Nan's 2014 Appalachian Trail Journal

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September 30, 2014

9/20 – 177.8 miles to go with 10.4 hiked today. We got a shuttle out of Stratton and were on the trail by 8:00. The trail was nice for a while and then we started climbing the Bigalow Range. The day was supposed to be clear and I was really looking forward to the views. When I hiked Big Bigelow (North Horn and South Horn) in 2010, the weather was bad--windy, rainy, and cold. I was looking forward to a nice day. Well, that did not happen. It closed in with clouds and was very windy. Several hikers going southbound warned us that it was extremely windy and dangerous at the peak with winds gusting about 50 to 75 mph. Well, it was indeed very windy and hard to walk. We looked like drunken sailors but we got across safely with no mishaps. After the summit the trail got really horrible with big rocks that had to be scaled going up and going down. Miss Janet said some woman who hiked the trail wrote a book about her hike and titled it, “A Foot Path My Ass”. If this isn’t true someone should write that book. Anyone who has hiked the AT knows that Bill Bryson didn’t or his book wouldn’t be called “A Walk in the Woods”. After a very tiring stressful day we finally got to the camp area at Safford Notch at 6:30. It was already getting dark because of the high mountains and the thick tree canopy. So much for the last day of summer.

9/21 with 165.2 miles left. Hiked 12.6 miles today to West Carry Pond Lean-to and a beautiful first day of fall. Actually, it was pretty warm. It got windy thru the night and blew in the warm weather. I had to unzip my sleeping bag. We climbed over Little Bigelow today and had great views of Flagstaff Lake and back to the North and South Horn of the Bigelow Range. The trail was pretty good all day. A man who passed us said that it reminded him of why he loved hiking. Most people we talk to are really tired of the extremely rugged trail and wonder why it is laid out to make it so hard.

We had planned to sleep in the shelter tonight because rain is predicted--in fact, it is dripping right now--but when we got to the shelter we found it full of pot smoking young men. There is a lot of that out here so we just pitched out tents. That means having heavy wet tents to carry tomorrow. Guess I will have to eat all of my food to lighten the load.

9/22 - 149.0 miles to go. 16.2 miles today. It rained pretty hard in the night and early this morning. It stopped about 6:30 so we got up and started getting ready for the day. Last night and this morning we could hear the loons on the pond. I love the sound. When I went down to the pond this morning to get water there was a hammock hanging at a beautiful spot and out popped Iron Cheeks. What a great spot to spend the night!

Today was a really nice hiking day with the trail following Pierce Pond Stream for miles. The stream has many waterfalls. We did have to keep moving so we could get to the Kennebec River in time to use the ferry service which runs from 9:00-11:00 and 2:00-4:00. The river is wide and fairly shallow but there is a dam upriver and when there is a release, the water rises rapidly. The ferry is a canoe and today it was very windy so it was pretty hard to paddle across. Freckles was in the bow with a paddle and I just sat on the center seat. The man who does the ferry said we were something like #30 & #31 hikers that had crossed today. He really earned his money paddling back and forth across the river in that wind. After we reached the north shore we hiked another mile or two until we found a nice spot to set up the tents.

9/23 – 136.5 miles left with 12.5 miles hiked today to Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to. The weather was a little cool today with the sun in and out of the clouds. It seemed that every time the sun went behind a cloud the wind picked up. We started the day with a steep climb up Pleasant Mountain which is incorrectly named! It really was not so pleasant but the view of the surrounding country was great. Color is beginning to show in some of the foliage and there are lakes—I guess that they call them ponds in Maine—everywhere. It looks like a great place to canoe. Freckles and I are both avid canoeists and we were daydreaming about canoe camping—no heavy packs to carry!

The trail was pretty good and passed by the south end of Moxie Pond which is real pretty. We got into camp early enough to make a campfire. Triple P was there and then Marathon, Chiclet and Solitude came into camp so we had a nice little group.

9/24 – 123.5 miles to Katahdin. 13 miles today over mostly level terrain after the climb over Moxie Bald. There is a summit bypass trail which we took so as to skip a big rock scramble at the summit. It was a beautiful day, nice crisp fall weather, sunny, and no wind. The trail; was nice, some rocks and roots and a river to ford. Two fords were listed but we were able to rock hop one of the rivers. We ran into Hog Driver still slack packing but in much better spirits than the last few days that we had seen him. He said that he took a zero day and was feeling better. Route Step also passed us going north. We have been seeing him since Pennsylvania. We heard about him before we met. He was leap frogging cars. Always hiking south but progressing north. His wife was driving their RV so that he could slack pack. He said that she went home to Florida so he will be carrying a pack and hiking northbound for the rest of the trip. We also came upon Hendo and Hendo’s mom lying beside the river after the ford. We met them in Georgia and they are making very slow progress but, I think, enjoying themselves. They flipped at the Priests in Virginia and did Katahdin August 24. They have only come 123 miles in 30 days. I don’t know how they can finish before winter sets in but they were lying there enjoying the sun anyway. There are five other hikers here at the shelter tonight and one mouse that I know of. Freckles tried to make a trap with duct tape and a peanut but the mouse just grabbed the peanut and ran. I guess that the tape wasn’t sticky enough.

9/25 – 114.5 miles to Katahdin. We made 9.0 miles today into Monson. Pretty nice hike with the usual rocks and roots but also lots of nice trail with one river ford. Boy was the water cold! But that makes the second day that we got our feet washed. The weather again was sunny and mild after a fairly cold night. So far the cold has not been a problem. We got into Monson about 2:00 and checked into Shaw’s Lodge. We had boxes of resupply sent there and I had had a warmer sleeping bag and warmer base layer sent there also. After a shower and laundry, we went to the Lakeside Café for dinner and to pick up a bucket. We put four days of our food into the bucket which will be cached about 50 miles up the trail for us to pick up in four days. When you leave Monson, you start what is called the 100 Mile Wilderness. Years ago it was very remote with little road access but now there are several road crossings and several establishments will do a food cache so that it is not necessary to carry so much. Of course, there is a $25 price for all services but it is worth it. There was a really nice group playing music at the Lakeside Café. I would have liked to listen to them all night but I have to get my sleep. If all goes well, we will be finished in less than two weeks. Yippy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Until later, this is Drag’n Fly signing out.

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