Day 158: 15.6 miles hiked (trail mile 2047.7)
We left camp at 6am and hiked strong all morning. A few miles before the Kennebec River we had our first Maine river fording which Ranger managed to rock hop while I opted to wade through in my sandals. We caught up to Meta and Grasshopper just before the Kennebec crossing and all emerged at the shore at 10am having already hiked 9.5 miles. It feels incredible to have terrain that we can cover at a full stride again and we have enjoyed the plentiful stretches of low elevation over the past couple of days.
The Kennebec is a large river that is treacherous to attempt to ford because of the daily dam releases upriver. As an alternative to fording, the ATC employs someone to sit at the river with a canoe all season and ferry hikers across. The ferryman operates the canoe from 9-2 every day. His golden retriever, Maggie, comes along for the ride each way. Her job is to give and receive affection.
Meta and Grasshopper being safely escorted across the Kennebec
A short walk from the river took us to the pickup point for the Sterling Inn, in Caratunk, which offers free shuttles from the trail to the inn where they have a little shop with all the standard resupply items. This was the perfect mid-day break, as we had also shipped ourselves a box of food and toiletries that we had purchased on a supply run to a super Walmart when staying at Rattle River in Gorham, NH. We hung out on the porch and ate lunch (tortillas lathered with peanut butter and topped with marshmallows—a recent discovery) and worked on the blog.
Sterling Inn; Caratunk, Maine
Around 1pm we shuttled back to the trail and hiked an additional 5.5 miles to Pleasant Pond Lean-To. We sat down at the pond (lake) for a while with Meta and Grasshopper. This pond has a very different feel from the more remote ones we encountered the last couple of days and its shores are peppered with boats, houses, and people out noisily enjoying this pretty Saturday.
Ranger, Meta, Grasshopper
Back at the shelter we set up our tent on a weird patch of gravel that felt a bit like an old parking lot, at least it was flat. The water source was pretty challenging to scoop water from, but we have become skilled at using a wide, flat leaf to direct the trickle into the smartwater bottle.
Later, we talked to some south-bounders (sobos). We have been passing multiple sobos a day in this stretch. We also chatted with Malibu, the ridge runner for this stretch of trail from Caratunk to the Monson Visitor Center.
Day 159: 21.9 miles hiked (trail mile 2069.6)
Last night we heard our first loon calls on Pleasant Pond. What a beautiful sound. We left camp at 7am and hiked up Pleasant Pond Mountain where we snacked on blueberries as we walked.
We also crossed paths with a hiker named Bouncer and his blue heeler, Aussie, who we originally met back in the southern states. Bouncer told us that he left cans of Mountain Dew and Pepsi on the back bumper of his ride, so when we made it to the road crossing we stopped and Ranger selected a Mountain Dew. Meta and Grasshopper had just sat down for lunch, so we joined them to eat before pressing on to climb the final mountain of the day.
A splendid bog
Moxie Bald was a formidable mountain but something of a natural rock ramp ran all the way up and down the other side, so we greatly enjoyed the uniqueness of the hike. On top of Moxie Bald the cloud formations were beautiful and told of a coming storm.
Ranger and Sticks at the summit!
When we made it down Moxie to the shelter at the northern base of the mountain we ran into Meta and Grasshopper, and Dallas. They all decided to stay in the shelter, but since it was supposed to rain all night tonight, and all day tomorrow, we wanted to get as far as we could today. We set our sights on the Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to nine miles away and managed to keep up a 3-mile-per-hour pace all the way to the shelter, so we arrived around 7pm. Just a short distance from the shelter, we encountered Jasmine and Nate, a couple section hikers we’ve been seeing more of lately. They were setting up their tent and, to our dismay, told us that there was a big overnighter group at the shelter. We needn’t have worried about space, as Gadget was the only other person sleeping in the shelter. The big group had set their tents up all together a short way away. We gleefully hopped up beside our friend and set up our bedding.
The most artistic blaze on trail!
We saw our first kangaroo mouse on trail as we cooked our dinner when it came hopping through the sitting area. Tomorrow, we will hike (in the rain) the last nine miles to Monson, where we made reservations at Shaw’s, one of the oldest and most famous hostels on the trail.
