A Hop, Skip and a Jump





The real world is chasing us and we can hear it breathing heavy as it closes in.  There are now 114 miles between us and the northern terminus of this trail.  We are in Monson, Maine.  This is the last town.  Leaving here we enter the 100 mile wilderness and our last week in the woods.  There is no civilization until Baxter State Park. 

 

It has gotten cold.  I guess is does that this time of year at these latitudes.  It never ceases to amaze us that it was cold in Georgia when we started, we saw 100+ degree days this summer and now it is cold again.  When you walk through the seasons, the change is subtle.

 

Monson is a small town "in the middle of nowhere".  There are two hostels here.  Both are full of hikers striding to finish before the big freeze.  We know almost all of them, however, we have recently run into a few hikers on the trail whom we hadn't met yet.  After almost 6 months on the same path, that seems odd.  There are those hikers who knew they wouldn't make it to Mt. Katahdin before the mountain closes for safety reasons, usually Oct. 15th.  Many have chosen to "flip-flop".  This is when you leave the trail and head north, hike up Katahdin then south back to where you left off.  Some folks just hike slower, others needed to make some more money to continue, there were injuries that needed to heal and weddings to celebrate.  In any case, this flip-flopping has given us a chance to pass some old friends we hadn't seen in perhaps a thousand miles or more!

 

In the early days of the AT here in Maine, 1930's and 40's, it was set up for day hikers and those on shorter vacations.  It was never intended to be a trail to "through-hike" in a single season.  Silly.  Instead of going directly over the big peaks, it wound its way from fishing camp to fishing camp.  Hikers carried a bucket lunch and fly rod and arrived at log lodges where there awaited hot baths, beds and meals.  Oh how things have changed!  We ate breakfast the other day at one of the original camps.  It is just off the trail at Pierce Pond.  There is a hiker Lean-to (not called shelters in ME) at Pierce Pond as well.  To eat breakfast, hikers need to make a reservation the night before.  We mosied over, past the waterfall and across the hand-hewn cedar log bridge and signed up.  It consisted of 12 pancakes filled with blueberries, raspberries and apples, eggs, sausage, coffee and juice.  The real deal!  We were the only two there so Tim, the proprietor/cook/everything else, sat and ate with us and shared some of the history of the place.  The leaves are changing color now and the view from the dining room was lovely.  You don't find breakfast spots like this on Main St.

 

We have memories of hanging out around campfires in the Smoky Mountains, or scenic vistas in the hills of Virginia with new friends.  Though it seems so long ago, we have done nothing but continue going about our days in the same manner.  We have been living the dream.  It is coming to an end. It is bittersweet.

 

 

 

 

Clouds rolling in...

A couple of ladders.  Their sketchiness cannot be fully conveyed.

You can't miss this trail junction.

spongy

Ok, almost to the clouds!

A shore lunch, but without fish.

Bogs.  Thank goodness for boards.

Red bellied wood snake.

The trail changes color too!

Another fungus among us.

Live Free or Die

And so it goes. 298 miles of footpath left between us and Mt. Katahdin. We will be in Maine in a few miles. Our guide book, and some south-bounders (Sobos), tell us that the "most difficult or fun" mile of the trail lies ahead. The Mahoosuc notch is said to greet us with a jumbled pit of boulders the size of cars. We are currently celebrating having made it through the White Mtns by taking a "zero" day here in Gorham, NH. Zero is the number of trail miles we hiked today. We don't feel too guilty. Hike the Whites and you too will feel justified in taking some time to relax. It was definitely some of the most difficult trail we've seen. Straight up, straight down, jagged boulders above treeline, in the clouds, grab that tree and be sure not to slip. Oh look at that waterfall...no, wait, that's the trail. All that being said, it was lovely. These are the biggest mountains in the northeast and the most time we spend in the"alpine zone", near or above treeline. For most AT hikers it is a new and exciting experience to hike above treeline and be able to see the views we haven't had since the "balds" down south. For us it felt oddly familiar, like hiking back home in Montana. Mt. Washington and the Presidential Range look as though they could have been plucked from the Rockies and dropped amongst green hills. People from all over the east come to hike in the Whites. Most pay $80-120 a night to stay in one of the handful of huts operated by the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club). For that price they get a bunk, no showers and dinner and breakfast served family style in the dining hall. For many this is seriously "roughing it". For a thru-hiker it is luxury with all the fixins. So the running water isn't hot, it comes out just by turning a handle! The AMC does allow for the huts to accept a limited number of thru-hikers (4 or so) each day to do work-for-stay. This usually involves some dish washing and sweeping in exchange for eating dinner and breakfast leftovers and sleeping on the floor. We took advantage of this opportunity on an afternoon where the weather was predicted to go south. It did. We stayed inside and polished off a turkey dinner with green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy while a cold rain fell on all the poor suckers camped in the woods. The floor wasn't bad but with all the guests there was lots of noise and so we opted to go back to the tent after that. We did, however, stop in at some of the other huts and were successful at doing some work-for-sandwich! We hiked up to the top of Mt. Washington which is home to the "worst weather in America". There is a road to the top. There is a cog train as well. We had to wait in line to have our picture taken at the summit. I walked into the gift shop and heard a man ask the cashier, "So, is there a hiking trail that comes up here? Do people ever hike to the top?" My laughing out loud caught his attention so I felt I needed to explain my presence there. I'm not sure if he quite comprehended the scope of a long distance trail like this, or even believed me at all, though the cashier nodded in corroboration. We are just going to keep walking until we get to the end. Starting tomorrow!