Day 147
We awoke
from our tilted tent, packed up, ate breakfast and continued our journey. It
was only a few feet up to the top of Lone Mountain where it was flat, but we
didn’t know how close we were the night before. We hiked across the flatness a
short while and passed the mark where we only had two hundred miles left to
hike. This close to Katahdin, we don’t pay attention to how many miles we’ve
gone, but to how many wiles we had left. We hiked up the short, but steep
shoulder of Spaulding Mountain, quickly down a bit, across a ridge a couple of
miles, a sharp descent and up the mid-sized South Crocker Mountain. From there
we hiked to the North Crocker Mountain and the long gradual descent that took
us well into the afternoon. At the bottom we emerged into a parking lot on ME
27 where we found a thruhiker talking with a man leaning against his pick-up
truck. The man took us three thruhikers into the town of Stratton and we passed
Silent Bob hitchhiking his way back out of town. We found cheap accommodations
at the Stratton Motel. It was a very small town and we walked to a gas station
where they also made pizza and got ourselves a pie. We resupplied at the
grocery store across from the hotel and spent the rest of our time resting back
at the hotel before going to sleep.
Miles hiked
today: 15.7 Total AT miles completed: 1997.2 Total AT miles left to hike: 188.2
Day 148
We woke up
at not exactly the earliest hour and got a shuttle back to the Trail. Most of
the other thruhikers decided to take a zero day because it was forecasted to
rain soon and for the rest of the day. The sky was filled with dark clouds. We
hiked high up into the mountains, into the misty coldness that was the Bigelow
Mountains. These were the last mountains to be higher than four thousand feet
until the final mountain, Mt Katahdin. It was extremely windy so high up as we
made our way precariously from South Horn to Bigelow Mountain’s west peak to
Avery Peak. We hiked down a thousand feet and several miles across the
relatively flat Little Bigelow Mountain. We then hiked down the mountain
halfway to Little Bigelow Lean-to where we stopped to rest. It finally started
to rain and we pushed on down the mountain and several miles across relatively
flat terrain. It rained harder and harder as we hiked along near several ponds.
The ground became very wet and muddy and the sun was beginning to drop so we
hiked faster. It got darker and darker and we were still hiking through the
giant puddles when it got extremely dark. I tried putting on my headlamp, but
the light lit up all the rain droplets coming down and made it even harder to
see. Nepsis took the lead with the headlamp and we stumbled down the Trail for
what seemed far too long. We thought we must have missed the lean-to we were
headed for and tried breaking out the guidebook in the pouring rain. It didn’t
help us out any and we were tired of the hiking, hungry, and tired of the rain,
the puddles, and the darkness. Finally, we found the side trail to West Carry
Pond Lean-to. There were a few tents set up and a couple hikers sleeping in the
lean-to, so we got our dinner cooking on the side of the lean-to under the
side-awning and quickly set up our sleeping stuff in the lean-to. We got
ourselves in dry clothes and went to sleep without waking too many people up.
Miles hiked
today: 23 Total AT miles completed: 2020.1 Total AT miles left to hike: 165.2
Day 149
In the
morning we hiked quickly on pretty flat ground. It was easy going for other ten
miles until we reached the Kennebec River by mid-afternoon. This is the one
river on the Trail with no bridge that thruhikers are not supposed to ford. A
dam upstream sometimes will unexpectedly allow more water flow. Instead there
is a man employed who ferries people across during certain hours every day of
the week. When we got to the riverbank we waved to a person on the other side
and he got in a canoe and paddled across. His name was Hillbilly Dave and he
had us sign some waivers and put on life jackets. He and I then paddled back. The canoe even had a white blaze on the bottom of it and considered part of the official Trail. Hillbilly Dave was friendly and told us the two places to stay at in town would come pick
us up for free if we called from the post office. We thanked him and walked to
the post office, which was a bit further than expected. We found a hiker box
outside and was rummaging through that when a shuttle pulled up and offered us
a ride to the Sterling Inn, though it was from the other place to stay. They
shuttle hikers back and forth for each other all the time. The Sterling Inn was
a very nice bed and breakfast. Our room was small and quaint, but there was a
spacious common room with a big television and a large DVD collection. They
also had a little room full of hiker resupply goods so we stocked up with what
we need there. After resting a bit White Rabbit arrived and we agreed to go to
the other lodging option for dinner because it was also the Kennebec River Pub
& Brewery. We took showers and then the owner of the Sterling Inn drove us
to Northern Outdoors, which was a lodge, a restaurant, a brewery, and where one
could learn how to ski. There were several other thruhikers already staying
there, hanging out in the large main room with high ceilings. Everything was
made of wood, giving it that nice lodge feel. There was a large sitting area
sectioned off by a short wall, a bar, couches and small tables near the bar, a
pool table, a few arcade games, and a fireplace. Along with White Rabbit, we
sat down at one of the tables in the general area in front of the bar and
ordered beers and dinners. White Rabbit told us about how he was a television
editor from Los Angeles who had worked on The
Hills and Cupcake Wars. After
dinner the eight or so of us thruhikers went out onto a deck where there was a
hot tub and soaked our legs and talked. We stayed unti late in the evening when
the owner of the Sterling Inn came back to pick us three up. Back at the inn,
Nepsis and I watched a little bit of TV before crawling into bed.
