Date: 2022-09-20
From: Antlers Campsite 

To: 100 mile wilderness inn
Miles today: 4.0
Weather: clear sky

I¢ve had little sleep as it has been raining constantly since I set up my tent about 5pm yesterday.   My tent was wet when I set it up so water from the inside has been dripping on me during the night, leading me to nervously grab my head torch a few times to check for leaks.  Not the most relaxing of nights.  I have a bad headache which may just be stress and tiredness, or it may be linked to my sore throat and sneezing.  I took two sets of paracetamol over night but it¢s not shifting. I eat a honeybun but I don¢t have the energy to make coffee.  I think through my options. My plan is to walk 16 miles to a shelter today and there is a another shelter about half way, where I might warm up. But the rain, wind and low temperatures forecast today and tomorrow make that feel a miserable  option, particularly as I have few dry clothes left. It would leave me another 20 wet miles tomorrow to get to the end of the 100 mile wilderness. There is phone/cell reception at the campsite and I search for escape options. I find that there is a chance I could get picked up at a logging road - the Jo Mary - that I passed yesterday about 4 miles back. I text Shaw¢s hiker hostel in Monson and the 100 mile wilderness inn in Millinocket.  Both offer me a shuttle pick up but only the inn has a bed for me. And they offer an earlier pick up time of 11.30.  There are also better connections to Boston from Millinocket so it¢s an easy choice to make. I pack my backpack in the tent and then emerge into heavy rain to pack my tent.  I¢m soaked through before I¢m ready to leave camp.  But I am happy now that I have a good plan and start to tramp the 4 miles or so back to Jo Mary Road with a grim smile on my face as I recollect the many memories of hours and days on the trail that truly sucked, trying to rank these.  I decide the number one worst day on the AT was when I hiked 21 miles in wind, incessant heavy rain and low temperatures with Gazelle in Pennsylvania, where we both were close to hypothermia for the last 5 miles before we made the shelter.  I fell 4 times that day in the mud, with one face first fall resulting in an injury to my thigh from a tree stump that slowed me down for weeks after.  I also walked the wrong way for almost a mile before bumping into Gazelle who thankfully was hiking in the right direction behind me.  Now, this feels like a good story and a happy memory of survival. Time is a great healer. I get to the road and Birthday Girl is there waiting for a shuttle from Shaw¢s.   She is cold and wet and balled up inside her poncho when I arrive. We chat and laugh about the atrocious weather. Both our shuttles arrive at the same time and there is some unfriendly conversation between the two drivers about a cracked windscreen which my driver alleges was caused by dangerously fast driving by his counterpart.  Lloyd, my driver is friendly and chatty but also clearly upset by the incident. I get to the hostel and I know that this chapter of my Appalachian adventure is over.  I have no intention of hiking mount Katahdin until I¢ve competed the rest of the trail. And the last 30 miles or so of the 100 mile wilderness will have to wait until that final trip. After more than 1000 miles on the trail, I am much more excited about spending a few days in Boston that trudging back out in the rain.  And going home feels exciting. I¢ve struggled with homesicknesses many times and spoken to Fi almost every day.  An old hiking friend, Nighthawk, is at the hostel and we hit Millinocket for a few beers and pizza.  It¢s a great way to decompress and to end this adventure.  In the morning, I stand on the scales in the hostel. If they are right, I have lost 35lbs.  I am the skinniest I have been since my 20¢s in my soccer playing days.  I feel mentally and physically healthy and happy. The trail has been hard about also very good for me.  I am tougher than I thought I was in many respects. And also not as tough as I thought I was in others! And I¢ve  pushed myself as hard as I¢ve been able and I¢m proud of my 1000 AT miles, including the White Mountains and Southern Maine to Saddleback. If I return, I have a 1000 miles of Georgia to Harpers Ferry, the 90 miles I skipped in Maine around the Bigelows, and the last 35 miles of the 100 mile wilderness and Katahdin to hike to complete the AT.  Will I be back?  I don¢t know. It¢s too early to say.  Let¢s see where life leads Fi and I¢¦.