One thing we have found out here is that it’s best to plan ahead for hostel days and try to reserve a bed or room at least a day or two in advance, sometimes more for more popular hostels. More than once I’ve found myself calling or texting a hostel from the top of a mountain for the best cell service. It's a running joke between me and Ranger that you can tell the thruhikers from the dayhikers in the more remote parts of the trail because they whip out their phones on top of the mountains to try to get messages out to loved ones or make reservations in the next town.
Day 160: 9 miles hiked (trail mile 2078.6)
Sleeping in the shelter turned out to be the right call because it rained hard all night long and well into the morning. We slept in until 7am just listening to the rain and left just after 8am when it lightened up a bit.
There was another river ford today, but we were able to cross without taking our shoes off on a structurally sound beaver dam.
Sure enough, it rained off and on all morning during our hike to Monson. Someone from Shaw’s picked us up from the trailhead and shuttled us to the hostel. The hostel has been around a long time and has its processes dialed in. It’s not the fanciest hostel we’ve encountered on trail, but they impressively manage a high volume of hikers and are well-placed, a couple blocks from downtown Monson and only a short distance from the trailhead for the 100-mile wilderness.
The hostel is full tonight and tomorrow and many of our friends are here. We are sleeping on a futon for both nights we will be here. It’s priced at only $35 as a “semiprivate bed” because we’re on the landing that people with private rooms will have to cross through to get to and from their private rooms. Someone else is sleeping on the sofa in the common room below us on the ground floor. The sprawling yard between the various houses on the property is a tent-city.
behind Shaw’s
We showered and picked up our resupply boxes, then walked with Dallas to the General Store where we ordered hummus sandwiches from the deli to eat on the patio. Meta and Grasshopper joined us, and we laughed and feasted awhile. After filling our bellies we swung by the ATC Visitor’s Center to get information on Baxter State Park, the logistically challenging finale to the thruhike at the summit of Mount Katahdin.
Sticks, Dallas, Grasshopper, Meta, Ranger
Back at the hostel we also saw Bug, PB&Jazz, Bess, Lighthouse, Gadget, and Jeff. We alternated between productive tasks and hanging out with friends until bedtime.
A sweet note from my sister in our resupply box
Day 161: 0 miles hiked (trail mile 2078.6) 13th zero
We signed up for Shaws’ famous community breakfast, and Ranger secured us seats at 6:45 since breakfast is served at 7 and word on the streets was that you needed to get there early if you wanted a seat at a table. They provided a plant-based breakfast for both of us although I ordered eggs with mine. The blueberry pancakes were deliciously fluffy.
We found Bug at Shaw’s!
I worked on administrative tasks all day, like applying for my UK student visa, and took a break to eat lunch with Dallas, Ranger and a section hiker named Picnic Basket at the local pub right on the water. Dallas treated the whole table to a tasty brussels sprouts appetizer.
Later, Jeff and Ranger walked to the gas station to buy some fritos, and bonded awhile as I returned to my visa application, already a difficult process, but exponentially so on my phone and with the poor wifi. Ranger watched part of an old school video on gear for hiking the AT that the hostel was screening and saw a lot of his old gear. The younger hikers were evidently shocked by the bulkiness of the gear which tickled Ranger and some of the other more seasoned backpackers. We took care of the rest of our town chores and turned in at 9pm.
Shaw’s ended up being a fantastic spot to zero and get in the right headspace for the last leg of our journey.
Day 162: 14.4 miles hiked (trail mile 2093)
Today was another incredible pancake breakfast with potatoes and eggs. I bought my plane ticket to Scotland during breakfast knowing I likely wouldn’t have internet again until after we summit Katahdin in another 10 days if everything goes according to plan.
Chaser, a sweet woman supporting her husband Silver Goat on his thruhike, gave us a ride back to trail. We started the 100-mile wilderness the same day as Meta and Grasshopper, Gadget, Jeff, PB&Jazz and Bess, Hiccup and Prime, Jasmine and Nate, and a bunch of others. Immediately upon entering the 100-mile wilderness was a sign warning of the difficulty of this section and suggesting hikers bring “a minimum of 10 days supplies” with them. This gave us a good laugh since we had exactly 5 and a half days of food in our packs.
We lunched perched on a ledge beside at a waterfall that poured over shale rocks into a deep pool far below. The trail in this section has been absolutely beautiful so far.
Jazz and Bess perched above us on the falls
We stopped about 14.5 miles in at a really wonderful campsite next to Long Pond Stream where Meta, Grasshopper, Jasmine, and Nate had stopped for the day. Bess and Jazz joined us later, and we all ate our respective dinners together perched on some rocks in the wide stream, simultaneously soaking our feet in the cold water. This is the life.
