Date: 2018-07-31
From: Monson, ME

To: Long Pond Shelter
Miles today: 15.1

This morning I left Shaw¢s hostel, my last hostel stay in Maine! Glad I zeroed there. Shaw¢s is a hostel staple. Some would say it¢s the most popular hostel on trail. The guy running it, Poet, was super great. He owns two houses on the same street. One house for the hostel and the house next door for his family. He thru-hiked the AT in 2008 and got the name ¢Poet¢ because he was always writing hi-cues in the trail registers/logs. When I told him my name was ¢V¢, he instantly guessed that it was a reference to ¢V for Vendetta¢. He used to be an English teacher and said he made his students read that book every year. He asked me if I carried a mask for my summit picture... A mask?! I gawked in shock and disappointment. How did I never think of that?!? That would have been an amazing Katadhin photo! Traditionally, a lot of people take crazy photos on top of Mt Katadhin, wearing costumes, suit and tie, etc. I never gave mine much thought, but the ¢anonymous mask¢ would have been perfect. If only I had thought of it sooner. Poet could tell i was pretty bummed, so he says, ¢Whenever you get out of the 100 Mile Wilderness, stop by the Abol Camp Store and see if there¢s a package for V. No promises! But you might get your mask.¢ ...What a cool fucking dude! I¢m not gonna get my hopes up, but just the gesture alone is SO nice. Poet shuttled a whole group of us to the trail head around 8:30. After 50 ft on trail, you run into this very welcoming sign that states, ¢Caution: There are no places to obtain supplies or get help until Abol Bridge 100 miles north. Do not attempt this section unless you have a minimum of 10 days supplies and are fully equipped. This is the longest wilderness section of the AT and its difficulty should not be underestimated.¢ Well, I got 6 days worth of food and am clumsy as fuck, so here goes nothing I guess. Lol Today there were like 4 different rivers/streams that you had to ford, so my shoes were soaked all day. My pack feels super heavy too. I can feel all the weight in my knees. I rationed my food with little room for error, which really means no snacking. I like snacking. And when I put restrictions on my snacking, it just makes me crave food even more. At the shelter/campsite tonight it¢s me, Potato, Kidska, Hot Sauce, Zoom Zoom, Torino, Spider, and Sparky. This is my first time meeting Hot Sauce, who by the way is one of the most charismatic people I¢ve met on trail and he carries a full bottle of sriracha sauce, obviously. Lol. Shortly after introducing himself though, I watched him in what nearly looked like slow motion knock over his cooking stove and dump his entire, untouched dinner into the dirt. You could hear a unison gasp run through the campsite. We¢ve all done that at least once. But to lose a full dinner on your first night in the 100 MW is extra shitty. You can only ration so well. Almost immediately though, everyone started digging through their food bags to see what we could spare. That¢s when I realized that almost all of us are carrying an ¢emergency ramen¢ - one extra, lightweight packet of ramen just in case shit hits the fan. And for Hot Sauce it did. So thank god for ramen! Lol