Date: 2006-09-06
From: Five miles into Maine

To: South Arm Road near Andover, Maine
Miles today: 43.0
Weather: broken clouds

Wow,I have access to a computer and a few minutes to update.First apologies for not doing a better job but.... it is difficult to update via my Blackberry especially when there is no cell service!The last few days have been amazing. After leaving Gorham, NH for the second time we headed north again and always and on Monday the 4th of September we were spending our last night in NH at the Gentian Pond Campsite. I camped next to an Orientation Group from Harvard. So far I have met three of the Harvard groups and one from Yale. I hope they don't meet on the trail! The hiking is slow and very difficult. NH is a difficult state and Maine promises more of the same. Monday we do only 12 miles in 12 hours of hiking.Tuesday, The 5th of September we do it! At last. #14 of 14 States. Maine falls in the onslaught of the AT thruhikers. However, to remind us that she will not be easily climbed the mountains slow us even further. The climbing is DIFFICULT. This is not hiking it is climbing. We are often on bedrock well above the tree line in the wind and rain gripping to bare rock with finger nails and boot soles worn from nearly 2,000 miles of hiking! The tension and stress is obvious and all the hikers are in short foul moods. In spite of our best work and skill we do only 9 miles.Wednesday the 6th, Jo Cro and I are still hiking together. It is good to have a partner through this more remote and difficult terrain. Falls are more frequent and both he and I have had several close calls. (Me more than he!) My knees and elbows look like a 4th grade dare devil who has been trying to learn to ride a bike, who is spending significant time experimenting with gravity. (Gravity is not just a good idea it is the LAW! and I have the scars to prove it!) Jo and I have adopted a younger section hiker for the day. He is from Arkansas and is named "slip & slide" we have resolved to help him survive this day. Is promises to be the most difficult mile of our lives. The Three of us enter the infamous Mahoosuc Notch. Now if you have not heard of this you must have been brought up in a cave. Perhaps even Mahoosuc Notch. This 1+ mile section of a trail is at the bottom of two steep cliffs that have deposited hundreds of huge granite bolders in the ravine below. There is a stream that runs through the bolder field and the bolders range in size from the size of a small car to a huge house. The trail runs through the bottom of the ravine and NO TWO HIKERS have ever done the same trail. Sometimes it is up, down, over, under or through the notch. The opportunity and the choice are infinite as is the level of difficulty. We make it through the notch by passing packs and helping eachother over, in and around. There are several near misses and each of us has near falls but all of us succeed. 1 mile in 3.5 hours. No record. The longest time for hikers I know going through the notch is 2 days. Not bad. Exhausted Jo Cro and I hike a bit further past Speck Pond the highest pond in the State of Maine. We leave "slip and slide" to crash at speck pond and Jo and I continue on to do a total of 8 miles. We hike until dark and camp in two very unlikely and uncomfortable spots on the trail. Tomorrow has to be better!Thursday 09/07We hike 12 miles to Andover Maine and stay at a hostel. The cabin.Friday 09/08We hike 10 miles and return to the hostel. Showers for two nights in a row! Tonight or tomorrow I will update the Journal and report on this amazing place the Cabin and our hosts, Honey & Bear! But now the dinner bell is sounding and I have some fierce competition for dinner. Writing can wait!