Date: 2008-08-27
From: Gorham, NH

To: Carlo Col Shelter, ME
Miles today: 4.1
Weather: clear sky

Wow¢¦what a PERFECT hiking day today. We were all up and in the car by 7:00 a.m.and also gave a ride to Long Portage from MD to the trailhead that we had allstarted at a few days ago. He was appreciative of the ride.When I woke, and looked at the window at my Norwood Fires mountain, it hadchanged, the sunlight was lighting the leaves on the trees immediately in frontof me, behind that was a layer of pure white thick fog hugging the valley, andthen my mountain, all black and silhouetted behind the fog. It gave me a senseof hope.Karen drove A.M. and I back to the Austin Brook trail, the one we had used(along with V8) to get out when I fell ill. It was a cool morning, the weathersaid it was in the high 30¢s early this morning, but my thermometer said 59where we were, but I started the day off with my long sleeved shirt on. It wasan amazing day of weather, truly one in a million, perfectly blue skies, brightwarming sun, a nice breeze once you get up in higher elevations, but somethingabout the air was crisp and clean and full of hope for me.It only took us 1 hr to get back up to the AT at the Gentian Pond Campsite. Weactually hiked a total of 9.9 miles today, but there were some side trail milesand then the 1.1 miles we repeated from when I got sick and we turned around.By the way, the Austin Brook trail is a lovely trail.So at 8:39 a.m., we were on the AT and heading north. Folks¢¦BIG BIG daytoday¢¦.it was the day I would finally hike into my 14th and final state¢¦Maine.I was excited about this all day long. A.M. and I were really enjoying thedaypacks. I actually ENJOYED hiking today¢¦go figure.We hiked the 1.1 miles we¢d already done, and got up to the top of a bump and wecalled V8 to say hi. We think we¢re going to try to talk her into coming backout with us Friday to do Mahoosuc Notch¢¦we miss her a lot.We stopped at the same little creek that we¢d all stopped for water, about .2before starting the climb up Mt. Success. Folks, we couldn¢t get over theperfection of today, both A.M and I spent a good amount of time appreciatingand being in awe of it. The way the green in the forest was so brilliant¢¦thesoft moss, the balsam, spruce, and hemlock trees with very dark shady areas wasoffset by these pockets of bright warming sunlight that was shining like themost beautiful white-yellow light on Earth. It was simply amazing to be on theAT today and I was relieved that I found joy in it all again.The trail quality was mostly nice today with some rock scrambling, a few muddyareas, some boardwalks, roots, but it was a great hike. The climb up Mt.Success was about 1.5 miles, with the first mile being the steepest climb ofour day. We actually kicked ass due to having daypacks, and we came to thatpoint where you go up¢¦turn around and can see everything above the tops of thetrees below you. Wow¢¦really great view.We got to the top of Mt. Success around 11:00, and both sat down. It¢s abovetreeline on the top and oh my gosh¢¦.it was stunning, much like the day Iclimbed Mt. Moosilauke. The skies were totally clear with only a bit of haze,but I sat there looking back south at the mountains and was able to pick outMt. Washington with no problem. I could see the towers sticking up on top andeven a puff of black smoke from the cog, but it was a very distant blue layerof mountains by now. I couldn¢t believe I had hiked to this mountain from thatpoint.We had some snacks and sat there soaking up the incredible sun with the lightbreeze, relishing in this perfect perfect moment in the mountains under theblue skies with just some high wispy clouds way up there. Man, it is the dayslike today that keeps us all coming back out here through the crappy days.There¢s nothing that can match a moment or day like this.We moved on and went past a boggy area with a boardwalk, but one of the boardswas completely missing or perhaps sunken in the muddy quicksand, so we had nochoice but to follow the steps others had obviously taken before us, only youhad to walk on spaghnum, which is this extremely spongy water-saturated mossystuff that you sink down into when you step on it, so you can¢t just standaround or the water comes to the surface and quickly soaks your feet.After this it was a bit more of hiking on the top of Mt. Success and then downagain. I knew the Maine stateline was only .9 miles away and I started gettingso excited about this. The downhill was pretty steep and then there was a verysteep rocky ¢bump¢ to get up and over. On the way down this bump there wasthis sheer smooth slick rock face that I literally slid down, because there wasnothing to hang onto. I could hear voices ahead and figured I was close. A.M.had gone ahead for a bit and I got down this thing and saw her sitting waitingfor me. We hiked up this log ladder thing and hiked around a bend and then Isaw it. The Maine stateline!!I MADE IT TO MAINE, I MADE IT TO MAINE, I MADE IT TO MAINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It wasalmost not real to see that weathered blue sign saying, ¢Welcome to Maine, TheWay Life Should Be.