Category: Long Distance Trails

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!

Start: South Arm Road (AT mi 1946.3). Stop: East B Hill Road (AT mi 1936.2). Today’s miles: 10.1 miles Total AT mileage: 934.9 miles

Last night as I was about to climb up to my top bunk, I realized there was an empty bed out on the screened in porch that Sling was sleeping in. I darted out there and quizzed him on who’s bed this was “no one claimed it yet” and if it cools off at night out here “cooler than in there.” Done! I grabbed all my stuff and parked right there on the porch! I was sound asleep in minutes!

I got up just before 7 with only enough time to pee before breakfast was being served. Lol, I think my body is tired as hell. Even still, I ate my yummy food and drank my share of coffee before heading back downstairs to change clothes and get my pack.

I went with Hopper to drop Eagle off at route 17, which is where I’ll be going tomorrow.. but then she drove me on to Rangeley, Maine to pick up my package that David sent me. He sent me his dynema Zpacks Duplex tent (fancy waterproof one that takes forever to order online) to use while on trail. I cannot thank him enough for his kindness! And I can’t wait to set it up, either.

Once I got the package and mailed my tent home, Hopper drove me over to South Arm Road so I could slack pack the 10 miles I missed. For reference, we left in the shuttle at 7:30, got to route 17 at 8:30, and I started at South Arm at 10:30. These towns are not close together and the roads are small 2 lane roads winding around big mountains. I learned so much about Hopper during those hours. I think that’s why I love the cabin so much, the people that work here are absolutely amazing.

I got started and had a decent climb to start. Everyday seems to start this way. Even still, it wasn’t technical, it was the rock steps neatly placed, all the way up. It was tough, but not in a miserable way. The bugs were out, the sun was out, and it started getting hot. The downhill got a little tricky at times, but it was enjoyable.

I passed several NOBOs that were confused as to why I was hiking southbound.. I ran into Kindle and Upwards, and chatted with them about Runway getting injured in the Notch. She’s been staying at the Cabin and making me laugh the last few nights.. Kindle and Upwards stayed with her at a campsite just after the notch but before the arm while she waited for help to come “rescue” her out.. she was able to walk but unable to use her right arm to grab, hold, maneuver or carry her pack. She couldn’t go back through the notch or climb the arm, so she was stuck.

While she stayed at the campsite with those two, her hiking partners, Sling and Tinman hauled ass up the arm to get to the next shelter where a caretaker was and could help get the rescue people to the right place to get her out. It sounded like a pretty dramatic day for all of them. Today Sling and Tinman hiked out and I passed them at a stream at the bottom of my mountain.. I sat at the creek and had lunch with them. Hikers really are the best people.

After I ate, I carried on south and they went north. Within 10 minutes I ran into Reef. We stopped and talked awhile before I started my second big climb of the day. It was a bit more rough than the previous one, less perfectly placed rocks, more scrambling. But once I made it to the top, it was smooth, pine needle path walking to the road. Mind you, it was 4 miles to the road, so not like a 15 minute stroll or anything.

The only issue: while I was headed up that second incline, my back started burning like it was on fire. Then, my hips started rubbing on my pack. I looked myself over and realized I was getting chaff rashes everywhere my pack was touching. I tried to turn my pack around, but the frame is too long for me to see over it. I had to muster through 6 miles with rashes brewing. It hurt.

I thought maybe it was my shorts waist band rubbing my hips so bad, so at some point I just took them off and walked in my undies. Naturally, it’s at this point that I cross paths with Proton, Luau (I think I called him aloha in another post lol), Scout, and Steak. Classy. And embarrassing, but whatever.

When I made it to the road, JoJo was waiting for me. It was 5pm and we giggled that every day I’m 15 minutes later, no matter the terrain lol. She drove me by the store and I resupplied for tomorrow, and-of course-got a strawberry milk. That stuff hits the spot! When she got me back to the cabin, I was happy I had time to shower before dinner.. the problem was the fresh, raw skin stung too bad to be touched.

I tried getting into cool water and even that was too much. I had to wash my hair with my head bent to the faucet instead of standing under the stream of water because of the pain. I literally cried when some shampoo soap touched my back. I had raw, inflamed skin across my back where my pack rubbed, across my shoulders where the straps were, under my arms, on my sides under my sports bra, and on both hips.

I went to dinner and was moving my body gently, because the clothes were sticking to the raw areas and when it would pull I would wince. Hopper took notice and when I showed her after dinner she said she thought I should consider zeroing tomorrow and scrub my pack down and let it air dry to get the salt and grime off just in case that contributed to my ailments. I really do love the people here.

Runway gave me a Benadryl and before bed I put on some hydrocortisone cream. It seems to be helping. Oh! Dinner: salad, baked ham, corn on the cobb, sweet potatoes, rolls, plus brownies and ice cream.. I partook in all of the above!

Anyway, I’m laying here in my bed on the screened in porch praying I can fall asleep. Being a side sleeper with wounds on my hips is not very fun or relaxing. There’s always something! It’s like God knew I’d need a legit reason to not hike out tomorrow.. found it! Well, goodnight y’all.

I slept through breakfast today. I think the last 11 days have caught up with me and my body-raw rash or not-was slap over it. I never miss a meal and I just had no strength to get up, and no will power either. So, I slept in until close to 8:30. It felt amazing!

When I finally did get up, everyone was either already shuttled to the trail or off doing something else-so I just sleepily laid around and did nothing. At some point I did eat my poptarts and wash my pack and hang it to dry.. but that’s literally the most I accomplished.

Around 11:45 I took a nap, the first real nap I can say I’ve had in a very long time (besides the day I slept a lot in Hanover with Lyme’s disease). I woke up again after 3pm because I was sweating. The screened in porch is great at night, but pretty miserable during the day.

I went for a walk with a 19 year old named BlessedBillygoat. I’ll be honest, he’s very kind but I’m a little worried about him. Some of the stuff he was saying seemed a bit… strange. I’m happy he’s on trail and away from the home life that he was telling me about. We walked like half a mile or so and then headed back. My rash is all scabbed over so it feels much better today. Then again, I haven’t put my full pack on yet-so we shall see what tomorrow brings.

I laid around and updated the blog, attempted to pay bills, download some audiobooks, that sort of thing. The WiFi here and service in general isn’t fantastic, so I didn’t make it very far on any of those endeavors really. Around 4:30, Don (Honey’s son) said he was going to the store and asked if we wanted to go.. 5 of us did. I got strawberry milk again lol

Dinner was at 6pm like always and included salad, spaghetti with meatballs, garlic bread and corn on the cobb. I’ve been eating that corn like a lunatic! It’s just so dang good! They served ice cream and brownies, but I skipped out on that because of all the other food I ate, plus the dairy from the milk has been making my stomach turn gargle-y flips.. I don’t think my fellow hikers will appreciate me if the stomach flips turn into toots.

It started raining while we were eating, and now I’m happy I’m sleeping under a roof. I’m mostly packed and ready for tomorrow, and Hopper let me know that I get to split my shuttle 3 ways tomorrow morning.. so all in all, I’m so happy for the zero today. Cheaper shuttle, more good food, a much needed day of rest, and a comfy nights sleep listening to the rain. What more could a girl want?

Goodnight y’all. And sorry for the lack of pictures.. I kind of forgot to take any today.. I took that whole “relaxing” thing to heart lol