As a foreword, I wrote all of these journal entries at the time they took place on trail, but I fell behind on keeping up with the blog. The date listed at the top of this page is the publishing date and does not correspond to my current location on trail. I’ll be upping the number of days listed as well to better catch up.
Day 130
After our “exciting” day yesterday, we decided to have a late start because we were both exhausted. While we were in the packed hotel breakfast area, we overheard that the widespread flooding had apparently led to a bunch of drivers spending the night at the hotel as well. After breakfast, we headed back to our room to rest and utilize every hour of the hotel that we had paid for. Check-out time came around though, so we headed out into the already stifling humidity in our still-damp shoes, and grabbed a hitch back to Pinkham Notch. Like all of our hitches so far, the man who offered us a ride was incredibly kind. He said he was also concerned about all of the flooding. Once we arrived, some other hikers who had hitched around the Presidential Range informed us of the restaurant inside, so we had lunch there and I bought a cool AT bandana to use for sweat. As expected, the trails were still muddy, but thankfully we were quickly out of it as we started the climb up to Wildcat D Peak. The climb itself was wild with slick granite and few, if any, grip points, but it was a blast! A couple of spots had wooden block steps fixed to the walls which was sketchy, but with some careful butt sliding, it wasn’t too challenging to make it up. Eventually, we reached the top and we were rewarded with epic, albeit smokey, views of the Presidential Range behind us. We had an obligatory snack break in the parked ski gondola and then mosied on. The hike between D Peak and the main Wildcat Mountain Peak was a classic AT PUD, but the view was amazing. From there, we headed down to Crawford Notch, and once again found that there were no stealth sites near the hut. Since it was getting late, we had dinner on the Carter Notch Hut porch, and then one of the Cru members recommended a spot to us a little ways away. When we arrived there, it turned out that they had sent tons of people there to tent camp, so we ended up having to squeeze our two person tent into a tight spot with a less-than-stellar pitch. Thankfully, we should have good weather tonight and we will be out of AMC territory tomorrow!
Day 131
We woke up early to try and make the most of the day, but stopped in at the Hut to check the weather forecast. Heavy thunderstorms were expected early in the afternoon… Not wanting to get caught in a repeat of the flooding event a few days ago, we had breakfast on the move. We made great time crossing Carter Dome, Mount Hight, Middle Carter, Mount Lethe, and the other bumps along the way. That being said, the trail was again incredibly slippery in multiple areas due to the abundance of wet sloped granite that the AMC had resisted cutting switchbacks or adding any kind of aids to (the night before, an AMC volunteer had clued us into the AMC’s reluctance to establish trail infrastructure). About a mile out from Imp Shelter the sky turned dark, lightning cracked open the sky, and the rain came down in sheets. We hustled into the shelter just in the nick of time to avoid getting soaked, but the storm had come early and nearly caught us. Since we were fairly high up, I was able to get some reception and check the weather, and the news was not good. A severe thunderstorm warning had been issued for our area for the rest of the day. Fearing the worst, we rolled our pads out to claim a spot and then sat down to read while periodically checking the weather. As the day wore on, the weather continued to be terrible, going so far as hailing at one point. More and more people continued to filter in as well, slowly filling up the shelter. At one point, a large, loud tramily arrived, and rudely started trying to forcefully re-arrange people’s sleeping set-ups without asking them so that they could squeeze their friends in next to them, despite the shelter being at capacity and all of the tent pads being available. Finally, it came to a head when the caretaker came by and said that some of them needed to tent. A few of them tried to whine and complain about how they couldn’t put up their tents on platforms due to them being unable to stake them down properly, but then he came back with nails. Ha! Thankfully, a few of them finally relented, but not without pouting. This is our first full shelter in months, and the first large annoying tramily that we have encountered since the Smokies. I cannot believe that some people still feel so entitled this far into the trail, and I am completely crushed that it seems like the bubble is catching up to us.
