Week 25: Bittersweet

This will probably be my last post before summiting katahdin (the end of the trail). I will be entering the 100 mile wilderness which ends at the base of Katahdin and will not have enough service to post until after I have finished*

Thank you everyone who has kept up with my journey and to those that have donated you have truly helped me so much. I’ve gotten more support than I ever imagined and it truly warms my heart to know so many people have believed and invested in me. I couldn’t have done it alone.

Day 169: Maine is Hard

Saturday, August 24th

Camp 43

17.7 miles today

1976.8 miles total

No matter what, every day in this state has been hard. Today was just over 3k ft of ascent but still exhausting from jumping over a rushing river to just the rugged muddy trail that takes forever to navigate.

I hiked with Spencer to an overlook hoping there would be some trail magic but nothing. So we sat there and had lunch looking over the rangeley lakes. Then some guys came by asking if we wanted some food and gave us a couple dehydrated meals. Sometimes it’s not the magic you’d expect but I’ll take it nonetheless.

The rest of the day was a struggle. I was in a better headspace today but man it’s just hard to feel like we’re going anywhere when you have to stop and hop around the mud from rock to rock. Then we did the math and we’re only 90% of the way to Katahdin, still 10% left to go.

We got into town with no food, and it took half an hour to find a hitch. We got to the grocery store hungry so I know I bought way too much food but I’ll probably eat it all in the next two days to Stratton. Since it was so late we called the local hostel and booked our beds. I ate two burgers for dinner both with fries and a half a bag of chips and a protein drink. I’m finally full for once.

We just didn’t realize how much energy we’d expend out here with the difficult terrain and colder days.

Day 170: Sugarloaf

Sunday, August 25th

Sugarloaf Ski lift control room

21.6 miles today (24.5 actually)

1998.4 miles total

Left town with the heaviest food bag ever

Good breakfast and wonderful hostel, Jill did a great job

I was so slow hiking today with all that food. We passed by a few ponds and I saw a spruce grouse just off the trail. It was a beautiful view on the saddlebacks and I ate as much food as I could. Down and up to the horn I was sweat bullets. Spencer and I had to go .2 off trail to get water. We met Kevin squared on saddleback junior he was an interesting character, lots to say. We stopped a few more times for water. Down and back up to the ridge. We almost hiked an extra 1.7 to mt Abraham because everyone says it’s great but it started raining that way so we turned around. We got to speaking mountain when it was dark and exchanged light signals with Joe a couple miles over on sugarloaf. The hike was super slow at this point we were so tired. The water source was hard to fill from without getting dirt into your bag and my filter was so slow from being clogged up it took forever to filter. We had to carry it the rest of the way to sugarloaf the second highest peak in Maine (after Katahdin). It was super dark up there and we could see the thunderstorms down in southern Maine lighting up the sky so far we could t hear the thunder. Then we setup camp inside the ski lift control room they leave open for hikers with heat and electricity. Style was already sleeping and so were two other hikers. We tried to be quiet then made dinner outside and hit the hay.

Day 171: 2,000 Miles

Monday, August 26th

Maine Roadhouse Hostel

10.6 miles today

2009 miles total

I was exhausted today. My feet didn’t want to move anymore and my bag still felt heavy despite eating all that food yesterday. We had thousands of feet of descent right off the bat and then we crossed the 2,000 mile marker all together, potentially our last one together. It’s unfathomable how far I’ve come over the course of a few months. Somehow I had to strength to get up two more 4kers and back down. On the way down we hear thunder then got dumped on in less than a few minutes we were completely soaked and the trail was a river again. It’s funny how quickly things can change. Eventually we made it to the road and got picked up by trickle who took us to the hostel. This is a cool one. Everything you can think of they have. It might not be the rustic vibe of woods hole but it’s very well laid out and thought of. We even got a ride in the school bus to resupply. I had a protein drink, salad and pizza for dinner and got trapped in a conversation with a 70yr old man about ghosts, witches and caves. I’m going to miss this hostel life, especially the loaner clothes.

Day 172: Step’s Trail Magic

Tuesday, August 27th

Flagstaff Road Campsite

16.8 miles today

2025.8 miles total

Woke up and had a wonderful breakfast, breakfast tacos. I packed up my stuff and just had enough time to make the 8am shuttle back to the trail. We took the school bus again and there was so many people it was nearly full. I’m glad I rushed to take this one because it took so long for all of us to checkout and take our Polaroid pic that we didn’t get to the trail until 8:40. The guys waited for the 9 shuttle and got to trail an hour later and I’d already gotten a couple miles in. The climbs weren’t to bad today, before I knew it I was over the horns and on the bigelows. The last big mountains of Maine until Katahdin. There will be some mountains but none this high. The views were spectacular today, 360 degrees. To the  south you could see sugarloaf mountain and to the north flagstaff lake. I stayed up there as long as I could muster, but these flies were swarming mostly me and I couldn’t take it anymore. Then I hiked with woodchuck for a bit just talking about grad school and jobs, thinking about life after the trail. I stopped at the last viewpoint to enjoy it and was surprised so many people just skipped past it. I guess they don’t care anymore.

At the bottom of the road we got trail magic from a North Carolinian! And he gave me cheerwine. I made a peanut butter and jelly and captain crunch and Twix and banana bagel for dinner. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to stay or hike on because he said he was doing breakfast tomorrow morning and this might be the only trail magic in Maine that we get. Joe had to push on to the campsite to try and get through Kennebec river crossing done. You can only cross the river via canoe because the dam up the river lets out randomly and normally its waist deep but if it lets out it could become more dangerous, so this guy canoes people back and forth from 9-2pm and if you get there early or late it’s $50. It’s the only way across besides swimming, which is highly discouraged. Two hikers have drowned. Anyways, I decided to stay here. I feel like I’d regret not staying here, it’s going to rain anyway might as well get a good brekie.

