100 Miles in the Wilderness

There is so much to update and not a lot of time to do it in before I have to show up for my all you can eat breakfast and then catch a ride back to the trail. So let me give you a quick re-cap of the last seven days and then a short list of highlights and lowlights.

I camped at Baxter State Park on the 2nd. On the morning of the 3rd, I woke at four fifteen and started walking up Mount Katahdin. It was an absolutely amazing climb. I got to the summit by eight thirty, snapped a few photos and ate some breakfast, then headed back down. I eventually walked twenty miles that day. Over the next week I walked anywhere from ten to seventeen miles per day. I met absolute brilliant people. I saw absolutely brilliant views. I started to use the word "brilliant" in sentences like that because I hiked with two Irish dudes for a few days. After seven days of the most difficult and technical hiking I have ever done, I  reached the end of the hundred mile wilderness. I am pretty beat up. Knees sore and stiff, feet achy and blistery, legs looking like raw hamburger meet from the mosquitoes and black flies. And yet I like this life. Here are some things that stick out about the last week, good and bad, in no particular order.

• The view from the top of Katahdin. Maine seems to be more lake than land. 
• Stopping at Abol Bridge Campground and eating two hamburgers, three snickers bars, and a six pack of beer to celebrate my first day on the trail. After a twenty mile day, all that took about six minutes.
• Seeing a moose on my first day in Baxter State Park.
• Losing one of my trecking poles--also on my first day--while trying to ford a river. I am bad at fording rivers. 
• Learning a thousand different ways to curse at mosquitoes from my Irish friends, Matty and Smiley. The Irish have a way with words. 
• The absolute misery of the first fifty miles after Katahdin--a swampy, sticky, mosquito infested nightmare of flooded trails and rotted bridges. Three straight days of wet feet and socks that won't dry. 
• The absolute elation of getting back some elevation. The views from White Cap Mountain, Chairback Mountain, and Fourth Mountain. 
• Getting to know southbounders and northbounders in camp at night. Playing chess, reading, talking. Complaining about our feet together. 
• Hitchhiking for the first time and actually being successful at it. 
• Missing my family. Missing Rachael and not being able to see her in Joseph right now. 
• Meeting a guy at the bus stop in Bangor that I would eventually end up hiking with a few days later. His trail name is Cold Beer. Guess what he talks about all the time? 
• Cold Beer and I finding our first bit of trail magic--an old scary guy selling two dollar cold beers from a cooler on his front porch at the very southern edge of the wilderness. 
• Sitting out on the dock at the Lakeshore House, a hostel here in Monson, and watching the sun set. 
• Showering last night AND this morning.
• Losing six pounds in seven days despite the huge amounts of food I ate. This is a major, major physical activity.

There is more, so much more, but just  no time to talk about it all. More later. Next post in five to six days from Stratton. I'm off to AYCE pancakes.

Happy Trails--
--Pawn