Date: 2018-09-06
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Miles today: 0.0

As we get back into our more normal lives, we have reflected on our 250-mile experience on the AT. We both agree it was the hardest 250 miles we have experienced so far on the AT....and from what we hear from the southbounders (SOBOs), once we conquer the 15 miles of the Bigelow Mtns. there is not many challenges until we end at Mt. Katahdin. The toughness of those miles manifest itself by ET losing 10 lbs and Spider losing 19 lbs during the course of 5 weeks of hiking. That is the most we have lost on any of our section hikes of the AT...and most of them have been 6 weeks and 500 miles!Physically, besides the weight loss, we have returned home with no major injuries. Spider finally got a blister 4 days from the end of the hike...Not sure what changed, but now he has a "reminder" of the hike. We were fortunate that none of our falls resulted in any injuries...except to our pride. ET won the booby prize with 12 falls to Spider's 7. Her last fall was the "spectacular" fall crossing Orbeton Stream 3 days from the end of our hike. We heard of others whose falls resulted in broken legs, smashed faces, etc. We hiked with, Caveman, for a while who had just got back on the trail after a month's rehab from a fall resulting in ankle damage. Our slow and careful approach seemed to have worked.We were disappointed in the lack of animal sightings...especially not seeing a Moose! Likewise we were surprised by the lack of songbird sounds. In earlier hikes we were often awakened by the cacophony of birds singing in the morning. There was mostly silence this year. Based on discussions with others two things may be at work here: 1) we were later in the season and all mating has taken place and the fledglings have left the nest 2) the hurricane that hit last fall may have destroyed many of the bird nests and nesting areas.Spider's experiment with augmenting our pants with canvas on the butt and on the knees was fairly successful...especially for ET. She slid down rocks and climbed using her knee significantly more than Spider. Some of this had to do with ET's greater flexibility of getting up and down off the ground, some of it had to do with Spider's greater wing-span and length of step allowing him reach things ET couldn't and some of it had to do with Spider having new boots with a better grip on slanted rocks. So ET tested the pants almost daily...some days almost hourly. Today's picture is of ET's pants after 250 miles. The seams in the middle and the edges eventually gave way and had to be repaired with the universal fix-it material...Duct Tape!...but the canvass stood up well. Lots of people on the trail praised our ingenuity...So now Spider is claiming he is going to Patent it!! Next a few comments on this year's "hike". I put hike in quotes because a lot of this year's hike, much, much more than any other section, was not what I would call hiking...It was climbing. Any time I have to let go of my trekking poles and use my hands to grab onto rocks or trees to pull myself up or let myself down, I transition from hiking to climbing. Well over half of the hike included some kind of climbing...most of the section of the trail managed by the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) from Mt. Moosilauke to Grafton Notch. It feels to me that somewhere the purpose of the Appalachian Trail being a hiking trail has been lost in this section. As detailed in my various journal entries, many of the places north of Grafton Notch, i.e. not managed by the AMC, where the trail got vertical, trail maintainers put in stone steps, created switchbacks or, as a last resort, put in wooden or metal steps. Somehow the AMC section of the AT has focused on running (and charging money for) Huts, Shelters and Campsites, instead of creating a hiking trail...and apparently the the Appalachian Trail Conservancy supports this. Most thru-hikers have very little money, so are not particularly pleased about the AMC section of the AT. We heard many angry words from them and concerns about why the toughest section was also the place you had to pay to sleep....conspiracy theory!!Okay, I'm getting down off my soapbox....Finishing this section was satisfying. We were praised by many that two "elderly" people could tackle this section and survive...especially ET. We hiked on and off with 2 other women in their 60's and ET was the only one to make it through.Next year the plan is finish the last 188 miles to Mt. Katahdin. After that it will be B&B to B&B hiking!