Date: 2013-09-25
From: Moxie Bald Mountain

To: River
Miles today: 17.0

I felt pretty good today. I hiked with Hawkeye all day. We talked the whole time, which made the miles fly by. We figured we did about 17 miles today. Not bad considering we climbed 3 big mountains. Today was our last big climb until Katahdin. We're about halfway through the 100 mile wilderness. I think I over did it with how much food I brought. Better safe than sorry (or hungry).I am hoping to do a big day tomorrow. The elevation profile looks really flat and easy. The only thing that would slow me down is mud and rocks. The mud was really bad today. It didn't rain today, but the trail was totally saturated from earlier this week. Sometimes there's no way around it. You just step as quickly as possible to avoid sinking in too deep. I had to ford another river. I didn't think I was going to make it as far as I did today. I'm glad I got it over with tonight rather than tomorrow morning. This guy lost a shoe fording a river yesterday. He took his boots off and threw them across to the other side. One boot hit a tree branch and bounced back into the river. He chased it downstream about a quarter mile before giving up. He's been wearing his sandals to hike in. I feel so bad for him. The 100 mile wilderness is the worst place for this to happen. It's impossible to get off the trail. There aren't any roads that cross the trail. Poor guy. I wonder if he's planning on climbing Katahdin in his sandals. He wears socks with them. His feet must stay cold and wet all day. It's gotta be horrible. I hope I can catch up with Giggles tomorrow. She got ahead of me yesterday. Cell service has been terrible out here. So I can't figure out where she's at. I'm planning on getting a really early start tomorrow and hiking a full day. I want to do at least 20 miles. It's 7:00pm now. I'm already in bed. It gets dark so much earlier. I remember those summer days when it was still light at 9pm. It was easy to get a long day of hiking in then. Fall is definitely in the air. The leaves are changing and dropping. Sometimes the leaves look like red rose petals sprinkled on the trail. It's beautiful. I find myself think a lot more about what my life will be like after this. I made a comment tonight about how this time next week I'll probably be laying on my sofa watching tv, instead of on the ground in the middle of the forest eating ramen noodles out of a ziplock bag. We both laughed. With only a few days left out here I think "this time next week..." a lot. When I find myself starting to complain about crappy terrain or the weather, I remind myself that in a week I'd do almost anything to trudge through that muddy bog again. I'm trying not to take any if this for granted. It has been such a blessing to be able to complete this hike. When I get to the end, I'll have a package waiting for me. My friends were laughing at me when I was on the phone with my mom going through the items I wanted. I was trying to explain which makeup to send while simultaneously stomping through mud puddles in the rain. I didn't even see the irony in it until after I hung up the phone. It's going to be so hard to go back to "normal" life after this.