Date: 2016-09-10
From: ME, South Arm Rd, 1942.3 

To: ME, Maine 17, 1955.6 "The Cabin"
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: scattered clouds

Today, we woke up at the cabin hostel to a delicious home cooked breakfast. Eggs, sausage, blueberry pancakes, melon, biscuits with homemade jelly, yum! We slack packed again today to continue recharging after the difficult white mountains and Mahoosic trail. Instead of doing the next section of trail, which was only 10 miles from east B road to south arm road, we decided to save that for tomorrow after church and did a slightly longer section today. We started at Maine 17, close to an hour drive, and walked southbound back towards the hostel.There has been very little rain here. Dried up blueberries that never made it past buds were an ever present reminder. They say that the changing of the leaf colors will be more brown this year because of the drought. The hike was noticibly easier today. Some of it was the terrain which is less demanding and some of it was our feeling recharged after slackpacking yesterday. At one point, we came to a sign that pointed to a stream and looked at our map to see how much further we had to go before summitting bemis peak. It turned out that we had actually already climbed it and came back down without realizing it. Needless to say the hike was not too difficult. We came up old blue, our last peak, and were surprised that we had already reached the top. Normally we celebrate when we get thru the hardest part of a climb for the day with something like a pop tart or snickers. Today we decided to put it away and wait for a different mountain to celebrate because we didn't feel like we quite earned it.On the way over to the trailhead, we chatted with hopper in the car. We traded stories about some people who shouldn't venture into the woods by themselves and were surprised when we realized we were actually talking about the same person! The hikers name will remain anonymous, but here is the story. She started hiking Northbound on the Appalachian trail from springer mountain, Georgia in February of 2016. Shortly after beginning her hike, she woke up in a pool of frigid water in her hammock in the middle of the night, got up and wandered into the woods. After getting lost, hypothermia set in. This led to a bout of pneumonia which led to permanent lung damage and effectively ended her hike northbound.   Armed with an inhaler, which she now has to carry because of the pneumonia, she set back out in July, this time as a southbounder from Maine. Two months later, she is still in Maine, making forward progress of about 4 miles a day. She told us first hand about her adventure in unpreparedness through the 100 mile wilderness, where she arranged for a food drop but could never find it, calling the directions a scavenger hunt. For the record, we have been assured that there are about 2 easily identifiable rocks behind which packages are placed. In any case, she made it through that 100 mile section on handouts from northbounder a who took pity on her. Hopper shared with us that she heard about the same hiker from some people she was slackpacking. Apparently, the hiker set her pack down and wandered into the woods armed only with toilet paper. She lost her bearings and couldn't find the trail again. The slackpackers noticed an unattended pack and called out to see if anyone was around. She yelled help several times as she approached, finally emerging from her restroom break victoriously, toilet paper and stick in hand. Th hiker really is about the sweetest person we have met and we really enjoyed visiting with her when we crossed paths a few days ago, but fear for her safety given her track record to date. She at least is planning to pause for the winter. She probably ought to pause her adventure permanently or at least hike with a buddy before something really bad happens. There is a fine line between dreams and nightmares. In her case, while pursuing the dream, she has sadly only found the other.As hopper dropped us off, we saw a thruhiker sitting on a bench at a trailhead. It was Jeff Davis! We hadn't seen him since before the Smokies. He thruhiked in 2012 and told us it took him 4 months to do the first 1800 miles and 2 months to do the last 400 because he enjoyed fishing. We were hoping he took the same approach this time around and were thrilled to cross his path again. He even invited us to a fishing hole he is stopping at in a few days. He confessed that he broke down and bought a tent this time because of the bugs, but he is one of those simple hikers, out for the experience instead of just reaching a destination. Contrast him with another hiker we passed today, an Italian woman who is just hiking the last 250 miles to Katadyn because she likes to do the famous hikes around the world and has hiked from Nepal to Kilimanjaro. We joked to ourselves that this was the first hike she was going to have to carry her own bag for. Both Jeff Davis and her are hiking the same trail but for different reasons. Everyone has one that is out here. The trail has a saying , "hike your own hike". For us, the Appalachian trail isn't about just climbing a mountain or reaching a peak. It's about the journey, meeting lots of people, and enjoying each other's company.