a day ahead of schedule. The guys and I talked about our plan for the rest of the hike - we had been working towards summiting Katahdin on August 9th or 10th, depending on the weather. We agreed to continue with that plan - they were just hoping to be home by the weekend. Sixlegs was planning on meeting me at the north end of the 100 mile wilderness the afternoon of the 8th so he could summit with us on the 9th.
I slept okay that night but I kept waking up thinking I was in a swamp because of how bad my tent smelled. It didn't help that my sleeping pad kept deflating, making me think that I was actually sinking into a swamp. I was on trail by 5AM on Tuesday July 31st and was once again worried about making the miles - we were 14 miles from the ferry across the Kennebec and needed to be there by 2:00 PM. The first hour I only went 2.2 miles - I was slowed down by roots, rocks, and mud, but was able to pick up the pace after that. I made it to the river crossing by 11 - all that worrying for nothing.
I signed the waiver, helped paddle across, and waited for Strider and Coors on the north side of the river. They made it across by 11:30 and we walked to the Caratunk House (a hiker hostel), which was just off trail about 1/4 mile further. I got a pulled pork sandwich and a strawberry milkshake for lunch, followed by banana bread, mini donuts, two sodas, and a few other snacks. Coors and Strider showered and did laundry (their first time since Gorham, about 150 miles ago). We bought enough food to make it the next day and a half to Monson - the southern end of the 100 mile wilderness. There were several other NOBOs at the hostel which we had never seen before. All of them were also planning on summiting Katahdin on the 9th. In fact, pretty much all NOBO thru hikers we had seen on trail recently had plans to summit on the 9th...We also heard from the owner of the hostel that Bird had come and gone around 10 AM that day.
Coors, Strider, and I hung out at the Caratunk House, procrastinating, until 3:45 PM. The 5.8 miles out of town were easy but there were tons of mosquitoes, which only made us hike faster. I made it to Pleasant Pond Lean-To (AT mile 2045.4, after 19.8 miles that day) by 5:45 PM. The shelter looked rather crummy and there were limited tenting spots so we set up camp on the path to the pond. It was a nice night after a warm day, but again I felt like I was laying in a swamp because of the stench of my tent.
I tried to sleep in but woke up to re-inflate my sleeping pad once an hour. I was on trail by 6:15AM on Wednesday August 1st and moved very slowly up Pleasant Pond Mountain. There was a decent view where I ate breakfast. Strider passed me and I caught up to him at the bottom of the mountain by Baker Stream. I was forced to get my feet wet fording the stream, but it was a sunny day and they started drying quickly. It was a slow climb up to Bald Mountain Brook Lean-To where I took another snack break with Strider. We took a longer break there thinking Coors would stop there also, we hadn't seen him all day. We weren't in a rush, but I decided to keep moving - at the summit of Moxie Bald Mountain I found Coors sitting at the summit sign eating lunch. He had passed us while we were taking a break. Strider took longer to arrive than we expected, but he was carrying a half pint of blueberries when he showed up at the summit. We all decided to spend the next hour picking blueberries at the top of Moxie. I was also able to get enough cell phone service to call Shaws' Hostel in Monson to reserve some rooms.
On the way down we stopped at Moxie Bald Mountain Lean-to which had the first picnic table we had seen in Maine! Our blueberry snacks were delicious. We heard that it was supposed to rain that evening - we left the shelter at 2:50 with 8.9 miles to go. There were two more streams to ford - the Piscataquis River had a rope overhead to hold on to. On the north side Strider got stung by five bees - luckily he isn't allergic. We hiked the next stretch of trail together and got to Horseshoe Canyon Lean-To (AT mile 2067.4) after 21.9 miles at 5:30PM. There was a group of girls from a nearby camp that were out for 22 days - again, I was impressed. Not wanted to spend another night in my swampy tent I took a spot in the shelter. At least the rain held off through dinner.
It rained on and off through the night but it had mostly stopped by the morning on Thursday August 2nd. I waited until 5:30AM to wake up Coors and Strider - we had planned to hike into Monson together. I ate breakfast at the shelter before getting back on trail - one of the few times I've done that throughout the entire hike. We left at 6AM - there were only 9 miles to ME 15, which were mostly flat but covered in roots, rocks, bog bridges, and mud. It was nice to hike as a group - it made the miles go by faster. We made it to the road by 9 where we found trail magic of Coke and donuts. About 15 minutes later Poet arrived to shuttle us into Shaws Hiker Hostel in Monson, ME.
The Hostel of Maine is a ski lodge in the winter, hiker hostel in the summer - it recently opened and was clean and welcoming. After a hot shower I laid out my things to dry. I chatted with other hikers hanging out in the common areas, I had never met any of them before. I spread my tent out on the lawn and when it wasn't dry by the evening the hostel owner let me put it in their boiler room in the basement, which was hot and dry.
There was a section hiker who had just completed the Bigelows - the next Mountain range I would be hiking over. He warned me that they were very challenging, with steep rocks - I told him my intention of hiking 23 miles the next day and he thought that was too ambitious. I got nervous. The following day I would get to the Kennebec River - the only river on the AT that you are not supposed to ford. There is a ferry - a canoe - to take hikers across. But it only runs from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM and if I didn't hike the 23 miles the next day (7/30), I wouldn't make it to the river in time to catch the ferry the following day (7/31). Hiking 23 miles in a day had been no big deal - but southern Maine had really shattered my confidence. The Bigelows were the last of the 4,000' peaks until Katahdin, they were commonly known as the dividing line between the tougher trail in southern Maine and easier trail as it approached the 100 mile wilderness.
I spent the afternoon napping and ate pizza for dinner. The hostel served breakfast the next morning at 7AM (Monday July 30th) and since there was only one other hiker taking the 7:30 shuttle back to the trail with me we took our time getting ready. My tent was the driest it's ever been - the smell was only marginally better. The hostel was very homey - I didn't want to leave.
The stretch of trail between West and Avery Peaks was easy, the weather was perfect, and I had a smile on my face again. At Avery Peak (4,088') I still had 14.6 miles to go - a SOBO hiker at the top of Avery thought I was overly optimistic. This again!?
The shelter was full of SOBOs so I set up my tent near Coors and Strider. Everything was dry for once getting into camp, but my tent smelled awful. All of the miles I had done the past few days put me a day ahead of schedule. The guys and I talked about our plan for the rest of the hike - we had been working towards summiting Katahdin on August 9th or 10th, depending on the weather. We agreed to continue with that plan - they were just hoping to be home by the weekend. Sixlegs was planning on meeting me at the north end of the 100 mile wilderness the afternoon of the 8th so he could summit with us on the 9th.
Coors, Strider, and I hung out at the Caratunk House, procrastinating, until 3:45 PM. The 5.8 miles out of town were easy but there were tons of mosquitoes, which only made us hike faster. I made it to Pleasant Pond Lean-To (AT mile 2045.4, after 19.8 miles that day) by 5:45 PM. The shelter looked rather crummy and there were limited tenting spots so we set up camp on the path to the pond. It was a nice night after a warm day, but again I felt like I was laying in a swamp because of the stench of my tent.
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