Andover, ME

Ah day hiking! We've spent the past several dasy staying at the Pine Ellis hostel in Andover and slack packing, or day hiking with just lunch, snacks and rain gear, being dropped off and picked up each day to return to the hostel and a dry bed. Our driver for this series of hikes was Ken. A great guy. He waited patiently at the end of each day for us, as we were invariably late, and he was always early.

The main reason for doing all the slacking was the rain. Where previously it had been slightly annoying, since Rangeley it has been downright drenching. When Ken first picked us up at the Rte 17 road crossing we were soaked to the skin. I could not have been wetter if I'd been dipped in a lake! I felt very guilty about getting into Ken's minivan as wet as I was, but of course he refused my offer to strip off before I got in!

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Rangeley, ME

Since leaving Stratton it has actually rained every afternoon. Its getting rather frustrating, not to mention very stinky, getting wet every day and it being too damp to dry things out overnight. The only time that anything is getting dry is on the occasional hot sunny afternoon, when everything also gets sweaty, salty and stinky!

We've come to Rangeley for the night to do some laundry and resupply for the next couple of days. We met a really nice couple out hiking with their three kids at Piazza Rock, and they offered us a ride into town. It was well appreciated, but as we had no idea where we intended to go when we got there we just stopped at the first hotel we saw. It's a little expensive, but definitely worth it now I'm lazing in bed in the late morning. I showered last night, have had a whole queen size bed with crisp clean sheets to myself all night. I'm not anxious to put my stinky clothes back on, but as the laundry is on the way back to the trail there is really not choice but to just pack up and start back that way. We'll wash as much as we can when we get there, then stop for resupply at the grocery on the edge of town and get straight back to the trail. I don't hold out much hope of staying dry, we had a big storm here last night and it's still drizzling now.

Brian has been feeling increasingly better each day since we left Stratton, but we now think that he probably had some kind of stomach bug, because I got sick the first day out from Stratton. I wasn't as bad as he had been, but had to call the second day's hiking short due to lack of energy and stomach cramps.

We had a wildlife sighting in our camp that day, I woke to Brian poking me through the tent door. It was 5:30am and he had been awoken by a breaking stick. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the stick breaker, a moose calf, carefully picking its way around the lines for the tarp. He was less than a hiking pole length away and didn't seem bothered by our presence at all. Next Brian saw momma moose who was on the far side of my tent only a couple of feet from my head. That's when he decided to quietly wake me. Both of us reached slowly for our cameras, but that's when the calf decided he'd had enough of the new grey lumpy things in the woods, and took off after momma, who also spooked a little and the two went running off together. I didn't actually get to see them until they cleared the back of my tent, but I'm glad Brian woke me for it.


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Back in Stratton

We returned to Stratton after only one day and night on the trail.

During that day, which was hot and dry, we climbed up and over Crocker mountain, and down over the Crocker cirque rockslide. It would have been a rain free day if the heavens hadn't opened right as we got to camp. The campsite had raised platforms, so the rain didn't bother us too much as far as siting our camp, we just picked a platform with a couple of trees for Brian to hang from, and oriented so I could just set up under the edge of the tarp. It stormed for most of the night, a nice lightning show, but couldn't keep me awake too long.

In the morning Brian wasn't feeling good, and hadn't slept well. As soon as we started hiking, even on the fairly gentle downhill slope, it was obvious that he wasn't going to be doing any hiking today. We could have just gone back to the campsite, but we were about to cross a dirt road that would lead us out to the highway back to Stratton. A quick phone call to Sue from the Stratton motel and we didn't even have to walk it.

Brian is gradually feeling better, but still not 100%, though he's started eating and keeping food down again.

Even better news. I managed to get a haircut! Sue was running a hiker into the nearest big town to catch a bus home. I rode along and had 1/2 hour to spare, and used it wisely at a Supercuts store.


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Stratton, ME

An interesting couple of days. We've had our longest day, a canoe ride, our coldest day, hottest day, and definitely the wettest, windiest day of the trail so far.