Day 132
Wanting to get ahead of the tramily, we left very early and caught the sunrise from the top of Mt. Moriah where Instigator enjoyed her morning coffee. Once again, we were able to experience that incredible feeling of being alone in a sea of islands above the clouds, which was a welcome experience after the annoyance of yesterday. I had learned the prior evening that the tramily, and apparently a considerable number of other hikers, had skipped Vermont and parts of New Hampshire due to flooding, which is why it seemed like there were suddenly tons of people around us. While this did make me feel a bit better about our pace, it seemed to be a potential harbinger of things to come…
After Mt. Moriah, we continued on down to Gentian Pond Shelter along one of the nicest stretches of trail we had hiked in a while (and coincidentally, we were also out of AMC territory for a bit). At the shelter, we had a snack and caught up with No Plandy who we had not seen in ages. He went on ahead and headed into town, while we motored on up the climb after Shelburne Dam. Unsurprisingly, the dam’s floodgates were open, and the upriver portion was appreciably swollen. The climb up to Mount Hayes was fairly nice, but the trail after it was a disaster. From just a little after Mount Hayes all the way to Gentian Pond Shelter, the trail was a mix of knee-deep mud, slick sloped granite slabs, rotted boards, and heavily overgrown vegetation. Despite the slow going, we made it to Gentian Pond Shelter in good time, and we were rewarded with a mostly empty shelter with a wonderful view. Despite the tough patch, It was nice to finally have a full, good weather, uncrowded day on trail again!
Day 133
We left Gentian Pond Shelter early to give us more time to get through this crappy section of trail. One section weirdly had a quarter mile of stairs, rebar handles, gangplanks, and swamp boards to walk on. The rest of it was totally toast, leaving us to wade through knee-deep alpine bog boards. It was a fairly hot, sunny, exposed day with a lot of climbing so it stunk that there were no water sources on the ridge line. The views, however, were fantastic. Eventually, we made it to Full Goose Shelter for lunch, hours later than we had planned due to the awful trail conditions. There, we learned from the caretaker that the section is awaiting a re-route, and that it’s essentially not getting fixed until the Forest Service red tape is resolved. The re-route is planned for 2025… Anyways, after we received excellent info from him on who to bug, we crossed into Maine (woohoo!) and set off for the famous Mahoosuc Notch! It lived up to the hype in terms of being incredibly unique and fun, but it was not nearly as terrifying or difficult as the fearmongers would have us believe. We made it through fairly easily and took our time to explore the unique ice caves a bit. We then tented in a stealth space just outside of it and addressed our poor feet that were being rubbed raw due to our socks constantly being soaked. As I lay here typing this, a mouse keeps checking out my pack. Hopefully, it leaves soon when it learns that there is nothing in it!
Day 134
Despite the numerous mice crawling over the tent last night, we thankfully had no issues. Due to the nice cool air coming out of the Notch, I made a case for sleeping in a bit since we were headed to Bethel and because the weather seemed halfway decent. After we packed up, we slipped our way up the steep climb of Mahoosuc Arm and made it to Speck Pond and Speck Pond Shelter where we had breakfast and chatted with the AMC caretaker while some scouts ran around shouting. The caretaker informed us that some nasty weather was indeed blowing in soonish, so we wrapped it up and hoofed it up to the Old Speck fire tower. Heavy wind and mist had settled in, but there was no lightning or thunder, so we chanced a trip up to the top. While we were there, a trail runner surprised us by running up behind us, so we chatted with him for a bit before walking back down towards the road. It turned out that he was the owner of The Gem, the local movie theater in Bethel, and he told us that if we made it in time to catch Barbenheimer, he would spot us some snacks on the house!
He ran off ahead to return home (how the heck do people run in this slippery terrain?) while we slipped and slid our way down past the gorgeous waterfall until we eventually made it to the road. Thankfully, it didn’t look like we were going to get any lightning, but we did get a good soaking. Between the weather and remoteness of the area, we had to wait for quite some time before we were finally able to catch a hitch into Bethel. The driver was a kind older gentleman returning from an early morning of fishing, and he was all too happy to take us the 20mi into town! Once there, we each had a huge brunch at the Crossroads Diner, and then walked across town to find lodging. Our first choice was booked out, but then we happened upon the Sudbury Inn, which was a cool little B&B right near everything. We dropped our packs in our room, went grocery shopping, got cleaned up, and headed to The Gem. Unfortunately, we were too late for Barbie, but we did manage to catch Oppenheimer! It was slightly jarring but wonderful going from trail to Christopher Nolan in the span of a day… The theater was really cool, and it seemed like it served the community as much more than just a simple movie theater. There were workspaces and local artist promotions all serving the local area. Also cool was the owner, Wade, who saw us there, told us how happy he was to have us, and provided us with snacks on the house! If you stop in Bethel, I highly recommend stopping in at The Gem!
