Date: 2018-08-24
From: Stealth camp near Surplus Pond

To: The Cabin Hostel/Andover, ME
Miles today: 8.2

Yesterday when we arrived at Surplus Pond, we met a couple people with a car (there was a gravel road to the pond) who asked if we'd seen a runner in a yellow shirt? Odd question, but said we had not. We moved on down the road a little way and set up camp near a spring. Today we found out that someone is running the AT trying to break the record of 46 days and we had met his support crew. We have been working on completing the AT for 6 years and we are still not done while this guy is on pace to do it in 43 days...Amazing! However the impact on us was that we were still close enough to hear lots of noise when he arrived around 9pm (running in the dark on uneven ground with a headlamp!!?) and at 4am when the car started up and the support team leftKnowing we had a tough climb coming up and wanting to make sure to get off the trail at a reasonable time, we set the alarm for 5am. It was still fairly dark, so we had to start our packing with headlamps. However by 6:15am when we hit the trail, it was light enough to see just fine. The day was clear and no wind...Wahoo!We immediately began to climb, but gradually. We had planned to go for 2 hours before our breakfast break, but after 1 hour agreed that we both were dragging and needed some energy boost. After breakfast we had a lot more pep and quickly finished the 900 ft climb of Wyman Mtn.After a gentle descent of Wyman Mtn., we had a rollercoaster climb to Hall Lean-to which was empty. After the lean-to, the fun began. We had a steep descent into Sawyer Notch via switchbacks and rock steps. During this time we were passed by 4 people going the other way slackpacking...3 of which we had seen yesterday going north. Apparently the thing to do is leave the trail via East B Rd which we crossed yesterday, go to an Andover hostel for the night, then slackpack SOUTH (to avoid the tough climb coming up) from the road we were now going to, South Arm Rd, back to East B Rd...why didn't we think of that?By 11:15am we reached the bottom of Sawyer Notch and took our first lunch break. We are fairly consistently hiking 3 hours now between breaks. Here a southbounder came by and stopped to talk. He was 60 years old and had just finished circumnavigating the US by bike (Seattle, WA to Portland, ME to Key West, FL to San Diego, CA to Seattle, WA) and that was after canoeing the whole length of the Mississippi River...now he was hiking the AT. You meet a lot of interesting people out here.After our lunch break the 1300 ft "technical" climb up Moody Mtn. began...and it was a bust! Although very steep, it had all been engineered by trial crews with rock steps. In a few particularly steep areas, wooden ladders or rebar steps were used. The point is that it was engineered, not like our hike/climb up South Kinsman Mtn. or Wild Cat Mtn. in the Whites where they put an AT blaze up high on a 30 ft high rock wall and, in essence, say "you figure out how to get up this"!We reached the top of Moody Mtn. by 2pm. Based on Spider's earlier research, this was where he was asked to call the hostel for a shuttle ride. So Spider called and confirmed that there was room for us at the hostel and that a shuttle would be sent. We actually lucked out, in that there only private room was available and we grabbed it!The descent was a fairly easy one and we arrived at South Arm Rd. by 3:30pm..our 4th week of hiking completed with only one more to go.Hopper, our shuttle driver, first took us to a general store in Andover to pick up cold drinks and a bottle of wine for dinner...then off to The Cabin hostel, 3 miles outside of town, which is our picture of today.This is a very different kind of histel than the last one we stayed in. Here you get a sense you are just one of the family. We are 2 of 5 hikers staying here...2 of which we passed going southbound today. Whenever we ask the cost of shower, clothes washing, meals, they just say "included"!So needless to say, the first thing we did was take a shower. We checked on our resupply box and it was here...Whew. Now we have the food to complete our hike. Thanks Ginny, for mailing our resupply box. After ET got the laundry started, we popped the cork on the bottle of wine and sat out back talking with the owners, who have been running the hostel since 1994.. Life doesn't get much better!Honey and Bear (trail names) are the owners and in their 80's. They have dedicated themselves to the hiker community. They provide trash cans at road crossings because the accumulation of trash (hike it in, hike it out!) is one of the hassles in long-distance backpacking. They provide toilet paper to the nearby shelter privys which are normally BYO-TP. If they see hikers, they shuttle them where they want to go...and much, much more. Amazing people.Dinner was served at 6pm family style and all cooked by Honey...spaghetti w/ meatballs, corn on the cob, green beans, salad, garlic toast and best of all, brownies smothered in ice cream. Hiker hunger (that hunger that never seems to go away) has kicked in so we both had seconds!We sat around and talked for awhile then headed to our bedroom at 8:30pm. To bed at 9pm...in a real bed.Milestone: We past the mile mark that we have only 250 miles left of the AT to hike.