The canoe trip was across the Kennebec river, and it's the official AT route across. The river is not much wider than many we have forded, but it is dammed just upstream of the point where the AT crosses. Water is released on demand for power generation, and the river can rise several feet in just a few minutes. Hence the canoe ferry crossing.

The crossing was the start of our longest day so far. It wasn't really intentional, but the shelter we had considered staying at, on Pierce POnd, turned out to be very cold and windy. So much so that even though we had planned to stop for lunch and swim/play for the afternoon, I just didn't want to stop for longer than it took to eat a quick lunch. We had a plan B to stop along one of the other laksides on a small beach that wa slisted on the maps and guidebooks. Well that turned out to be about 6' x 6' of sand, and nowhere to stop. Plan C was likewise abandonned when it turned out to be badly mosquito infested, boggy, and very muddy. Eventually we ended up at the next shelter. Not the best of camping, but it was late and we were tired. It sufficed.

After the cold and wind came the heat. We were lucky enough to be skirting Flagstaff Lake on this hot afternoon. Warm, sunny, clear blue sky and shallow, clear lake. Swimmimg time. We took a nice lazy swim, washed out our clothes and laid them to dry. Luxury.

We passed to 2000 mile mark (for NOBOs) today, that means we have hiked 176 miles and have only 2000 to go! Shortly before reaching the mark we bumped into a man section hiking. He had been hiking the AT in small sections since 1966 and would be finished when he reached the 2000 marker in the road. I hope it doesn't take me that long!

The next day we crossed our first 4000 + foot mountains in the Bigelows range and nearly got blown away. It rained a little last night just as we set up camp, and again in the night, and we woke to breezy conditions. By the time we began our ascent of Avery peak it was starting to rain and the wind was very blustery. The summit was totally enveloped in cloud and the wind was gusting across strong enough to knock me off my feet. I crawled my way across when I couldn't stand or walk. Needless to say we didn't get any summit pictures. It was becoming too dangerous to stay on the summit, so we headed for the campsite at Avery Col. After erecting the tarp though we realized how the weather was still deteriorating and it could be dangerous to attempt to camp there, so we packed up again and pushed on to the next shelter. Its still only three sides, but somewhat more substantial than the tent in the nasty storm.

Finally, the next morning we reached the road to Stratton. Sue from the Stratton motel was just turning around in the trailhead parking lot after dropping some hikers off. That was an easy ride into town.

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Caratunk, ME

Ah, the luxury of a wooden cot, electric light, walls (albeit canvas) and a door! These finer things in life are provided by our cabin tent at Northern Outdoors resort in Caratunk. Since arriving here yesterday we've eaten a couple of very good meals, done laundry, taken several showers, and repaired some gear issues. My air mattress had developed a leak in the past couple of days, very slow at frist, but accellerating to two hours to deflation on our last night out. It was getting uncomfortable So I took the mattress in the shower with me this afternoon, looking for an air bubble. To my horror it appears that something has happened inside the seams of the baffles, every baffle had an eight inch or so line of bubbles indicating air loss! I've ortdered a new mattress. After our long layover in Monson I can't justify waiting here for it, so it will be delivered to our next town stop. I guess I'll just be haing some sleepless nights until then. I'll try to stay out of the shelters until then, the ground is at least a little softer than the wooden shelter floors.

The hike from Monson was good, but very hot. We finally had a predominantly hot sunny days, though still with some late day rain. The water levels in the rivers has gone down a lot in the time we were in Monson. We had heard some horror stories from NOBOs about the several large streams we would have to ford on the stretch, but by the time we came through they were not much of a challenge at all.

