Date: 2007-08-17
From: Gentian Pond Shelter, NH

To: Full Goose Shelter, ME
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: clear sky

The mountains are growing larger again. Most of the day we travel at 3000 feet elevation with many deviations 500 feet up and down. After 5 miles of trail walking we reach the Maine border. Finally! The last state! Fourteen down and no more to go.This is the hardest 10 miles on the trail so far. It takes 9 hours to go 10 miles. It is also one of the prettiest rock scrambles up and down several mountains. Montreal hates rock scrambles and complains a bit. ¢This is not hiking¢ is his usual statement.We find some parts of the trail impassable, appearing to be mud that is a foot deep. The best we can do is try to go around the bogs. We are always careful to step ONLY on rocks, NEVER on the vegetation.Today we get a little warm-up practice for the rigors of Mahoosuc Notch, our destination tomorrow.Friday, September 17, 2004, we make it to MaineToday opens with conditions the same as yesterday: hazy, no rain, and no views. The trail always seems to take us through the trees and even when we get to a summit the trees prevent our seeing out into the distance. Around noon we come to a clearing and see a sign nailed onto a tree saying ¢Welcome to Maine.¢ April can hardly believe it, she made it at last! This is the final state on the Appalachian Trail.During the entire hike today April has been contemplating her plans for finishing the hike, but the brutal truth is that completion is NOT going to happen this year. Reasons: a), almost all of the thru hikers have already passed by, and those that are still on the trail (behind us) are doing heavy-duty miles to catch up, b), April¢s time has run out, she cannot keep up a pace of ten miles per day for the next twenty-eight days, c), she¢s physically tired and her ankle is nowhere near 100% healed, and d), the weather has started turning for the worse; it could start snowing at any time. We discuss her rationale one last time. We reluctantly agree that this hike will have to be ended soon.At 5 p.m. we reach Full Goose shelter. It¢s empty, but in short order the group of Outward Bound kids that we passed two hours ago show up. They head toward the tent platforms, occupying all of them except for one.Rain starts around 8 p.m. and continues all night. It¢s never heavy, just a steady drizzle. From my radio I learn that the rain is from remnants of hurricane Ivan. What? Another hurricane? This is the second one in two weeks. What the hell is going on?Saturday, September 18, 2004, in the Mahoosuc range, southern MaineToday was supposed to be the day that we traveled through the Mahoosuc Notch, described by many as the trail¢s most challenging mile. But it looks like our plans will be put on hold. The day dawns gray, wet and ugly. There are two-inch deep puddles throughout the campground and it¢s raining hard. We decide this will not be a hiking day. Instead we¢ll hang around the shelter waiting for the rain to stop, hopefully by tomorrow. The Outward Bound kids have the same idea. No sense in stumbling through such a difficult section in a downpour. We finally get out of our sleeping bags at 9 am.I pull out my little radio (it has surprisingly good reception considering its minute size) and listen to more weather reports: today will be a washout, at least until noon, at which time a slow clearing trend will start. As forecast, the rain does let up a little around 12:00, but not enough for us to start hiking. Looks like it¢s going to be a zero day.We duck back into the shelter, watching the rain continue. It runs off the roof edge in front of us forming a watery curtain. Out of the gloom appears Broody (formal trail name ¢Brood-X¢). He has just finished a very difficult five-hour hike through the rain this morning. We empathize with his distress. We did the same trek yesterday but thankfully it was dry. Now he¢s freezing cold, probably on the verge on hypothermia. He decides to call it quits for the day. He prepares some soup, and after that¢s finished, jumps into his sleeping bag to warm up.A few minutes later his sometimes hiking partner Statler & Waldorf shows up. He¢s not pleased to find Broody in the bag. ¢Dude,¢ he says, ¢Get outta the bag. We¢ve got five more miles to do today!¢ ¢No way, dude!¢ yells Broody, ¢I¢m not hiking another inch today.¢ Their animated conversation continues. Statler & Waldorf tries to convince Broody that they have to keep going or they¢ll never make it to Katahdin; Broody insists that they can make up the miles later, but today he¢s done. After ten minutes of pleading, Statler & Waldorf resignedly gives up, convinced that holing up for the remainder of this wet day isn¢t such a bad idea.It¢s two o¢clock in the afternoon and boredom is setting in. Just when we¢re getting desperate a steady procession of hikers starts arriving. We have company, lots of it. All of them are around twenty-five years old and they all expect to reach Katahdin in three or four weeks. A thru-hiking engaged couple says they plan to hike for one more week, get off the trail for three weeks to get married, then return and finish the last two hundred miles as their honeymoon. With snow fast approaching, they¢ll probably have to do a flip-flop to make this work. Personally, April and I are doubtful that they¢ll return after their three weeks back in civilization. Traipsing through the snowy swamps of northern Maine in October doesn¢t sound like the perfect honeymoon. Unforgettable, yes; perfect, no.The Blues Brothers and Ranger Jan show up around 2:30. They got behind us by staying over an extra day in Gorham. They wanted a bit more time to relax, swim in the pool, take in a movie. Now they cannot decide what to do, stay for the night at this shelter or push on. After having a hot lunch and puffing down four cigarettes apiece (the Brothers are from Kentucky, whad¢ya expect?), they consider their options.All of the hikers throw out opinions for consideration. Jan and the Brothers are reminded that the next shelter is five miles ahead. In between is the Mahoosuc Notch, an extremely difficult stretch to navigate. They¢ll be lucky to average one mile per hour for the next five miles. With darkness closing in at 7 p.m. it¢s going to be difficult seeing for the final part of the journey. After much mental anguish, Jan and the Brothers decide to continue. Everyone thinks they¢re nuts. Headlamps, they have; smarts, they don¢t. It seems inadvisable, at best, to hike in the dark on wet surfaces while trying to keep from falling into huge crevasses.After Ranger Jan and the Blues Brothers depart four new hikers show up. We manage to find lay-down space in the shelter for all ten of us. It¢s tight, but if the shelter was filled to its official capacity of twelve, it would be truly sardine-like. The next morning we find that even more hikers had arrived, perhaps after midnight. Fortunately they were able to set up on the one unoccupied tent platform.