Miles hiked
today: 14 Total AT miles completed: 2034.1 Total AT miles left to hike: 151.2
Day 150
We woke up
just before seven o’clock and went downstairs for a continental breakfast with
some amazing blueberry muffins. At half past seven o’clock the owner shuttled
White Rabbit, two middle-aged female thruhikers, and us back to the Trail. We
took off up a slight incline. We wanted to go pretty far today and tried to
hike quickly. Somehow we just weren’t feeling it and after a couple of miles
White Rabbit passed us. After several miles we hiked up the 2000-footer
Pleasant Pond Mountain. We hiked down the mountain and ate lunch near Moxie
Pond. After lunch we had to ford a brook flowing into the pond. The water came
up just below our waists and was rushing harder than it looked. I slipped a
couple of times and got wetter than I should have. Within minutes we were
completely dry except for our shoes and socks. Most of our clothes dried really
very quickly. After a few miles we climbed another 2000-footer, Moxie Bald
Mountain. It was evening by the time we arrived at a shelter at the bottom of
the mountain. There a southbounder told scary stories about how bad the next
couple of river fords were. Two river fords stood between us and the next
shelter, where we hoped to spend the night. It was already pretty late so we
rushed off on very flat terrain. After a couple miles we had to ford Bald
Mountain Stream which wasn’t too deep, but the southbounder said the next one
was very bad. Since it was still several miles away and we didn’t want to do a
ford in the dark we decided to set up camp before it got dark. So as we hiked
next to the stream we kept an eye out for a flat spot, set up our tent, cooked
dinner, and went to sleep.
Miles hiked
today: 20.8 Total AT miles completed: 2054.9 Total AT miles left to hike: 130.4
Day 151
We woke up
early and hiked quickly on flat ground a couple of miles to our ford of the
West Branch of the Piscataquis River. It was cold, but the water only came up
to our knees. It must have been much higher the day before with the recent
heavy raining. We continued on the easy terrain until we reached the East Branch
of the Piscataquis River. That ford came up to our waists, but there was a rope
strung across we could hold on to help us across. We continued on very quickly and
at one point I slipped, but my trekking pole did not and my face landed on it
hard, bruising my lip. We weren’t going to let that keep us down and pressed
on. As we were hiking I heard Nepsis scream behind me. A bee had stung her on
her upper left leg. It hurt a lot and left a large red-hot welt that would last
for weeks. As we hiked, we passed J5, an older thruhiker we had met a long time
ago who was hiking with his wife, Dragon Lady. Dragon Lady had hurt her foot,
but was following her husband the entire way with her little dog in their jeep.
She supported him by allowing him to slackpack most of the Trail. The last time
we had seen them was in New York right before we took a long break in New York
City and he was surprised we caught up to him since he mostly got to slackpack.
After a little bit we came out onto ME 15 and found Dragon Lady in her jeep in
the parking lot across the road. She offered to take us to town and soon J5
appeared from the woods. We squeezed into the jeep and we drove the three and a
half miles to Monson, our last Trail town. We got some of our last resupply
from a gas station and some from a bakery that had a stash of hiker supplies
available for purchase in a small side room. Right out of town the one hundred
mile wilderness began so we had to bring enough food to last us that long. We
decided we could hike that one hundred miles in four days. After stuffing our
packs with all that food, we ate lunch at the bakery. White Rabbit came in at
one point and told us he was staying the night in town. We were happy that it
was still afternoon and we were already done with all our errands. We could
knock out several miles with the remainder of our day. Within a couple minutes
of stepping out on the road to hitchhike back a man in a pick-up stopped to
pick us up. He lived in Monson, but was kind and went out of his way to take us
all the way back to the Trail. Back in the woods we hiked a few minutes before
reaching a sign that read: CAUTION/ THERE ARE NO PLACES TO OBTAIN SUPPLIES OR
GET HELP UNTIL ABOL BRIDGE 100 MILES NORTH. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS SECTION UNLESS
YOU HAVE A MINIMUM OF 10 DAYS SUPPLIES AND ARE FULLY EQUIPPED. THIS IS THE
LONGEST WILDERNESS SECTION OF THE A.T. AND ITS DIFFICULTY SHOULD NOT BE
UNDERESTIMATED. We laughed at the sign and continued on. That would be an
incredibly slow pace for us at this point, but at the beginning of our trek we
may have had to of heeded it. After three more miles, passing a couple of ponds
along the way we came to Leeman Brook Lean-to. Inside we fond something that
surprised us greatly. Three skinny thruhikers were sprawled out by the names of
Mayonnaise Pockets, Speedy G, and Impact. We had not seen the two since Erwin,
Tennessee and according to the logbooks, we thought they were way ahead of us
this entire. Well, they were until just recently when Mayonnaise Pockets fell
ill. They were taking it very slow and joked about how badly he was slowing
them down. Feeling good about it being early evening and passing by three
strong hikers that had been way faster than us this entire time, we hiked on as
quick as we can. The terrain became a little more jagged and after a few miles
we forded Little Wilson Stream. We hiked a couple more miles as darkness fell.
We really wanted to make it to the next lean-to. We hiked on as darkness
completely enveloped us. We took out the headlamp and made it to Big Wilson
Stream, which we had to ford. The current looked strong, but there was a rope
and we had to do it. We attached our packs to the rope and descended into the
cold water. We pushed our packs ahead of us and reached the other side safely.
We unhooked our packs from the rope and set them on a large rock as our
nostrils filled with a strange smell. As we strapped them back on Nepsis
noticed a strange bone as I noticed the entire carcass of a deer on the rock. I
had set our packs halfway on it. We scampered away and up a small hill less
than a mile to Wilson Valley Lean-to where there was some tents set up, but
still room in the lean-to. Of course, again, everyone was asleep and we had to
quietly and quickly cook and set up our sleeping system before we shut our eyes
for wonderful sleep.
Miles hiked
today: 26.3 Total AT miles completed: 2081.2 Total AT miles left to hike: 104.1
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