After the movie, we headed back to the Sudbury Inn and had dinner in its basement, Sud’s Pub, which seemed like the local ski bum bar, but off-season. The food and drinks were excellent, and it was so nice not having to wander around town to find food. After dinner, I took our stuff over to the laundromat and then fell asleep while waiting for it to finish. When I came back to our room, Instigator was already out cold so I quickly wrote this and now I plan to pass out as well!
Day 135
Eager to keep up our momentum, we got up at a reasonable time, had breakfast at the B&B, and then headed for the crossroads to find a hitch back to trail. It took a little while this time around (but not as bad as the wait for a ride in) and a wonderful woman from Texas pulled over in her converted van, and offered us a ride back to trail. She was from a part of Texas near my hometown and was excited to have some people to talk to. She had a cute dog that sat in my lap as I rode on the floor in the back, but unfortunately, all of the rocking and rolling of the older van made me quite car-sick, which was a first for me. When we made it back to Grafton Notch, I had to sit for a while before I was good to go. Unlike yesterday, the parking lot was now teeming with people, and we saw a pair of Sobos get offered a ride immediately.
Once I was feeling better, we made it up to Baldpate Lean-to where we stopped in for a quick snack. From there, we took advantage of the wonderful weather and pushed on over the gorgeous Baldpate peaks and soaked in the views and some much-appreciated sunshine. From there we pressed on past Frye Notch Lean-to, and then found a gorgeous stealth site along the West Branch of the Ellis River, right before the waterfalls. After we had set up camp and had dinner, Instigator tucked in to read, and I headed over to talk to Forrest Gump, another hiker camping there. It was so nice today having a wonderful section of trail and clear weather after a town stop, instead of getting poured on and covered in mud. So far, I’m really enjoying Maine!
Day 136
We hit the trail early after a surprisingly good sleep at our rocky tent spot next to the river. As soon as we hit the trail, we immediately had a climb up to Wyman (Why man!?) Mountain. Part of the way up, near Surplus Pond, we stopped for a quick breakfast before the rest of the slow climb. Knowing we had miles and several climbs to do today, we continued on down the trail, until at one point we were passed by the various members of the large tramily we had encountered at Imp Shelter… Near a particularly picturesque waterfall at the base of the mountain, before the immediate next climb up Moody Mountain, I asked one of them where they were headed, and they informed me that they were headed to the Bemis Mountain Lean-to, which is coincidentally where we were headed to (but not anymore)…. At the base of Moody on the other side along South Arm Road, we were surprised by trail magic from Yogi, a thru-hiker from a previous year, who was offering freshly grilled dogs, burgers, beer, soda, and weed. Fueled by sugar and processed meats, we rocketed up Old Blue Mountain and the remaining PUDs until we eventually found a nice stealth site near the AT’s intersection with the Bemis Stream Trail. I think today was probably the first day since crossing into Maine that the trail was not especially picturesque. That, compounded with all of the PUDs, made it a tough day, so I am especially thankful for Yogi and his well-placed trail magic! It took the sting out of running into the annoying tramily a bit, and he provided much needed calories.
Day 137
We started the day around 6am at our stealth site near the AT’s intersection with the Bemis Stream trail. Weirdly, it had unexpectedly rained overnight, but I guess that’s how New England works. We immediately hit a small climb, complete with a deep alpine bog with rotted-out bog boards. Eventually, we crawled into Bemis Mountain lean-to to make breakfast, but it had taken us much longer than planned due to the conditions. From there, we began the long descent down to Bemis stream. Unfortunately, the slick slabs of angled, wet granite lead to Instigator taking a nasty fall and hitting her head, hard. She was in a lot of pain and had a visible bump swelling up, but thankfully, she didn’t show any signs of further damage. From there, we waded across the stream and climbed up past ME Route 17, where we were rewarded with incredible views. After the climb, I noticed that Instigator looked like she was in pain, and seemed to be having a horrible time of it. We chatted next to Long Pond, and it turned out that she had a wicked headache and felt horrible from her fall. We made the decision to cut the day short and immediately stopped at Sabbath Day Pond lean-to, just a bit down the trail. She ended up sleeping the afternoon away, and feeling a bit better with just the bad headache persisting. It goes without saying that I am incredibly concerned for her, but she stressed that she did not think the fall was bad enough to warrant going to see a doctor. While she slept, I chatted up some local college freshmen who were staying nearby and were leading a boys’ summer camp. They were a wealth of knowledge on the local area’s geography, and in return, I got to teach them how to properly make a fire and grill burgers! While I was hanging out with them, an older hiker came through and jumped into the Pond, and somehow miraculously did not get a single leach on him, despite the numerous nearly foot-long leeches swarming near the shore. I turned in early, heard a loon on the nearby lake, and spent some time reading. Here’s to a better tomorrow!
