Date: 2011-11-09
From: Maine II

To: Maine II
Miles today: 0.0

November 9, 2011Maine 9/27 ¢ 10/30I think Maine will always hold a special place in my heart and not just because of Katahdin. When we crossed into the last state on this epic journey late in the evening (we were night hiking, AGAIN!), it felt like coming home. Granted, if you were to look at the picture we took of us at the state line you would think otherwise. Trudge looked like he had just spent the past several hours drinking dozens of cups of coffee, Katdog like she had never been so excited, and I like I have just woken up. On the tree behind us, the sign said ¢Maine The Way Life Should Be.¢ Boy, are they ever confident.While the state is wild, free, unique, and beautiful, the trail left something to be desired. Mud as deep as you can imagine, board walks that are half gone, roots the size of elephants that trip you up when you aren¢t paying attention. Maine even contains what is considered by some to be the most difficult section of the trail: The Mahoosuc Notch and Arm. The guidebook describes the notch as ¢famous for ice found in deep crevices throughout the year. Many call this scramble under, around, over, and between the boulders the most difficult mile on the Trail.¢   I would have to say that they are probably right. This mile-long notch took us three hours! While the notch was difficult, it also was probably the most fun mile on the entire trail! It would have been more fun if we could have gone over, under, around, and through the car-sized boulders without our packs. Those damn packs kept getting in the way. Why didn¢t we leave them in Georgia?? Geesh!We climbed up the giant rock face of Machoosuc Arm the next day (after attempting to wait out the rain till noon in our tents) and that I believe was even more difficult. However, the soaking rain and my crappy mood might have clouded my perceptions a bit. Thankfully, the rain stopped long enough the next day for the three of us to hike down and hitchhike to Sunday River Brewery in Bethel, Maine. Pumpkin beer was calling our names.Maine also involved a lot of hitchhiking. Since we are SO SLOW, we knew we wouldn¢t make it to Katahdin in time before the October 15th deadline. So, we decided to do a very very late flipflop and hike south from Katahdin. We managed to get from Andover to Monson (a distance of 125 miles if you go the most direct way) in 7 car rides and two days. We were lucky enough to be able to spend some of that time with Trudge¢s dad¢s cousin Debbie and her family. Thanks goes to Debbie and Scott for providing us with food, warm and dry shelter, and of course great company! Ah, Katahdin¢¦.As I mentioned before, our summit day was perfect. I definitely would recommend to any hiker that if you have the time, you should wait for what is supposed to be good day. Weather on the mountain can change on a dime¢s notice. We ended up waiting around in Baxter state park for about three days until we went up.   It was a Class III day, which means that it is not recommended to hike above tree line. However, it wasn¢t bad at all once we were up there and we continued on. The only problem was occasionally falling due to the ice on the trail in a section called the Tablelands (as you might have guessed it's flat like a table). Being on Katahdin feels like you are either on the moon or a different planet. The rock-strewn surface gives the mountain an otherworldly appearance. Plus, we had just walked over 6 months to get there! What a rush to get to the top and realize that your trip is about over!   Ironically, there were other thru-hikers at the top that we did not know. In one of our summit pictures, I had just met several of the people that day. It is hard to imagine that we walked the same small trail in the same direction for almost half a year and did not meet everyone else along the way. The ebb and flow of the trail continues to fascinate me.I almost did not make it to the top of Katahdin, which would have been a tragedy (well ok, just a shame). Early on, we came to a boulder with a rebar handle that you had to climb up and over. You could not see the trail until you got on top. I started to panic and in between my tears I squeaked out ¢I didn¢t come all the way from Georgia not to do Maine.¢ Trudge said ¢This is all of Maine?¢ That started to pull me back to reality and after a minute we were on our way up and over the scary boulder. And thank goodness. Although we have missed other sections of the trail, I can¢t imagine how much I would beat myself up had I not summited Katahdin.I almost didn¢t feel worthy climbing the grand finale, since we still had most of Maine left to do and small sections in PA, VT, and VA. But, Trudge tried to convince me that we probably had hiked more than a lot of people that would be up there, including other thruhikers. Still, I now understand why our friend Steve¢s name is Not Worthy! In Baxter, we had the pleasure of meeting up with DVD and One of the Chosen Phew, both whom we hadn¢t seen in many months! The first few days that we hiked south through the hundred-mile wilderness, we passed many friends going north as they were making the last leg of their hike up to Katahdin. We wished them well and advised them to wait for a good day to summit if they could. These hikers had become our family and we will miss them very much.   