Date: 2015-08-20
From: Monson, Maine 

To: Barren Ledges 
Miles today: 16.3

We opted out of a cooked breakfast this morning. If we would have eaten the breakfast we had yesterday, we would not have wanted to hike. We were able to get on the trail earlier also. Another hiker staying at the hostel took us to the trail head.    We were on the trail at 6:50. The start of the 100 mile wilderness. It is a bit daunting to think, 100 miles with access to nothing except what we carry. But, we started hiking with hope we will be through the 100 mile wilderness in 6 days.    It was foggy, foggy, foggy this morning. There was so much fog, it felt as if it was raining. Lavander slipped on a wet rock and fell within the first mile. Not a great way to start the day. We passed three ponds in less than two miles. We couldn't see the ponds because of the fog. We also crossed over a stagecoach road. That we could see and thought it was nice to know it was a stagecoach road.    We had 10 miles of ups and downs. With these, you cannot get a pace going. We felt as if we were doing interval training. We work hard on the ups and our heart rate is fast. We work hard on the downs but since we slow down, our heart rate goes down. It was a long 10 miles. Of course, it was rocky, rooty and muddy. The forest was more of a deciduous forest. With the fog, it was sort of scary. There were lots of dead trees also. Again, spooky! Just before lunch, we forded a stream. It was a difficult stream to ford as the stream was running fast. The bottom of the stream had lots of round, smooth rocks which makes it hard to stand on. Our feet got jammed between these rocks causing it even harder to cross. We eventually made it across, dried our feet, put our boots on and climbed about 300 feet. At the tip of the climb was a railroad track. Who would have thought a railroad track went through the 100 mile wilderness?   We came upon a lean-to. As it was lunch time and we were hungry, we had lunch at the lean-to. We took a 45 minute break before starting on the trail again. We had to climb out from where the lean-to was sitting. We climbed about 100 yards and Count realized he left his hat at the lean-to. Of course, he hiked back to retrieve it. Then, we were on our way.   The trail after lunch was on the side of the mountain. We felt as if our one leg was going to be longer than the other. We came down the hill to a logging road crossing. Lo and behold, there was a sign for trail magic. Yes, trail magic in the 100 mile wilderness. We were pleasantly surprised. We walked the 1/8 of mile on the logging road for the trail magic. We came to an old cabin where we were met by two guys. They invited us up to their cabin and we sat on the front porch and enjoyed a cold soda. Then they asked if we were hungry. Well, like all thru-hikers we said sure. We had some homemade goulash and some fresh black berries. We also had another soda.   We would have liked to stay longer but we needed to get back to hiking. We said our goodbyes and thanked them for the trail magic.    Shortly after returning to the trail, we came to another river that we had to ford. Off went the boots and socks and we made the crossing without incident. Then we started to climb. It was about a mile until we came to the next shelter. We stopped here briefly to filter water from a nearby spring.   Then we decided to continue hiking up to the ledges of Barren Mountain.    This was quite quite a climb. We gained over 1200 feet in elevation in just over a mile. The trail was mostly rocks and there were a few rock scrambles. We were exhausted when we reached the top. We started looking for a stealth camp site and soon found a suitable spot. We quickly set up camp, had some snacks as we really weren't hungry because of the trail magic we received. Now, we are relaxing. We have just under 100 miles to finish our AT thru-hike.   It is hard to believe we are this near to the end.