We spent about an hour this way before turning in around 7:30. We need to cover some good mileage tomorrow to put ourselves in the position to finish this section on time with the supplies with the allocated, so will be waking up early.
Day 163: 19.8 miles hiked (trail mile 2112.8)
We departed camp at 6 and began our hike up into the Chairbacks mountain range. We had several peaks today and munched on wild blueberries along the way.
One of our favorite moments was walking through a bog filled with rare and endangered plants, including carnivorous pitcher plants that were actually flowering! We had seen these flowers once before in the Whites but were unable to get close enough to identify them.
We crossed paths with Gadget and hiked together awhile in the rain which varied in degrees of intensity until sundown. There were some really technical descents coming down the Chairbacks that had us scooting on our butts down the wet slabs and descending cautiously. Others were downright angry about how treacherous this stretch was, and we heard loud curses from below as other hikers attempted to navigate the wet rockslide, which was not well marked at all.
Somewhere along our hike we stopped to pay a visit to a decent privy that was conveniently placed right off trail. My joints ache so badly these days that I no longer have squatting ability. We usually relieve ourselves a few feet off trail (give or take) wherever the urge hits, but try to take advantage of a privy (or especially a bathroom!) when the opportunity presents itself. Since my knees can’t support my own weight in a crouched position anymore, I have had to improvise these past few weeks by assuming a crab-walk position, resting on the palms of my hands, to poop in the woods. I have also become accustomed over the past few months to painfully, stiffly, hobbling around for the few minutes to half hour before my joints get warmed up again. This is known as the hiker-hobble and it’s pretty hilarious to look around camp in the morning and see all these extreme athletes (for lack of a better word) limping frailly around camp. I can only hope there are no long-lasting physical impairments that come from all this excessive hiking.
After separating from Gadget, who stopped to camp at a site a few miles before us, we forded a wide but shallow river.
From there we immediately entered the Hermitage, a 2-mile-long stand of old-growth white pines over 100 feet tall. We were in awe of the giant, towering trees all around us and also grateful for the relatively flat trail through this small section. There was no camping permitted in the Hermitage, but we knew there would be stealth sites galore once we exited the protected zone. Here we also passed the turn off for the Gulf Hagas Loop Trail which is famously referred to as the Grand Canyon of Maine. We have made a mental note to return to hike the Gulf Hagas Loop sometime in the future.
Sure enough, we found a site by a brook and got set up during a brief break in the rain. Jazz and Bess showed up just after dark and joined us for the night at our wet little site by the brook.
We are proud of ourselves for doing 19.8 miles today with a 5-day resupply in our packs, up and over an entire mountain range with over 5500 ft ascent and just about as much descent. The 100-mile wilderness is beginning to feel much less daunting as our packs are only getting lighter and the elevation will flatten out considerably by the end of tomorrow’s mountain range.
Day 164: 17.3 miles hiked (trail mile 2130.1)
It rained all night and finally tapered off in the morning. We left camp at 7am and hiked up into the mountain range that climbs from Gulf Hagas Mountain to White Cap Mountain. This is the last formidable mountain range before Katahdin.
The trail crews did amazing work on this mountain, and the climbs and descents alike were well-blazed and comprised of many well-constructed stone steps. We braked for lunch on top of White Cap and laid out our rain gear, socks, and tent rain fly to dry in the sun and breeze. It shaped up to be a warm day, and the last few miles turned into a bit of a sweaty trudge.
As we were hiking by Crawford Pond at dusk, PB&Jazz and Bess called to us from a stealth camping area tucked in the woods a couple dozen yards from shore. Camped nearby was a hiker who introduced himself as Underpass. He thruhiked NoBo in 2018 and was beginning a SoBo thruhike this year. We all sat on the sandy beach and cooked dinner while loons called from the middle of the pond. They don’t seem curious about people and kept their distance far out in the center of the pond.
Bess and Jazz
Underpass, Jazz, Bess, Ranger
We have begun to call Maine’s so called “ponds” Humble Lakes. They often have sandy beaches, waves lapping at the shore, and crystal-clear water just about as far as the eye can see.
I went in for a dip and the cool water felt wonderfully refreshing. I’ve been waiting for the perfect swimming opportunity all trail, and this was it.
