Date: 2015-08-02
From: Long Falls Dam Rd. 

To: US 201
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: few clouds

The hike today was easy with some really interesting features. There were no mountains to cross, but a lot of shorter ridges and contours. The terrain changed a lot, so we didn't get bored. And there was one unfortunate event - Spartacus will be leaving us for a while. The plan today was to split forces and do a key swap similar to yesterday. Princess and I rose early and Susan delivered us to the trail at Long Falls Dam Rd by 5:30 am. Ranger camped last night near the trailhead and we met him there. Princess brought him his slack-pack so he could hike with that instead of his heavy backpack for the day. Then Susan ferried his backpack with her back to Stafford to hand off to Spartacus. Focus and Spartacus picked up Ranger's backpack from Susan and left shortly after. They piled all of our packs into the truck and drove to the other (northern) end of the section (Caratunk - a long haul) to hike SoBo from there. The plan was for us to meet them on the trail, swap keys, and when we reached Caratunk we would retrieve the truck, drive back to pick them up when they finished, and we'd all drive back to our next base point in Caratunk. The biggest constraint for the day was the Kennebec River ferry at the Caratunk end of the hike. The Kennebec River is too dangerous to ford, so the Appalachian Trail Conservancy proves a ferry service. The ferry is a piloted canoe that carries 2 hikers at a time across the river from 9 - 11 and 2 - 4 every day. Princess and I started at daybreak in order to be sure we could finish the 17 miles and reach the ferry before the 4 pm cutoff. Spartacus and Focus left later because they couldn't start SoBo from Caratunk until the ferry started at 9. I've detailed the logistics to demonstrate how complex hiking arrangements can become. Now, back to Spartacus. Spartacus has 2 artificial knees. And yet he has hiked over 2,000 miles of the AT - including 1,500 with a full backpack. One of the primary reasons he started slack packing with us was to reduce the load of the pack on his knees, to ensure he could finish. Things seemed to be going well for him until early in yesterday's hike. The toe of his one boot got caught in a root as he was stepping forward with his other foot - not an unusual event. But the heel of his forward boot hit a downward-sloping muddy rock and slid forward into the mud. This extended his forward leg such that all his weight came down on his other leg stuck on the root and sharply (and painfully) bent that knee. He has always said that about the only thing he can't do with his new knees is to bend them as far as he used to (as in a deep knee bend). It was more flex than he's ever done and he believes he may have damaged the connective tissue. He finished the hike slowly, difficult considering the storm conditions yesterday, and slipped several more time due to the residual hail, mud and wet rocks. He rested and iced it overnight and started out on the hike this morning. Focus could tell he was in pain from the way he navigated down the steps at the inn in the morning. The bottom line is that about a half-hour into the hike, he told Focus that he had to turn around and go back to the truck. For any of you who know Spartacus, things have to be pretty bad to slow him down. Focus described the events when we met him on the trail and we continued on to Caratunk. We passed a number of beautiful ponds, crossed an old wooden dam, hiked along a cascading mountain river, and the highlight of the day is that we finally saw a moose in the trail - a large cow as we were crossing a long plank bridge across a bog. A signature event (memory) for us. And at the end, we had plenty of time for the ferry ride across the Kennebec River in the canoe with the white blaze on the bottom. We speculated that the river is about 100 yds across at the ferry point and it was rising as a result of a dam release upstream. The unpredictable dam releases make the river particularly dangerous. At the end, Spartacus was waiting on us in his truck. He had already checked in and cleaned up at the Sterling Inn where we are staying tonight. He drove us back and after we settled in, we all headed to dinner at the Northern Outdoor Center a few miles up 201. He spent the afternoon thinking about his options and he has decided to drive home (about an hour or so) and rest until the weekend. He says if things improve enough he will return Sunday. His goal is to finish Katahdin this year. The only sections he has missed are here in the north and in fact he's done over 2,000 miles, so if he can finish within a year he will complete his thru-hike. He's actually hiked Katahdin (including Knife's Edge) a number of times so he knows what that involves. Realistically the only constraint is the winter weather, so he has a couple of months. The Sterling Inn is a great place to stay, it offers all the amenities we look for and it's clean. And the resupply store is well-stocked. We're looking forward to a good night's sleep.