It’s finally hitting me that this trail is ending. If you asked me a few days ago if I was ready to be done i would’ve said yes but not that we’re out of the bad stuff I’m not ready to go quite yet.

Day 173: Old Friends

Wednesday, August 28th

The Sterling Inn

20.8 miles today

2046 miles total

I woke up at 3:30am to the wind picking up before the storm. I checked my phone and saw the wall of rain coming in a few minutes. I contemplated packing up quick and sleeping in the privy to keep my stuff dry but I didn’t want to be the guy in the privy and I didn’t care about being wet anymore. So I turned my phone back off and wet to bed. I woke up to the rain and went back to sleep until it was over. By 6:45 the rain had stopped and the wind was just blowing the water off the leaves so I packed up and headed back down to the trail magic. Steps made us cheesy vegetable quesadillas and then as many pancakes as we could eat. We left a little late but caught up to everyone on the trail. I hiked with solar for half the day talking about diving and his work as an attorney and how he wants to open a restaurant. We took a lunch break at a little beach on the pond and everyone joined us there some even jumped in.

I caught back up to Spencer later and we decided to keep pushing on to the sterling inn so we could spend possibly one more night with him. Since it was later in the evening we had to book a private canoe to get across the river, it’s too deep to walk across and there’s no bridge. So we booked that, forded a smaller river just up to our thighs and hiked the 3 miles down to the river. We got there a little earlier than 6 and waited for the guy to get us across, he ended up taking us down to his property and he drive us to the inn. There we got our chores done and ran into duck, clothesline, fern and blue moon. I haven’t seen them since Harper’s ferry, over half the trail ago. So we caught up briefly before they got a ride back to trail.

Joe came back with food for us from the restaurant since we were too late for that shuttle ride. So we ate food, grabbed a couple things for resupply and went to bed. At least I did, they stayed up watching tv. Spencer and I were going to take a 0 but we didn’t feel too bad the next morning and the weather looked good so we decided to leave for the trail with Joe.

Day 174: Sky like Dust

Thursday, August 29th

Moxie Bald Mt.

16.7 miles today

2062.7 miles total

We went back to the river to hike the .3 that we missed, no shortcuts on this trip. On the hike today It really started to hit me, the finality of it. I got a little sad, knowing it’ll be over so soon. I was frustrated those first couple days in Maine but now it’s just sad but a little exciting to get to the end. It still is unfathomable the distance I’ve traveled just by foot. Watching time go by. Seasons go by. People go by.

I sat at the top of pleasant pond mountain, over looking the mountains in the distance with Katahdin for the first time in sight, way off in the distance but only 65 miles as the crow flies. This moment made it all seem really real. That I could actually see the end of the trail for the first time in 174 days. We’re nearly there. A couple hours went by then I thought maybe we could catch the sunset ontop of moxie bald then it turned into a cowboy camp idea. We told the others and they were into it but just before sunset they’d kinda given up. We didn’t have time to make dinner so we filled up on water and booked it up the mountain and caught a great view just before the sun dipped below the peaks. Up at the top it was more than beautiful. 360 degrees of mountains and lakes and ponds and orange-red glows. We setup our pads to sleep on and made dinner quick. I got under my quilt as fast as I could. It started to get chilly. Then we saw duck and clothesline come up to join us then fern and coffee too. I’m so glad they came because the starts were incredible. The Milky Way galaxy was viewable and more starts than you could count. I don’t remember it being this good since the south. I laid there with my eyes in the sky watching shooting starts and talking with my friends. It couldn’t have been a better night. I won’t forget this.

“And I saw how many stars there were.

Beyond the tree, beyond the air,And more and more were always there.

So many that I think they mustBe sprinkled on the sky like dust.

A dust is coming through the sky!And I felt myself begin to cry.

So many of them and so small,Suppose I cannot know them all.”

Day 175: Shaw’s

Friday, August 30th

Shaw’s Hostel

20 miles today

2082.7 miles total

I woke Spencer up for the sunrise but he didn’t want to get up. I grabbed my sleeping quilt and sat up on a rock to watch and slowly everyone else got up too and joined me, all of us bundled up in our down gear. It was a beautiful sunrise that came up just behind a mountain way off in the distance. There was a nice undercast of clouds over the little lakes and ponds that gave the mountains an impressive appearance.

We had breakfast up there then I went 2 miles down to the next shelter for the Privy and a nice view of the pond. I saw a couple common loons out there calling too which just added to the majesty of the scene.

The rest of the day was smooth easy hiking just a few rocky spots and a couple water crossings we had to take our shoes off for. Before we knew it we got to the road crossing and woodchuck waved at the first truck and he pulled over and gave us a ride into town, in the wrong direction. We told him it was the other way and he turned around. We told him we were going to Shaws  and then he passed the hostel, he thought we meant the grocery store so he turned around again and dropped us off at the right place.

We got checked in and settled. Then met everyone down by the restaurant for dinner. Then went to bed. I’m so beyond happy to be at this place. I’m trying to enjoy it before it’s gone. It’s hard to because we’re all stressed about the logistics of the 100 mile wilderness and the permits and regulations for climbing Katahdin and then also figuring out the flights and plans to get home after and also for me to see my mom and aunt. It’s a lot.