The two summits between Monson and here were entirely different experiences for us. We thoroughly enjoyed Moxie Bald, it was warm, sunny, breezy and bug free! We spent several hours at the top enjoying the sun and breeze and the lack of bugs. When we finally left and got down out of the sun and breeze we both realized that maybe we had spent a little too much time up there and were rather sunburned. Brian is suffering more than me, maybe becasue I had more of a base tan in the first place,and have spent more time hiking shirtless than Brian. Pleasant Pond mountain, though a couple of hundred feet lower than Moxie Bald, was much more drawn out on the north (up) side and extremely steep on the downward southern side. Just to add some difficulty there is no surface water for almost the entire 6 miles of mountain and we must have picked the hottest day of the year so far to hike it! We finally made it down off the mountain went straight into the lake for a cooling swim and wash off. I'm glad we did as we just got finished setting up our tent and tarp when the sky started pouring rain.

Our final morning's hike into Caratunk was fuelled by the promise of a cheeseburger and icecream as our guidebook said. Unfortunately after arriving there we were advised that the restaurant had closed down several years ago! Fortunately, as we set off back again in the opposite direction on the road to the campground a nice couple stopped us to chat about our hike and agreed to drive is to Northern Outdoors. The air conditionned ride and arrival at the bar/restaurant for a good meal before we even checked into our cabin made up for the disappointment.

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Still in Monson

Yep. Still here.

Actually, we did leave, a couple of days ago. However, within only a mile it was obvious that I wasn't going anywhere. My knee was swollen and couldn't bear my weight. I was walking awkwardly and my hips and back we suffering from it already. A couple of painful miles later we crossed a road that would take us back into town.

So we took it, and have been here since yesterday. The funniest thing about this interruption to the hike was the look on one of the other hiker's face when he saw we had returned. To his question of "What happened?" I pointed to my very muddy boots and responded "Couldn't hike. My boots got muddy!" I think he actually thought that was why we had turned back! Cute. I wish that were all that bothered me.

Since we've been back we've explored the other eating place in town, the BBQ. It was pretty good food. The town didn't have much in the way of July 4th clecbrations going on. That surprised me somewhat, but I assume the townsfolk go off to other larger towns close by to celebrate.

Hopefully we'll hike tomorrow.

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Daytrip to Boston

The past couple of days have been spent in the car, driving to Boston and back, and topped off by an interninably long afternoon in drugstores.

The trip to Boston was to get replacement Superfeet insoles. Brian had been on the phone with the Superfeet company a couple of times since we arrived in Monson. They had committed to making good on his insoles, but unfortunately were having a hard time finding insoles in his size (BIG), a working customized chair, and a qualified fitter to customize them. We had managed to get a rental car and started driving, assuming we could go to Bangor (about an hour away) but eventually it transpired that the closest place we could get all 3 pieces in place was in Boston, and even then, it had to be that evening, because the certified fitter was flying out on vacation for the 4th July weekend. So Boston it was. A rainy afternoon's drive later we arrived at the REI store, and the rep met us there with replacement insoles. We ended up getting 2 pairs each. Obviously they are not easy to replace around here, but hey make such a great difference to walking that neither of us wants to be without them.

On the subject of making a difference, it appears that not hiking, or at least sitting still and confined to a vehicle, is actually more painful than hiking. My knees are stiffer now than they have been since we started out.

The final part of this odyssey was the attempt to copy our digital photos onto CDs to be spent home for safe keeping. It was a horribly long and slow process, made even longer by slow and malfunctionning CD writers. Happily, we eventually did get backup copies and can nw clear off our memory cards.

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Monson, ME

The hundred mile wilderness is HISTORY!

It was challenging, gruelling, wet, muddy, buggy and overgrown. And it was lots of fun.

When we left White House Landing after another great breakfast our first stop was to pick up our next five days of food at Jo Mary road. It was dropped off their by Kathy Preble, and was very heavy. We are very glad we hadn't tried to carry all our food all the way. We saw our first moose today, a yearling that wasn't quite sure what to make of us. Then, despite the blue skies and sunshine we had had for most of the day, it ended in a downpour before we made it to Cooper Brook Falls.

Surprisingly the next day first day that I kept my feet dry. Especially as there was a ford crossing right before the shelter. We were lucky enough that we could pick a way across on rocks, though I had a very close call with some mud just after the crossing. At East Branch shelter there were only 2 hikers sleeping in it, Chris and Wes who have been hiking at the same pace as us. I decided to try shelter life. For the record, I slept OK but it was rather buggy.

