Date: 2017-05-28
From: Mars Hill

To: Blue Moose restaurant
Miles today: 21.0

Navigation on the IAT, it ought to be said, has not been that challenging.However we might have expected today's routefinding to have been more challenging than yesterday, when we followed a dead straight 40ft-wide clearcut swath heading south on a line somewhere between the 45th and 46th degrees of longitude. But then we found that most of today's route was similarly straight because the IAT follows the path of the former Bangor and Aroostock railroad. If anything, it was even easier because instead of undulating up and down hills, traversing swamps and beaver dams because of the arbitrary nature of international borders, the multi-use trail on the former railroad track was not just straight but also flat. And without a bog in sight. Scout breathed a sigh of relief.First though, we had to descend Mars Hill. We'd camped within a few feet of the place that is the first to see the sun for the summer months. But sometime during the night, a thick wet layer of cloud enveloped the mountain, soaking our tents in condensation, and at dawn the remnants of it denied us the chance to bask in sunshine before everyone else in the US. Or it would have denied me if I hadn't still been fast asleep after the previous day's exertions.We packed up and headed off around 6.30am, retracing our steps to where the trail descends to the town of Mars Hill via a combination of the winter ski pistes and short sections of trail through the forest when the ski route became too steep for easy travel. We even found our first blue blazes.After a little over three miles, we walked into the village and immediately made our way to Al's Diner for breakfast.Appropriately fortified with a mix of grease, caffeine and carbohydrates, we began following the old railway bed past what were clearly once warehouses connected to the rail line.What can you say about walking on a former railroad line? Being the sunny middle day of a holiday weekend, we were passed by gazillion ATVs. The route was straight and fast and quiet. And maybe a little boring, but give that to me over quagmire gymnastics any day.By early afternoon, we found our next IAT lean to near Monticello. And we might have stayed there but just 1.7 miles further there was the famous Blue Moose, which purveyed a similarly appealing mix of mix of grease, caffeine and carbohydrates to bookend Al's Diner that morning.After crossing a former railroad viaduct, we encountered another friendly border patrol agent, this one on a quad bike about to embark on a long loop along the border swath south of Mars Hill. The grin on his face at being paid to blast around on an ATV in the summer and a snowmobile in the winter was evident, as was his acknowledgement that this was counterbalanced by the in-between seasons, when he has to ply the border in waders in snow and meltwater.He also gave us the beta that the Blue Moose was "just behind that shack", suggesting it was a minute or two's walk away. We thanked him and walked on, only to discover that his estimate of distance was skewed by motorised transport and the way he'd pointed to was a dogleg adding more than a mile to the route compared to staying on the old rail bed.We retraced our steps back to the railroad bed and soon found signs pointing to the "resterant".I was glad to still be far more with it than I'd been at the end of the previous day and we settled in for a colossal meal, even by the standards of American servicing sizes.But the enticing combination of food, warmth and beer quickly did me in. Scout was roundly defeated by his magnificent pot roast and I barely managed half of my own lasagna by the time the restaurant closed at 7pm. We headed out to a mown area behind in which IAT hikers are welcome to pitch their tents. The lawn was soft and awesome, but it could have been full of jagged rocks and I'd still have been asleep within minutes. Two days in and we've done 40 miles. Aren't we uber-hikers supposed to know to avoid the classic rookie thru-hiker error of going out too fast too soon???