Day 92: Slackpack

Start: South Arm Road (AT mi 1946.3). Stop: ME RT 17 (AT mi 1959.6). Today’s miles: 13.3 miles. Total AT mileage: 924.8 miles

I got up a little before 7am and changed into my hiking clothes, threw my belongings on my bunk, and headed upstairs to breakfast. It was glorious: blueberry pancakes, eggs, sausage, potatoes, cantaloupe, and coffee. I can get used to this!

After breakfast, Hopper dropped me and another hiker, named Trash, off at South Arm Road to slack pack north 13.3 miles. I decided to skip a 10 mile section to hike with him so that we could split the shuttle cost.. tomorrow I’ll slack the 10 I skipped today, and Hopper guesses I’ll be able to have more people to split that shuttle with, too. I’m racking up a nice little bill here lol

We got started at 8:30 and immediately hit an uphill climb. Old Blue Mountain reminded me a lot of yesterday’s morning climb.. pristine rock stairs almost the entire way to the top. They were tough and twisted upwards through the woods. I smacked my face into spider web after spider web until roughly an hour later when a couple of SOBO hikers passed.

Trash and I hiked on and off with each other all day, mostly on, and mostly him chatting away telling me about any and everything. He and his wife have a home on St. Croix and when he learned I’m a nurse, he had a massive amount of information for me about taking a travel contract there. Everything from scuba and “snuba” diving, to homes with great views and which beaches are the best. He has me wishing I was there now..

We got to the “summit” of Bemis Mountain-it was very anticlimactic. We were in the woods and there was a sign nailed to a tree and a rock behind it. I sat down on the rock and ate my lunch. Trash did the same. Maybe 30 minutes more of hiking and we actually came across some views! However it was sprinkling when we got there, so I think we made the right choice for lunch.

We started heading downhill, and it was quite painful on my knees. I did eat my share of blueberries on the way though. They were all over the trail! And for the record, fresh blueberries taste INCREDIBLE! I called the hostel when my phone had one bar of signal and we were 2 miles away from the road. It caused us to truck a little faster. At 0.6 miles to go-the trail took a sharp uphill turn and it was rough going. Straight up with the roots and rocks and pulling and climbing. It slap wore me out.

I got to the top at the road at 4:40pm. I told Hopper to expect us anytime from 4:30-4:45. Talk about exact timing! I was pretty impressed with myself lol! Jo-jo and Frank were waiting on us, and once Trash got there (a whopping 3 minutes later), we headed back to The Cabin. Frank was sweet enough to stop off at the gas station so I could get a strawberry milk. Reef has created a monster with this milk craving! Lol

We got back to the cabin and it was a few minutes before dinner so I headed up without showering first. We had hamburgers, corn on the cobb, potatoes, and then dessert. I skipped dessert and had extra corn, then snuck out to get my shower and start my laundry.

Now it’s almost 9pm, my clothes just finished and I’m about to hit the sack: aka my top bunk. Haha it wasn’t too bad last night so hopefully I’ll sleep good tonight, too.

In the morning I’ll get a ride to the post office in the next town over. My friend, David sent me his fancy tent to use, that is waterproof. So, I’m going to pick it up, send mine home, and then the shuttle driver (probably Hopper, that woman is a SAINT) will take me to south arm road to slack pack south the 10 miles I skipped yesterday.
Looks like I’ll be spending another night at the cabin! Hahaha (I told y’all they’d have to kick me out!)

Sweet dreams!