To contiue with "fisrts" trend, I took my first potentially hike ending fall. It was just after summitting Whitecap Mtn. Going up was steep and hot, but the view from the top was extensive and impressive: we could see back all the way we had already come and forward to what was still to be hiked. On the way down I took a fall on the ravine like trail of microwave sized boulders. It could easily have ended my hike, or worse, but somehow I managed to flip over when I saw the jagged point of a rock coming straight at my face and I landed hard but on my pack and cushioned from any harm. Amazingly I didn't even get a scratch or a bruise. Talk about luck! The day after that we both attempted another first - Heatstroke. This time ascending Chairback mountain on another hot humid afternoon. Fortunately. just as we were both really starting to collapse we crossed a crystal clear cold mountain spring. We sat in the cool shade and filled up on cold fresh water and snacks. Just in the nick of time. The ascent up Chairback was like reliving Mt Katahdin, scrambling over huge boulders. I'm glad we were both cooled down and thinking strainght before we reached that.

We passed through Gulf Hagas on this section. I nice loop hike round the "Grand Canyon" of Maine. We didn't have time to hike the entire loop, but did wander as far down as the first waterfall. It's a pretty area, and very popular with day hikers. We saw more people and familes today than we have since leaving Baxter State Park.

After our close call with the heat our old enemy, the rain, resurfaced. We had entire days of rain and cold. This time, rather than just being inconvenienced and wet, we were concerned about the large and frequent rivers that we have to cross before we reach Monson. The ford at Big Wilson stream concerned us most as it is a wide and fast flowing river. We crossed it in pouring rain, after a full day and two nights of pouring rain, but we were concerned that it would rise even higher and swifter if we waited another night to ford it. It turned out that it was waist deep on me, and took me a couple of attempts to cross it: My first was aborted about a third of the distance across because the current was too swift for me. My hiking pole was vibrating and hyperextended in the swift water. I backed out and finally made it across on the second attempt.

After all that, it was the second ford, at Thompson Brook that caused my worst problem of the day. It was just upstream of a 20 foot waterfall. The trail crosses this brook at a narrow point which is probably great at low water, but in high water it was a deep torrent. I decided to go upstream to a wider shallower point and successfully crossed there with water only up to my knees. After I had crossed, refastened my hip belt and sternum strap (always undone for fording in case I need to get out of the pack quickly) and was making my way back along the bank to the trail crossing, I slipped on the muddy bank and slid all the way down some slickrock totally out of control and back into the deep water. I managed to wedge myself into a rock before I was totally under water, but I and my pack were submerged up to my chest. I don't think l'd have had any chance to get myself and the pack out up the slickrock if I had been alone, in fact I had already unbuckled my straps and was prepared to jettison it if necessary. Fortunately though, Brian was almost across and managed to finish crossing, shuck his pack and scramble across the slickrock to my rescue. He provided the steady hand to hoist myself up on and boost me back up onto terra firma. This time when I gained the bank I bushwacked my way a couple of feet in from the edge before attempting to get back to the trail.

The last ford of this day was below the Little Wilson falls and this time was mercifully incident free. On the bank on the other side was a nice little campsite that we set up in for the night. We were glad to be through all the big fords, and evne more so when the rain continue heavily all night. The next morning we ascended the cliff next to Little Wilson Falls. It was an awesome sight with all the storm water flowing over the high falls.

And then we reached Monson; tired, dirty, wet and stinky, and very happy to be close to civilization. A very nice young man in a pickup stopped to pick us up at the trailhead. He was a volunteer fireman, and river rafting guide. He was on the way back from a river trip and it took him quite an effort to move all his gear around to make room for us and our packs. We were very grateful for the effort and the short ride. We arrived in Monson in time to pick up mail at the post office, get a nice greasy philly cheese steak sandwich to tide us over to dinner time, and a long hot shower. Ahhhh town!

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