The final countdown: the journey

Shaw’s Hiker Hostel

This was our last hostel stay before the end. We would meet some people here for the first time and tell others our final “see you on the road.” Slaw, Guardian, GoodNews, HellYeah, JellyBean, Sheera, GatorBait, Specs, who we had last seen leaving Trail Days, and several others we hadn’t met before stayed here with us.

The town of Monson is pretty and compact and offers much of what any hiker could want. A grocery store, a gas station with decent food options, a pizza place across from Shaw’s, and Shaw’s has a vendor and refill options. I limped on my injured ankle as we visited these places.

Shaw’s offers a 100-mile wilderness food delivery option. You get your resupply and put it in a bucket. They drive the bucket to Jo-Mary Road about halfway through the 100-mile Wilderness. We opted to do this and split the cost of our cubes. This is great because it prevents you from having to carry extra weight from several days worth of food. I considered putting a pizza in the bucket so we could have real food halfway, but I chickened out.

I looked in the hiker’s box full of broken trekking poles. After a bit of searching, I was finally able to fix my pole that I broke passing through Bigelows with Frankensien.

Here we get a zero. We tried desperately to convince Guardian to stay with us, but he was adamant about going and feared his time was up.

100 mile desert

Getting to the trail

My ankle felt considerably better after our zero at Shaw’s and I was able to walk without a limp the next day.

The poet made several trips to the Camino because there were many of us who were leaving that morning. He told us about the must-see places we would pass, understanding that a 1/2 mile side trail was probably too far for a NOBO at this point. We took note of these places and decided to visit them or camp in most of them. The poet recited to us a poem he had written while walking on the AT. I don’t remember it, but it was something to enjoy the experience because, as sweet as it was, the final moments are the most bitter. He said it was related to drinking water with sediment, but he felt it applied to us.

The poet had words of encouragement for us and left most of us with tears in our eyes. I held on tight until he rolled down the window as he backed away, “Dad, you did good.” That got me.

This was the home stretch and it was certainly emotional knowing it was almost over.

river crossing

The first day was quite difficult to walk and it wasn’t that bad. Our target was the Chairbacks’ base.

On the way to our camp we encountered a harrowing river crossing. The water was probably only thigh-high, but it passed quickly. The only dry path we could see across was a couple of small trees on the other side of the river. We wandered around for a while before finally making the crossing. Han Solo came to this crossing with us and crossed with us.

Fresh and Turtle slowly made their way in front of me. I didn’t want to be the last one out, so I went third. I used my poles to help me keep my balance, but in the worst spot, about 8 feet across the river, my pole slipped. My balance was ruined and I made a split second decision to go for it and jump as far as I could. My foot landed on the tree and I immediately jumped again, this time landing on the shore. I was safe, but my heart had never beat so hard.

Han Solo casually crossed the logs as I finished my show. He thanked us for waiting to make sure we arrived and handed us over. We wouldn’t see him again.

We set up camp at the base of the Chairbacks and camped with GoodNews one last time.

Vape Nation and the Midnight Visitor

There was a steep initial climb, which wasn’t too bad. Then there were miles of ups and downs that little by little sapped the spirit.

Fraiser, Tapo, Cuppa, SkiBun and Kyrsten were called Vape Nation. They were named after they all got sick from sharing a vaporizer they found abandoned at a shelter. The first time we met was the day we left HOME when they helped us get water to put out a root fire we found burning.

We hiked much of the 100 mile desert adjacent to this group. We all stopped at a pond just before the Chairbacks descent and camped together.

Later that night I woke up to the sound of something stomping around camp. Fallen branches and branches shattered beneath their steps. He could hear the foliage being pushed aside as he moved through the camp. It sounded incredibly close and I tried to grab my light to see what it was. The light made no sense with my bug net, so I pushed the net aside and shined. The light was still useless because I didn’t have my glasses on. By the time I had everything settled, the mysterious trampler had left the camp. In the morning, Turtle mentioned hearing the same thing; otherwise, I would have thought the whole experience was a dream.

Hagas Gulf and White Cap

My notes from this day mainly talk about me liking steep climbs more than long, steady climbs.

The initial climb was 1300 feet and 5 miles. I remember not liking this climb. The way I see it, I prefer to climb a steep climb and reach the top to rest before the next climb. When they’re this long, we guarantee you’ll be climbing for hours. I found that to be much worse.

