Date: 2017-05-27
From: Fort Fairfield, Maine

To: Mars Hill
Miles today: 19.0
Weather: broken clouds

I walked the final steps to the US/Canadian border monument and I felt it. Welling up deep inside was that emotion I have felt only two other times. I am starting a thru-hike. After all the preparation, all the aiming to this moment, I am actually here. I reach for Sandy. I bury my head into her shoulder. She feels me shake. Tears. Thru-hiker tears.In the fairy tale of Rapunzel she sheds tears that magically cure her prince¢s blindness. So, consider starting thru-hiker tears, what might they cure?The IAT begins at the Fort Fairfield Border Station and its eponymous town felt like it had been ripped off a century old Currier and Ives calendar. There was a red brick library, quaint businesses with homemade signs in the windows and American flags like soldiers stationed on telephone poles marking the start of the Memorial Day Weekend.  Just before starting we meet two International Appalachian Trail trail maintainers, Carol and Kirk. They had the latest maps and they had info not on any map, website or guidebook. We made copious notes. ¢Buggy and Boggy,¢ they said.Of todays 19 miles, fourteen of them ran in a straight line hugging the border¢s 40-foot-wide cleared swath.Boggy: Three hours later, the thick mud under my feet gave way. There was a gurgle and slurp. I sunk well past my knee. Thank god it is sunny not raining. What does Rolling Thunder do? Stretch out a helping hand? No, he snaps a photo.Insert stuck in mud photo: ¢Beaver pelt prices are near zero.¢ What¢s that have to do with the price of tea in china? Why was IAT trail founder Dick Anderson telling us that yesterday? What the collapse of beaver pelt prices mean is that no one has been trapping beavers. Today we ran into multiple beaver ponds. Each time they flooded the border track. We gave up trying to keep our feet dry. We waded and bushwhacked. The dams were so long, were impressive and in a few places we could walk on the top. We saw our first Trillium. Our goal for the day was Mars Hill. It¢s 1,750 feet, by far the tallest thing around, and we ended the day with a four-mile climb to the top where there was a lean-to shelter. But it¢s Saturday night of a holiday weekend and locals had hiked up beer, Captain Morgan rum and had a party. I camped 200-feet away.Very near me is a small cement monument I never knew existed. Right here, 40 feet from my tent is the spot where sunlight first hits the US. I will get up before sunrise tomorrow and bask in the first rays to hit anyone on US soil. Cool.NOT COOL! I did a cursory tick check tonight. ¢I need to get in the habit. ¢ And there, four inches above my knee was a black, poppy-seed-sized deer tick. Dang, dang, dang. I have been doing every thing right. I dug him out and saved him in a baggie. I circled the spot with my mini-Sharpie marker. Now I have to decide, ¢Do I take Doxycycline or not. There¢s side effects." The tick has been in for less than twelve hours.Nineteen miles. It was a good first day. Dang that tick.Tick Rolling Thunder and first IAT sign: Trail maintainers and angels Kirk and Cheryl (also Vice president of the Maine IAT) Rolling Thunder approaching border station: