Start: Monson, Maine (AT mi 2078.6). Stop: Thompson Brook (AT mi 2087.9). Today’s miles: 9.3 miles. Total AT mileage: 1062.9 miles
Mom woke me up just before 7am and I quickly got ready and packed up my stuff. We had everything in the rental car and checked out of the room by 7:20. We sat down to breakfast at a cute little place named “Jordan’s” and had our food served to us before 7:45.. as happy as I was that everything was going so smoothly this morning, I was super sad that my mom would be leaving me soon. Too soon, in my opinion.
I had French toast, eggs and bacon with coffee..Mom had blueberry pancakes and eggs with her coffee. We’ve been having some pretty stellar breakfasts in Bar Harbor, I’m sad that those are ending, too. Lol After we ate, we hopped in the rental and headed towards Monson. We took a pit stop for the ATM and gas, and another for me to run to the bathroom.. otherwise, we sailed to Monson and arrived with plenty of time to take care of the errands I needed to handle before setting off into the 100 mile wilderness. For those that don’t know, the 100 mile wilderness is the longest stretch of the Appalachian Trail without a town, cell service, or civilization so to say.. and when you come out of that stretch, you go into Baxter State Park to summit Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak and the northern terminus of the AT.
First, we stopped at Shaw’s Hiker Hostel for me to arrange a food drop in the wilderness. They’re going to deliver me a bucket filled with everything I’ve purchased for a resupply on day 4.. I will call them from a specific mountain top on day 3 (when I’m supposed to have service) and verify my drop off time. As of now, I’ll have to be at a specific logging road at 10am on Thursday to get my food. No pressure or anything.. haha
After setting up all of that, mom and I went to the post office to ship some stuff home (mostly all the pretty clothes she brought me to wear around town in Bar Harbor. It was so nice feeling like a normal person in public..) and then we went to a little place to order a pizza. It was only 11:30, but I knew better than to start hiking without loading up on a proper lunch.
Pizza in tow, we made our way to the trailhead parking lot. This is when reality set in. I was about to start hiking, she was about to drive to the airport. Dammit, this sucks. We ate what we could of the pizza and then I shared the rest with some hikers that had just gotten dropped off. Originally I thought I’d pack it out to eat tonight for dinner, but then I realized I already packed a dinner, and there’s no point in toting extra food with all these climbs coming my way.
When I got all ready to go, mom and I hugged bye. This was the worst part of my entire day. I hate seeing her sad, and she was sad we were going our separate ways. We ended up hugging again right at the trailhead and made promises to check in and for her to let me know she made her flights and got home safely (as I’m writing this, I’m still waiting to hear about her connecting flight, on my Garmin InReach, because I haven’t had service since leaving the WiFi of Shaw’s haha).
I started off into the woods. It was sprinkling, the trail was slick, but it was beautiful and I had missed it. Surprisingly, I didn’t fall any, but I definitely did some sliding.. I just happened to catch myself before hitting the ground each time! Ha! The trail had some brief climbs and steep descents, but none of it was particularly challenging. Which was perfect for me today, because my body struggled to get back into the swing of things. My knees bothered me more than I expected, to the point of taking an extra dose of ibuprofen this afternoon.
I passed some pretty ponds and a gorgeous waterfall. I sat and talked with two NOBOs while we filtered water. They gave me some insight for their plan to summit Katahdin and the day or two before that.. making sure to get permits for certain parts at certain times is tricky.. I like having a backup plan for my backup plan. It might be why I’m good at ICU nursing lol.. gotta love that type A personality, right?
I made it to my planned river crossing and campsite just after 6pm. The rain had moved in and stayed steady just after 5.. I was annoyed with myself for sitting around chatting earlier, because I probably could have had my tent up before the rain, or at least closer to less rain if I wasn’t chatting and lollygagging.. but where I set up is mostly tree covered anyway, so the inside of the tent stayed dry even during the set up. I’m seriously still in love with David’s tent. So much so, I finally cracked and bought one of my own-it just has a forever long wait time.
I unpacked and got everything secure from the rain, then went to the water to wash off. I’m right next to the river and can hear the water rushing by from my tent. It’s the best sound machine there is! Once I was all clean, I changed clothes, hung my bear line, and then set to work making dinner. I wanted to make sure the line was already tossed in the right spot before it got dark on me. Now the sun sets around 7:45 ish, so daylight runs out on me before I expect it to sometimes.. being rainy doesn’t help the situation, either.
My food is put away, my mom just messaged that she made her connecting flight, and I’m all tucked in for bed. It’s 8:15 and I’m pretty tired already. I’m going to try to get some sleep without my earplugs so that when mom messages that she’s landed I’ll hear my Garmin go off.. The thing is pretty dang handy! I’m trying to save battery anyway, since I have 6-7 more days out here and my battery pack will only last 4-5 of those days.
I’m going to stay in airplane mode through tomorrow regardless, and then play it by ear on day 3. I won’t even attempt to upload these blog posts until I’m sure I’ll have enough battery to summit Katahdin and get my ride to the hostel afterwards lol.. Imagine summiting a mountain like Katahdin, and having a dead phone and no pictures! It’s too mortifying for me to even consider letting that happen! Haha goodnight y’all! Time for that shut eye while listening to the water rush by.