Date: 2017-08-04
From: Wright Trail

To: Carlos Col Shelter
Miles today: 2.5

Surprisingly, I woke at 6 am after getting in at 2 am. I ate breakfast and walked to Gorham Hardware. They opened at 8. As I waited, I felt like vomiting. They did not sell backpacks. I purchased some canister fuel. I purchased 2 Powerades at the convenience store. Bruce, my shuttle was scheduled for 9. I was standing outside the hostel, thinking about canceling the shuttle. He drove up at 8:30 am. I explained my situation. He said he felt sick hearing about my missing strap backpack. He said he had time to drive me to Walmart. So I loaded my broken backpack in his van and off we went. I purchased the largest backpack they had. It was 45L.     On the phone, Bruce asked me to navigate to the Wright Trail head on Sunday River. Today he said it was listed on his GPS. With only one wrong turn, that was very quickly corrected, we got to the Wright Trail.     I dumped out my broken 45 + 10L pack and packed my new 45L pack. All but two items fit. Bruce will be picking me up at the end of this section. I left my suitcase, broken pack and two items with Bruce, to retrieve at the end.    Bruce left and I gathered my things to hike. At home, I had a fitful night several nights ago, worried about hiking the Wright Trail by myself. Last year, I hiked out the Wright Trail with Red Squirrel and the Colby College kids because I did not have enough food for lunch. It has very rough, steep rock scrambles. We did not meet anyone on the Wright Trail last year.    Shortly after Bruce left, a car parked at the trail head. I introduced myself to Jeff. Jeff was hiking the Wright Trail to Goose Eye, just a little beyond the AT. Perfect. At 10, we started hiking together. I felt much better knowing someone else was on this trail with me.    I put on my new backpack, only to find the hip belt was two inches too big for me. Jeff suggested using duct tape, which I had. It was better but not good.    I stopped for first lunch and Jeff continued on. I took my leather belt and put it in addition to the hip belt, which I tied in a knot. Better still but not good enough.     The Wright Trail starts as a nice, gentle ascent along a stream with a few stream crossings. After lunch, the rock scrambles began with increasing difficulty. It is 4 miles to the AT. At 1, I was anxious to get to the AT. I pulled out Guthook (an app for navigating the AT). I still had almost a mile to the AT. I was on a solid rock top with beautiful views.  A while later I met Jeff on his return trip to the car. He said I was close to the AT intersection.    At the intersection, I met a thru hiker. There were several rock scrambles to get to the Carlo Col Shelter. I arrived about 4:30 pm. A mile an hour. The water source was a very small stream. A bit disappointing for a rocky downhill 0.3 off the trail.  A tent was set up on a platform near the privy and one person in the shelter. I slept in the shelter. As we were eating dinner, a rabbit was seen nearby. More people joined us. A mixture of south bound (SOBO) and north bound (NOBO). Two men from NY who gave each other grief came in. One of them said, your mother is going to ask you what epiphanies you had out here and all you will be able to say is that after the first two weeks, all you know is that hotdogs and hamburgers sure taste great. Thru hikers are always hungry.    Later that evening, one of them was freaking out about a spider. The other felt very strongly about not killing the spider. The first guy eventually killed the spider and his partner gave him grief.