I can¢t imagine what it would have been like to travel this entire trail without the companionship and camaraderie of other hikers.We did get a chance to experience the 100-mile wilderness without many other hikers around. The wilderness is the most remote section of the entire trail, although it is actually more than 100 miles and is not truly a federally designated Wilderness. After those first few days, we didn¢t see a single soul. The terrain wasn¢t terribly difficult, but our packs were the heaviest they had been in a long time. We were well stocked up on food, but managed to eat most of it by the time we got to our food resupply. Like many other hikers, we had prearranged with a hostel in Monson to have a food bucket dropped in the wilderness near the trail. I felt like we were on a treasure hunt, especially since it was dark and rainy when we went searching for our food drop. Ours was the only one left, which was no surprise!!Several fun things happened in Maine. First, the trail maintainers do not believe in footbridges; therefore we had many fords to cross. This would have been fine in mid-summer, but since it was mid-October the water was numbingly cold. For several of them, we stripped down to our skivvies and put on our sandals to keep our boots and clothes as dry as possible. I bet we would have been a sight to see if anyone else had actually been out there!   Secondly, we saw a lot of moose. In fact our last morning on trail in central Maine, we woke up to three moose outside of our shelter. One of them had been rustling the vegetation close by all night.   Trudge got several good pictures of one of the calves and insists he would have gotten more if I would have just laid still enough for the moose to make their way closer! I¢m sorry, I had to pee.Thirdly, we got to see our friend Splitter, whom we had not hiked with since New York. We had randomly met her again in Greenville, ME when she texted us asking where we were and it turned out we all were in the same town. She had stopped short of Katahdin and started to put down some roots in Maine.   She managed to get a job at an AMC hut and is quite happy as a Mainer. Her family in New York feels otherwise. Anyway, after we found our food bucket on that rainy night, we walked a couple miles off trail to the hut and showed up looking like drowned rats. Splitter welcomed us in, showed us where to get hot showers, and then took us back to her staff cabin and warmed up some tasty leftovers.   We ended up spending the next day in her cabin reading and enjoying the fire, instead of hiking in the intermittent rain. I hope Splitter knows how grateful we are for her hospitality and that she has a wonderful winter in cold, snowy, cold Maine.The fourth fun thing to happen was that we went AQUA blazing. Now, many people did this in the Shenandoah section of VA where they canoed instead of hiked. Our aqua blazing was a little bit lazier as it involved walking two miles on a side-trail, blowing an air horn at a boat dock, and getting ferried across the lake in a motor boat so we could enjoy homemade pizza at White House Landing Wilderness Camp (hostel)!   We also aqua-blazed when Steve Longely ferried us across Kennebunk River near Caratunk. There is no safe way to ford this river as it is very wide and the depth of the river is controlled by hydroelectric companies. Paddling across took about two minutes.Our last night on trail, we stayed at Horns Pond Lead-to at an elevation of about 3250ft. Other than hearing the moose all night, I was restless due to the cold. I would turn one way, pull the sleeping bag over my head, and then get uncomfortable and turn the other way. Neither of us got much sleep (moose, Trudge, or I). We had about 80 more miles to go in Maine and we couldn¢t decide whether we should save it for a warmer time or head home. Neither of us wanted to do any more fords in those temperatures. In the end, heading home won out and we will have to go back and finish it later. Oh darn, another reason to go to Maine.Trail magic followed us to the very end. After spending the night at a motel/hostel in Stratton, the owner, Susan, drove us to Rangeley, so we could pick up a food box that we needlessly mailed to a store there. While in the Alpine Shop waiting to get our box, in walks our soon to be trail angel. We turn to look at this young man in outdoor clothes and Vibram five-finger shoes whom we both assume to be a hiker we have yet to meet. As it turns out Clayton is planning on hiking the trail this coming spring and we were able to share our knowledge over bagels and coffee at the local coffee shop down the street. Our new friend was in the area interviewing for med school residencies and exploring what rural Maine had to offer. He changed his afternoon plans, decided to go to Acadia, and we spent the rest of the afternoon in his car as he drove us several hours east to Waterville. We would be staying at Debbie¢s (Trudge¢s dad¢s cousin) until Tommy¢s dad could pick us up.   I will remember Clayton (nicknamed Bigfoot by a young boy in the coffee shop, but that is another story) forever as the last trail angel for us to meet! He plans on looking us up when he hikes through PA this spring, but I hope to have a job somewhere by then, so we shall see!Trudge¢s dad drove up to Maine through the night to beat the early winter storm. His arrival was eagerly anticipated as he had not seen his cousin Debbie since they were young kids. It was a mini-reunion and a looking through old family photo extravagance.   Our new family member, Clayton, even came back from Acadia to join us for ice cream, potatoes, and a movie about the Dalai Lama.The mountains of Maine have captured my heart. I am planning on searching for work in the state and hopefully something will come up. I am also interested in Vermont and New Hampshire. Oh, how I am going to miss the AT!