Trail Letter 15: 6/24 and 6/25

18.8 tough miles today. I did end up sleeping in until 7:15, and my first order of business was a huge breakfast that stuck with me all day. The pancakes were bigger than my face, and there were 3 of them! A rarity, I couldn’t finish my meal.

But the weather was fan-tas-tic today! Blue skies, fluffy clouds, and only one 5 minute spritz of rain all day. But that by no means indicates dry feet!

The Trail in Maine is quite unique. For the first 60 miles, it’s a continuation of the Whites — straight up, straight down, to-the-point, no messin’ around. But the Whites are so heavily used, there is a paid trail crew staff maintaining all the Trails. That translates to: when climbing straight up a rock face, there are notches in the rock for you to hold onto, etc. In Maine, you’ve gotta be creative sometimes. I can just see the Trail maintainers looking at a 10′ rock face, then slapping a white blaze on it, all the while laughing at the future passers-by…

Also in Maine, the bog bridges aren’t “updated”, meaning that sometimes they’re floating, meaning that sometimes they sink when stepped on. Today, too, good portions of the Trail were simply mud pits — kinda fun to slosh through when the feet are already soaked! So Maine is very rugged — not for mama’s boys.

3 Sobos (southbounders) in the shelter tonight. One guy is from Venezuela. They’re carrying 50 lbs or more — I don’t think they’ll make it.

6/25

17.7 easy miles today. The weather plays such an important role in my mind, and today’s was a continuation of yesterday’s bliss. On top of that, the last 13 miles today was gently graded.

Fight it or embrace it, but it’s not going away. Used to be the slogan for just rain, but I’ve found it applies to almost all “inconveniences”. Today it turned the giant mud pit (which apparently also serves as the AT) into a sandbox, err, mudbox of sorts. At first I played the “hop-to-non-muddy-surfaces” game, but once the feet were wet, I squished through the dirty water, or watery dirt, like a kid jumping in puddles.

I’ve been constantly amazed at Maine’s pristine beauty. You can feel it — sometimes I just stop hiking and realize where I’m at. The snow must preserve Maine all throughout the Winter — the dense, untouched greenery is astounding.

Saw a sign today for a free place to launder and shower, so I copied the number and called after hitching to Rangely. Two of the kids (5 total) who’ve opened their apartment to us hikers I’d met in Waynesboro – Superman and Poque (and Superman’s dog Arrie). Really cool.