Day 138
After intermittent rain all night, which forced us to sleep with the vestibules closed, I was delighted to wake up with a completely dry tent! We then packed up and hit the trail, wanting to make some decent mileage today to make it to Stratton by Thursday. Our initial 10 miles down to ME Route 4 flew by due to the easy terrain and excellent trail maintenance. Once we made it to the parking lot, we were delighted to find trail magic from a former thru-hiker and his Mom! The glizzy count was increased to 45, and I was able to grab a few extra snacks for our longer-than-planned haul to Stratton. I was also able to not eat my lunch, and slam some sugar to help power me up the climb up the Saddlebacks. Unfortunately, through all of this, Instigator still felt like hell from slipping and hitting her head yesterday, but she was doing marginally better. Taking it slow and easy seemed to be helping a bit. Along the way up, we passed Piazza Rock, and the nearby shelter had a 2 seater privy with a Cribbage board between the seats. After our relatively easy climb up, I made a quick call to The Maine Roadhouse and was able to reserve a private room for a night 2 days from now. We enjoyed the gorgeous above-treeline hike from Saddleback to The Horn before descending to our goal of the Redington Stream Campsite for the night. The platform is a little rickety, but it is in a gorgeous forest on the side of the mountain, and we have it all to ourselves! All in all, a wonderful day on trail!
Day 139
Despite the rickety elevated tent platform, we both slept incredibly well last night. No one else ended up rolling through the campsite, and due to our elevation, the weather was cool and perfect. We woke up and broke down the tent early to catch the sunrise from on top of Saddleback Jr, which was just a quick little climb from where we had slept. From there we continued along the gorgeous mostly exposed ridgeline for a bit, and stopped for breakfast at the Poplar Ridge lean-to before once again heading down to cross a stream, which ended up being a bit tricky due to it being swollen from all of the rain. Once across, we started to head uphill again but not before another slightly tricky river crossing. This time, the old bridge was rotted out and again the stream was swollen, but we made it across with soggy shoes and socks. From there, we went over Lone Mountain, skipped the side trail to Mount Abraham due to time, and then stopped in at the Spaulding Mountain lean-to to have lunch and dry our feet out a bit before more elevation. Once we were fueled up and ready for more, we went up Spaulding Mountain, passed by the AT Completion Marker from the CCC, and then reached the Sugarloaf blue blaze. Not wanting to miss the peak and the view, I left my pack with Instagator at the fork and ran up to the summit. Despite the smoke, the views were incredible, and it was wild to see how far we had already come in one day. I took a bit of time to look around the iconic ski mountain and watch the installation of a new chairlift tower. Sightseeing over, I jogged back down, and we continued on our way. The downhill to the Carrabassett River was a bit tricky due to how steep it was and how slippery the loose rock was, but we took our time and made it down safely. The river itself was surprisingly not too bad and the iconic chained wooden board was in place, so we made it across dry with a bit of rock hopping. We then continued uphill a bit to our planned stopping point, the Crocker Cirque Campsite, which was unfortunately slammed with a local summer camp group who had spread their things out everywhere. I was annoyed after walking the whole campsite and seeing that their small group had left no room for anyone else, so we grabbed water and continued on a bit to a slightly sloped stealth spot along the trail. That being said, I’m incredibly excited to nero tomorrow in what I’ve been told is THE best trail hostel. We just have two little peaks to nab, and I’m hopeful that we can complete them before the expected bad weather blows in. I’m also hopeful that the nero will help Instigator’s headache go away with some much needed rest.
As a side note, we saw some gigantic toads of unusual size today! We also saw a number of snakes, which increased the official snake count to 67. Hot dogs have sadly stagnated at 45…