The rest of the climbs that day were steep and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Near the end of the day, we finally got our first clear view of Katahdin at the top of White Cap. We took some pictures and called Shaw’s to confirm and move forward with our food delivery. White Cap is special because it is the last real climb before Katahdin.

That night, we camped at Logan Brook Shelter with Vape Nation.

16 in 7

We woke up early the next morning. It was 16 miles to Jo-Mary Road and we had to be there no later than 3 pm. We hit the trail at 7:20 am and had covered 10 miles by 11 am. We climbed Little Boardman during this time, which made me feel even more impressive.

Overall, the trail was mostly flat and somewhat easy to walk. Maine is rocky and there are times when I wasn’t even sure if there was dirt beneath me or just roots crossing a chasm. Over time, it became annoying to walk on this, but it was novel for a while.

I didn’t take a break or have lunch until 3 in the afternoon. Exhaustion was taking effect and I told myself I was going to set up my hammock and take a nap when I reached Jo Mary Road. I was starving and kept daydreaming about the pizza I should have put in the bucket; I could practically taste it!

Dreams come true

When I finally reached Jo Mary Road, I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t get the pizza I had dreamed of, but it was the best located Trail Magic so far! When I arrived, there was already a group of about 10 hikers hanging out.

Chili-P had set up a grill and was cooking burgers, brats, and mushrooms. He had snacks and fruit and welcomed us to stay as long as we wanted and eat as much as we could. I think we all ate three burgers while we were here for several hours. Chili-P was a fun guy and very generous with us. He told us he didn’t expect there to be such a crowd here this late in the season. It was October 4th. He also told us that it was 15 to 20 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year. It was 50 degrees.

Vape Nation arrived as we were leaving and I watched the groups shoot off several beers. I have never drunk alcohol, but I did try a pineapple soaked in Tequila here, disgusting.

That night, we camped at Antlers with JohnDoe, a hiker we had met at Shaw’s. He was a fun guy and it was a shame we didn’t get to spend more time with him.

2 more breakfasts

The next day we had several views of Katahdin. It’s strange to see this mountain that you tried not to think about for six and a half months. At first, I told myself there was no reason to think about Katahdin until I was over Springer Mt., until I was over Blood Mt., Albert Mt., and the rest. Now that there was nothing left, he might as well think about Katahdin. However, all he could think about was everything that had happened before.

We realized how close we were getting. Mainly because I realized we only had two more breakfasts in Trail. Tomorrow we plan to camp at Baxter State Park. In a way, it felt like this was our last real night in Trail.

We hiked my longest day yet, 23.7 miles, and camped at Rainbow Lake.

Living in the moment

My diary entry for tonight.

It’s crazy that we’re here and this is ending. There comes a point where you just accept this. life (through hiking) for what it is and forget the objective. You are living in the moment, walking from one point to another. Then one day, you reach the end and ask yourself, “Where to go from here?” For the past 6 months, I’ve had an answer to that question. Soon I won’t know again.

At first I was mired in frustration and despised my life. This trip has renewed my hope. I’m nervous about what’s to come. Fresh said he has had panic attacks at night thinking about it. I’m going to continue to take my time and be patient with myself. I still have Katahdin. Everything else can wait.

Baxter State Park

We covered 66 miles in three days, trying to reach Katahdin by October 7th. At the Om Dome, we planned for day 4, but hear me out…zero days.

Those 3 days weren’t the most fun or memorable on Trail, but I’m glad I did it. The 7th would be a sunny 80 degree day, the 8th would be rainy and 50 degrees, and it would get colder from there.

We arrived at registration at Baxter around 2pm and secured the last 3 spots for The Birches Shelter. We wondered what we would have done if there had only been 2 places, and we weren’t sure. I think we would have stuck together and just walked a long day the next day.

I raised 2 blue llamas while on the AT. The first was a river crossing in Pennsylvania. It had rained a lot and there was flooding, so I decided to take a bridge on the road instead of the board that crossed the rushing river. This bypass took me less than 5 minutes. The second blue fire occurred in Baxter. Another mighty river with no clear path. I took the bypass with Fresh; We took the same route but we didn’t have to fear for our lives. The turtle is crazy and crossed the river.

We headed to Birches and arrived after dark. Slaw, Guardian, Sneeze, Scout, TinsleToes, Creek, Poles, Specs and Puma were here when we arrived. This group shared a last dinner around the fire before going to sleep for the last time on Trail.