Date: 2004-09-27
From: Route 15 near Monson, ME

To: Grunt Work
Miles today: 10.4

This morning two fit looking young women showed up at the hostel. They were dressed in casual clothing. They identified themselves as thru hikers who had summited Mount Katahdin a few days ago. They had driven back to Monson in search of trail friends who were still hiking. The people they were looking for were not guests at the hostel. Nobody knew the whereabouts of their friends.I asked them to share their feelings about having finished their thru hikes. They said they felt a mix of happiness and sadness. They told me that on the day before they finished, lots of thru hikers had climbed Mount Katahdin and had a party afterwards. On the next day, the two women summited the mountain. Afterwards there were no other thru hikers present to congratulate them; their trail friends and acquaintances had left Baxter State Park or were still hiking somewhere on the trail. Two male thru hikers in the hostel overheard the women relating their bittersweet experience. One of the men said to the women something like, "You don't belong here. You're not thru hiking anymore. Go away!"The other male hiker said, "Yeah, let's rub salt into their wounds."The two men were joking and everyone in the room, including the women, laughed at the remark.Mr. Shaw, the owner of the hostel, drove me to the trailhead. He is a 75 year old man. While driving in Monson, Mr. Shaw noticed a hiker on the side of the road and pulled over. The hiker was a young man in his twenties. The hiker was wearing a kilt, which is an article of clothing that some hikers prefer over short pants. Mr. Shaw asked the hiker if he needed a place to stay for free. He made the offer because he had learned that this young man was thru hiking with a charity raising aspect to his journey.After hearing this offer, the hiker leaned over and placed his face by the open window on the driver's side. He said to Mr. Shaw, "Dude, I am one broke assed motherf'er."Translation: I am low on money and your offer is appreciated.At the trailhead, a sign identified the next stretch of trail as the "100 Mile Wilderness." It warned hikers to not to underestimate this stretch of trail. It urged hikers to carry ample supplies.I hiked today with 712 days of food in my backpack; that is the heaviest load I have ever carried on this journey. My plan is to visit a wilderness camp about seventy miles away and pick up a food shipment I have mailed to that location.The trail was moderately difficult, consisting of one up and down after another. The elevations were not high, but the frequent ascents wore me out.I met a southbound hiker who equated hiking in this terrain with training in the French Foreign Legion. Actually, the hiking was not as difficult as that person claimed. The hiking was more like grunt work with few viewpoints to reward the hard work.Late in the day, I forded the Big Wilson Stream. To accomplish this task, I stored my hiking shoes and socks into the backpack. I wore sandals on my feet. The water rose up to my thighs, but the current was not dangerous. After making the crossing, I dried off my feet with a bandana and put the shoes and socks back on. I walked to the edge of the stream, bent over, and rinsed the dirt off of the sandals. The dirt had accumulated on the sandals when I had stepped out of the stream while wearing them. With the sandals clean, I strapped them to the exterior of the backpack where they would begin drying as I hiked.I arrived at Wilson Valley Lean-to shortly before dark. Later, Hans the chess player arrived. We are the only occupants. Coyotes were howling in the distance as we prepared to play a chess match on the floor of the shelter. We illuminated the chess board with our headlamps. Hans had created the board and pieces from a shoe box.As we played the match, I could see my breath as it exhaled into the cool air over the board. A spider crawled between a bishop and a pawn.After finishing the chess match, we briefly reviewed the profile maps to get an idea of what lies ahead along this 100 Mile Wilderness. There are two more days of strenuous hiking then the terrain will flatten over several more days of hiking.The last profile map shows a level stretch of terrain followed by a huge spike in elevation. That spike represents Mount Katahdin, the terminus of The Appalachian Trail.