Date: 2018-07-28
From: Caratunk, ME

To: Bald Mountain Brook shelter
Miles today: 18.7

Wow, was it hard to get moving today. Breakfast was served from 7-9am. So the whole lot of us hung out in the dinning area for the full 2hrs, eating muffin after muffin until they stopped bringing out more muffins. Lol After that, all I wanted to do was go back to the bunk and lie down. So I did. Fat, lazy hiker. Around 10am, all the hikers got shuttled back to the trail head (me, Kidska, Mr. Potato, Stinger, Flower, & Sparky). It¢s weird getting dropped on the trail as a group. I know my hiking stride, so I let everyone rush ahead of me. I hate when I know someone is trailing close behind me. Makes me feel like I¢m being chased uphill the whole time. LolAbout 6 miles in, I hit a shelter and stopped for a snack break. Everyone else was there too. The hiker diet is already pretty bad, but lately I feel like I¢ve really been giving into it. I packed out way too much food this time and it¢s essentially all garbage. Sour Patch Kids, Biscoff cookies, and these ¢accidentally vegan¢ Krispy Kream boxed apple pies. What have I become? Lol Considering the slow morning and everything, I was in no rush to get to camp. I took my time, took a lot of breaks. Straight chilling. But DAMN, that ended up being a terrible mistake. Around 5:00 I started to hear thunder rumbling in the distance. And then I remembered someone saying that we were supposed to get some late afternoon showers. I knew I was about 3 miles from the next shelter, so I started booking it! I¢ve never hiked so fast in my life entire life. I kept thinking, I¢ll be damned if me and everything I own gets soaked again on the day I walk out of town. I kept hearing the thunder get closer and closer. At this point, I was literally running my ass up the trail. And it really was all uphill, of course. But even with all the effort, I didn¢t fucking make it. The sky opened up and straight dropped on my head when I was less than 10 mins away from the shelter! It was pouring. And the lightning omg! It was SO freaking loud. Striking no more than 50 ft away from me. I let out an audible shriek every time it touched ground. It was the loudest storm I¢ve ever heard and I was running right in the middle of it. I finally make it to the shelter around 5:45, completely drenched. As I roll in, all the people in the shelter applaud. Lol It was the same cluster of hikers that stayed at the motel last night. They had gotten there an hour earlier, so they were all very dry. I was the only wet idiot this time. After taking a second to process what felt like a near death experience, I changed into dry clothes and grabbed a spot in the shelter. No way I¢m setting my tent up in this shit. Not today. Eventually the rain slowed down and even stopped for a bit. The next shelter is only 4 miles away, so a lot of people pushed on after dinner. However, it¢s on the other side of a mountain, 2 miles up then 2 miles down. So I definitely stayed. It was never in my plan to do a 20+ day. Super glad I didn¢t go because an hour after they left the storm came back harder than ever. And it lasted all through the night.Stinger and I are the only ones that stayed. This will now be my 3rd time sleeping inside a shelter, and not my tent. I¢m learning that these things are pretty nice on really rainy days. I could see myself using them a lot more probably when I flip south and am not surrounded by so many people. I¢m just always worried about mosquitoes attacking my face in my sleep. Lol