My Trails

9/5/12 – 1927 miles
We are still slack packing the AT over the mountains near Andover, ME. Today started out with light rain but we decided to take a chance and head out anyway. It wasn’t long before the rain turned into a mist and the sky began to brighten. The trail was still soggy in some places and we all ended up with wet shoes by afternoon.

It was a little tricky climbing Bald Pate Mountain. There was a solid rock face on top above treeline that left us crawling and scrambling over a wet surface to reach the summit. Normally, there would be great views in all directions, but all we could see was the swirling mass of mist left over from Issac.

We will slack pack again tomorrow. The Trovert’s friend Sue is a real angel taking us to the trail each morning and picking us up each afternoon. Not only does she shuttle us to and from the trail, she drives us to restaurants and grocery stores. It sure makes the planning a lot easier.

9/4/12 – 1917 miles
Mahoosuc Arm was not as bad as I thought it would be. The SOBOs said it was very treacherous, and I agree that coming down would be the worst way to do it, but the climb up was not anything harder than any other mountain in Maine.

Tonight we are at Pine Ellis, a hostel in A
ndover, ME. Remnants of Hurricane Issac are headed this way so we may take a zero tomorrow. The Trovert’s friend Susan met us at the trail and took us to the hostel where we cleaned up and then went out to eat. The waitress was shocked at how much we ate. She brought a whole loaf of bread which we devoured before our meals, and then ordered more bread after we ate our meals, and then we ordered big deserts.

If it is not raining in the morning, Susan will slackpack us over the next section. We will keep an eye on the weather. There are several fords we have to make in Maine and the streams can get high and dangerous after heavy rain.

9/3/12 – 1910 miles
We set out real early today, Mahoosuc Notch, the most difficult and fun mile on the AT lay a short 6 miles away. The trail was not kind to us on the way to the notch. There were two steep mountains in the way and it seemed like the AT went straight up and down both sides. Southern Maine is very rugged. A lot of thruhikers say that Maine is harder than New Hampshire until we get past the Bigalow Mountains.

We entered Mahoosuc Notch about 2 pm and began our scramble through the playground of jumbled boulders. There were many places where we had to slide down rocks on our buts and a few where we had to take off our packs and hand them through tunnels under huge boulders. Many times the path would lead to chasms or cliffs where we needed all our upper-body strength to pull ourselves through.
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It took us about three hours to complete the mile through the notch. We will probably all be sore in the morning. Tonight we are at a campsite just past the notch and will climb Mahoosuc Arm in the morning. The Arm is said to be almost technical in difficulty – straight up exposed for 1500 feet – and the weather is calling for rain.

9/2/12 – 1903 miles
We made it to Maine!

After a good rest in Gorham, NH, we hit the trail this morning at 6:15. A friend of the Troverts, Susan and Kleenex’s sister Allison gave us rides to the parking lot and carted our packs .7 miles of AT road walk where we picked them up and hiked into the woods. The trail was not easy today. All in all we covered 17 miles and climbed two prominent mountains. Mt Success was particularly steep and an early rain made everything slippery. Everyone slipped at least once today but Kleenex fell on her side crossing a rock face and skinned her elbow pretty bad. X cleaned it up at the shelter the best she could but the fall will probably make Kleenex sore tomorrow.

Tonight everyone is in the shelter, Carlo Col, but me. I’m in my tent which will be warmer and safer – the Noravirus is going around and one person in the shelter is already sick.

8/31/22 – 1886 miles
I guess technically we are still in the White Mountains. As hard as they were we are not done with rugged climbs and descents yet. Everyone has heard of the White Mountain Presidential Range in New Hampshire but few know how difficult the Mahoosucs and Bigelows in southern Maine are. Mahoosuc Notch is said to be the most difficult mile on the AT, traverseing a deep ravine filled with automobile sized boulders. I’m looking forward to it.

Tonight I’m in a motel in Gorham, NH. We arrived early this afternoon and will zero tomorrow. Kleenex is camping with her sister just outside of town and the Troverts and I each booked rooms. We are all suffering with sore knees and feet from the near vertical rock trail over Wildcat Mountain, especially attributed to a whopping big day of 14 miles yesterday. We made it to Imp Shelter only a short while before dark.

I will get to see Blue Sky tomorrow. He will go with us to breakfast and Walmart. It is good to know that friends are catching us but sad that they will move on ahead. We have less than 300 miles to go now.