Date: 2017-06-07
From: Rainbow Ledges

To: Wadleigh Stream lean to
Miles today: 17.4
Weather: overcast clouds

When I pulled out of camp an hour after Scout, the last thing I expected to encounter was to find him walking steadily towards me on the AT.I figured he must have left something behind by mistake, but then he said: "RT, did you get turned around?"A skill I'd dearly love to acquire would be the ability to sleep in for an hour and magically appear ahead of Scout. Unfortunately the answer was somewhat more prosaic: as he negotiated his way past a blowdown, he'd got turned around, found the white blazes again and, thanks to the less-than-memorable terrain, didn't realise he was heading north.It took a little while for reality to sink in. It seems nobody has bothered to tell the AT that we're experienced hikers, each with 10,000+ miles under our calloused feet.But after an initial moment of embarrassment and wounded pride, he was able to see the obvious humour in the situation and we spent the next hour each recalling previous navigational blunders that occurred due to zoning out and not paying due attention to the task at hand. The most egregious examples, I was slightly embarrassed to admit, tended to be mine.The irony, of course, was that this was the first time we'd taken advantage of the easier navigation on the AT to indulge our different body clocks. Unlike the IAT, where two sets of eyes and a collective navigational consciousness was required on the trail sections, here Scout could leave early and I'd use my slightly faster pace to cancel out my natural morning indolence and catch him in mid morning.Maybe it'll work better tomorrow...Once we'd reached new ground for Scout, it only took a minute or so to emerge on Rainbow Lake, the shore of which we followed for much of the rest of the morning. It was easy travel.So far, we suspected the AT was being kind to us, with relatively easy trail compared to some of the horror stories we'd heard about PUDs (pointless ups and downs) and other forms of unnecessary suffering.As is the wont of the way the mind wanders on long trails, I figured I'd start giving each day a Smeagol/Gollum Index score, based on which of the two personalities of the Lord of The Rings character seemed to be ascendent on the trail crew's route.For the time being it was Smeagol ("We likes the hikers, they are our friends") rather than Gollum ("Nasty hikerses must be punished"), but we suspected this was likely to change soon.The LOTR theme underway in my head made the sylvan and somewhat Hobbit-like setting of the Rainbow Stream lean to seem particularly appropriate. It was the nicest one we'd seen yet, sited beside a series of picturesque waterfalls as the steam forced its way down between moss-covered crags.Unfortunately this loveliness seemed to be commensurate with its mousiness, based on the number of mouse-proof pack strings from the roof and from the series of rodent-themed horror stories in the register.We opted for lunch then headed on. Since we're still less than two weeks into this hike and because we're in what's regarded as the toughest of the 14 states traversed by the AT, I've been keen for a leisurely pace as our bodies adjust back to hiking life. If we can survive Maine and the Whites intact, my theory goes, that's the point when one might start considering increasing the mileage.Scout seems to lack my, um, undoubted talent for preservational indolence and wants to push the miles now. Normally I would have been in favor of a 16-mile day, stopping on Nesantabunt Mountain, rather than pushing on to the lean to a couple of miles further.But two factors altered my stance. One was the beautiful blue-sky day of the kind we'd been dreaming of since we set off from Fort Fairfield. And the other is that tomorrow we're scheduled to reach White House Landing, a business just a short boat ride from the trail that serves hikers beer and burgers. It's also where we've sent our resupply box for the second part of the 100 mile wilderness.Going further today and an early start tomorrow -- both usually things that set Scout's soul soaring but leave me with a sense of dread -- make sense because we can have more time to enjoy what is likely to be one of the most salubrious experiences in the wilderness.Having thus determined that beer and burgers out-trumped indolence in my internal hierarchy of values, we set off up Pollywog Stream to Crescent Lake. Heading up Nesantabunt Mountain, we then quickly found that the trail designer turned from Smeagol to Gollum.Later on this hike I may come to reassess these words but the trail seemed deliberately onerous in entirely avoidable ways. Or maybe it was just the afternoon and my energy levels were dipping?But at least it was spectacular, with great views over the lake and back to every AT hiker's favourite mountain.The far side is when Gollum really reigned supreme, with the trail descending via a series of unexpected but welcome springs but then going back up for no apparent reason other than to "punish the nasty hikerses".Apart from the Guthook app, Scout had an official AT map that featured gradients. These had alarmed us for having a descent similar only to Katahdin but failed to include these bonus metres of height gain. Together with an estimated distance that proved to be about 25 per cent short, we were a pair of tired hikers who arrived at the lean to after a day with a Smeagol-Gollum ratio of about 85:15, work the effect heightened by the Gollum bit being at the end of the day.Fortunately, we were revived somewhat by a fun crew who were already in attendance. Most of the others camping nearby seemed to range from the standoffish to the walking dead but these were five apparently lifelong friends who were hiking in support of one of them, Betsy, who was aiming to do a thru hike.She'd been assessing various attempted trail names but then adopted Scout's suggestion of Sheriff, in light of her posse.AT fact of the day: After today's navigational snafu, our respect for the trail has increased a little. It turns out this isn't just a walk in the woods.