¢ Oh my gosh people¢¦do you KNOW what this moment means tome? The unreachable state, the 14th state, the last stateline to cross, thestate that on March 12, 2007 as I hiked down Springer Mt. in Georgia, Irealized I could not allow myself to even think about because of the enormousmagnitude of what I¢d taken on¢¦I WAS IN MAINE at 1:15 p.m. today. I stilldon¢t believe it. I have hiked through 13 states of this country, most ofwhich I had never been in before¢¦what a way to see them, and I¢ve never steppedfoot in Maine, until today.A.M. and I decided to eat lunch on the border. We took our pics of course, andthere¢s another sign stating Mt. Katahdin is 281.4 miles away. Of course, Ican¢t get overly motivated by that right now, but it¢s ok¢¦I¢ve found my way ofthinking about it. After today, 16 hiking days to Monson.A.M. got me a surprise¢¦some Ferraro Rochers (which have become the ¢official¢celebratory chocolate candy ever since I carried them through the smokies forPersistent and I to eat once we got the hell out of that place) and I enjoyedthem immensely. I gave A.M. her surprise of strawberry poprocks, be we didn¢teat those right away. We ate our lunches in this perfect, peaceful,blue-skied, sunny spot, all the time I stared at that sign. See, once you getup and hike past it, everything goes back to feeling like it has for almost1900 miles¢¦trail, rocks, trees, climbs, downs, streams, etc.; so it was specialthat I got to sit there, eat lunch and really absorb this place, which I know isperhaps the 2nd most sacred place on this trail to NOBO¢s, only being second toMt. Katahdin. It¢s not fully hit me yet, I¢m in my last state, and yet, Idon¢t think any of it will seem real until I¢m in the car driving home forgood.We finished lunch, I took one final glance at that sign, and we started the .5mile climb and a short down to the Carlo Col trail which takes you to theshelter, and was the trail we were taking down to Success Pond Rd. where Karenwill be picking us up today. I had a smile on my face the whole time I think.I¢m in FREAKIN MAINE!!! Hey¢¦did you all know¢¦I MADE IT TO MAINE!!? LOLAnyway, we climbed up about .4 and there was a great view from a rocky ledge,looking north. I asked A.M. if she thought we could see Mt Katahdin (wishfulthinking¢¦I know¢¦as if it would suddenly appear just because I crossed thestateline). Then there was a straight down .1 giant rock boulder section whichI think was providing some foreshadowing of the things to come when we gothrough the Mahoosuc Notch on Friday. One place, I had to slide and hope myfoot would catch the corner of a rock that was out of reach of my shortlegs¢¦luckily it did and then it was HUGE step down. Crazy stuff, but I thinkI¢m going to have a blast going through the Mahoosuc Notch. I¢m excited aboutit.We got to the sign for the Carlo Col Shelter and trail and met a group ofcollege kids again out for freshmen orientation. Nice kids. We were headeddown the Carlo Col trail at 2:07 p.m. The shelter is .3 down this trail, whichis steep in a few places, but now steep is a relative term after having slid onmy butt half-way through the White mountains (and I hear there¢s more of thatto come in Maine too).This trail is 2.7 miles from the AT to Success Pond Rd., which is essentially adirt logging road, but Karen drove the whole road today to make sure she knewexactly where to find us today and tomorrow. We hiked down and came upon abeautiful stream with a small waterfall and that great soft green moss. Wewere actually moving faster today than we¢d planned, so I suggested we go for afoot soaking, which A.M. agreed to. We went to the drop off down stream whereyou can¢t go any further, and sat down..soaked our feet in that cold coldmountain water. Ahh¢¦..I freakin love doing this. It¢s one of my favoritespoils, which started with Persistent and I on like day #1.We soaked for about 15 min. and then put our shoes on and headed down. Thetrail actually got quite ugly where obviously forest clearing was occurring,but the trees were left for dead and it looked like a disaster had happenedlike a tornado.We got through that section and this trail flattened out entirely, and went backinto the forest next to a stream..really nice. And then..boom..we were on adirt road and I saw Karen up the road a bit out of the car looking around. Wehad told her we¢d be there around 3:30 p.m., and my watch said 3:30 on the dot.We got into the car with smiles, still having energy left over¢¦what a concept.Karen had become acquainted with this road, and it took us about 30 minutes todrive up to highway 26, at Grafton Notch.We zoomed into the town of Bethel, ME and checked into our new temporary home,the Norseman Inn, a place that is a ski lodge, so it¢s an off season, but therooms are quite huge, so we have a room with 2 queen beds and plenty of spacefor all our crap.We got all of our stuff moved in and I hopped into the shower for my normal 45minutes. Feels really good to be clean after a day of not so difficulthiking¢¦am I spoiled or what? Actually, I think this is exactly what my kneesneed, a break before hitting the 100 mile wilderness.So we ate some leftovers, sat around, talked, oh, and there¢s a tiny woodenstand on highway 26 where this woman (called The Pie Lady) sells homemade pies. Well¢¦Karen surprised me with my absolute favorite..Strawberry Rhubarb!! I havea WHOLE pie to enjoy!!!! MmmmmSo an incredible day, perhaps one of the most important days of my hike in termsof feeling a sense of progress, which I¢ve not had a huge sense of, with theexception of completing the Whites, in quite some time.Oh, we just called V8 and begged her to come out and hike with us onFriday¢¦she¢s thinking about it (CROSSING my fingers!!!). Now to thatStrawberry Rhubarb pie that is calling my name¢¦..~Certain