Date: 2021-09-11
From: US Route 201

To: Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: clear sky

Today was quite possibly the best backpacking day I've ever had since starting backpacking 4 years ago. It began waking up at 6:15 in my private room at the Sterling Inn in Caratunk Maine. Coffee was waiting in the kitchen along with bagels, muffins orange juice and hard boiled eggs. I had a pleasant breakfast, meeting several other hikers and having a nice conversation with the innkeeper. Apparently the Inn has a history going back some 80 years of hosting hikers along the Appalachian Trail. At 7:45 the innkeeper gave me a ride to the trailhead. I started hiking before 8:00 a.m. The first 6 mi were beautiful and relatively flat. Some parts were along a nice mountain stream. I hiked a mile and a half uphill to a nice overlook mountain peak. The views in all directions were absolutely stunning. Most of the trees were still green but you could see some areas where the foliage was starting to turn different colors. I was really happy that my sore hip was not impeding my hike nor giving me any pain. I hiked down the mountain across a small river. The water level was low and I was able to get across the river on rocks without taking my shoes off. After 14 and 1/2 miles of I arrived at a l we an-to and set up my tent about 50 yards away. There were several other hikers there. One hiker was on his night ever on the Appalachian Trail. It brought back memories when I started backpacking solo 4 years ago. I met another other guy that was up here with a lady friend showing her the ins and outs of backpacking. They were staying for the weekend and were cooking with real food and real utensils, not dehydrated stuff. This man had hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in his youth and chares some of his stories of the trail to the rest of us. There was a through hiker that had just begun his trip some two weeks earlier from the northern terminus and was heading south. After dinner we told some stories got dressed for bed and fell asleep shortly after. It was the end to an excellent day of backpacking, thanks to the Lord. All my conditioning and worries from the previous 6 to 8 months had paid off. As expected the campsite had no cell coverage. I didn't mind that because I really wanted to get away from technology on this trip. The only thing left to do was to journal on my phone and check out the trail conditions for the next day using my GPS enabled trail tracking application on my phone. I went to sleep reflecting on how wonderful the day was and dreaming of days to come along this magnificent trail and hopefully completing the 100 mile of wilderness over the next 10 days, God willing. The weather was perfect The morning temperature was 50°. It warmed up to the upper 60s during the day and dropped down to the mid-50s overnight It was humid in the morning but the afternoon was dryer with the light breeze. I couldn't have asked for better weather for my first day on the trail. The forecast for the next 2 days is very similar. Prior to my arrival I had planned not to summit Mount Katahdin on the last day. In retrospect the odds of me coming back here to summit that mountain and complete the northern half of the Appalachian Trail would be slim to none. Now I'm planning to hike to the peak of Mount Katahdin when I finish hiking the hundred mile wilderness Lord willing.