The Unpolished Princess

Start: Stealth Site (AT mi 2069.3). Stop: Monson, Maine (AT mi 2078.6). Today’s miles: 9.3 miles. Total AT mileage: 1053.9 miles

Just before 3am, rain drops started to splatter down on top of my tent. In a panic, I jumped up and started closing the open vestibule. TieDye was up grabbing his clothes hanging to “dry” and reminded me to get mine, too. I went ahead and peed while I was awake and standing in the sprinkle. I bet I’ll never leave the vestibules open ever again.

I fell back to sleep pretty easily. Then, what felt like moments later, my watch alarm went off. Ugh. TieDye’s alarm went off at the same time, so we were both up awake and slowly moving. The rain didn’t pour by any means, but since it was dripping onto the tent still, I ate my breakfast in the tent and took my sweet time packing everything inside before venturing out of the tent to pack it.

We got started just after 7am and I was on high alert looking for exciting animals. It looks like yesterday was the only day that was going to happen, because all I caught glimpses of today were squirrels, chipmunks, and singing birds. I enjoyed it though.. even if it did decide to be very buggy very early on (resulting in me wearing my bug net over my head), and extremely humid.

I took a break only to dig a hole, and later to eat a protein bar. Originally I attempted to eat the protein bar while walking, but the trail took an upwards turn that had me about choking on the thing with all my heavy breathing. The uphill was called “Buck Hill” so even the trail knows it wasn’t a mountain, but my legs and lungs were sure acting like it was. Thankfully, it was short lived.

On the downhill, the rocks got slippery at times. I did an awkward slide that kept me on my feet but bent down tight on my knees.. it’s hard to describe and I’m still not sure how I didn’t just land on my butt-and honestly I wish I would have, because it would have probably hurt less. TieDye took some slide stumbles too.. which he says his pack took the brunt of the impacts, thank goodness. Between the two of us, we spent a fair amount of time falling! Lol I have new shoes waiting on me in Monson, another great thing to look forward to!

We made it to the road crossing and parking lot just as TweetyBird and Starburst were getting into a car. I waved bye to them, but when I did the driver saw and then stopped to make room for the 2 of us, too! At first I thought it was a hitch, so I felt guilty that the driver stopped for us.. but as it turns out, she’s the shuttle driver for the hostel, so my wave technically saved her a trip.

When we got there, the driver went to get us each a free beer and to my surprise, TBird, DoubleDecker, and Smiles all came running out to hug TieDye! Almost their entire tramily reunited! Townlegs is the only missing link, but she already reunited with the majority and had to hike out to attempt to meet a deadline so she can see family. It was so awesome to witness. I got in on some hugs, too, and was grateful to see these people who’ve been such a big part of my hike. Helping my shin splints, Lyme’s Disease, and of course the friendship and entertainment, as well. I will say, it made me miss my tramily though.

Speaking of my tramily, Curmudgeon, Derby, and Towelie all have summited Mount Katahdin! Lizard, Sauce, FarOut, and Beaver are all very close to doing the same.. I’m just guessing, but I think they’re on day 5 or 6 now. I’m expecting some more epic summit pics to come rolling in while I’m in Bar Harbor with my mom. And then I’m praying like hell I can catch up to them, or at least some of them, by the time I hit Virginia. Curmy is such a fast hiker and will be starting in Harpers Ferry the day I start back at the 100 mile wilderness. He’d have to take a lot of zeros for me to catch him! Lol Derby has completed his thruhike and so will Beaver, so I won’t be getting to see either of them in the south, no matter how fast I try to hike.

Back to the hostel-I quickly took a shower and TieDye and I got our laundry in the machine, that way all my chores would be done by the time mom got there. I was able to get service and call her when I still had 6 miles to hike this morning.. she had made her first flight and was about to catch her connecting one. Then, when I was in the shower she messaged that she had landed and was on the way to get the rental car, she should be there by 2-2:30.. it was exactly noon now. Perfect!

We walked over to get a sandwich at the general store (grilled cheese for me), and sat in the courtyard to eat with some other hikers. I finished before TieDye and headed over to the post office to get my new shoes-which I did without a single issue! Now, when I start in Monson, I’ll have fresh shoes. More importantly, they should last longer since the terrain won’t be as tough when I flip back down to West Virginia.
Shoes in hand, I walked across the street to the Appalachian Trail Conservatory office. The sweet lady there gave me all the details I could ever need to know about hiking the 100 mile wilderness, the process for getting permits at Baxter State Park to even be able to summit Mount Katahdin, and the plans for when and how to register for the shelter before the climb. Plus, I finally got my 2021 thruhiker tag!

I made my way back to the hostel, got our clothes out of the dryer and took TieDye his, then shoved mine in my pack. I settled my bill with the hostel ($10 for laundry and a shower). I also discussed the details for getting a food drop into the 100 mile wilderness so I don’t have to tote 7 days of food all at once, especially for the first 2 days which are the most difficult. She wrote out the details and told me to take some time to do the logistics of it all, and on the 23rd to be there before 11am if I decide I want to have them drop me food half way. I’m thinking I might want to do it!

By the time I wrapped all of that up and got inside where everyone was watching a movie, my mom showed up! After hugging the crap out of her, I introduced her to my friends. Once we said our goodbyes, mom and I headed out of town. We stopped for some drinks for the ride, and then drove down Maine backroads all the way to Belfast, Maine.. a cute coastal town south of Bar Harbor. Our reservations for Bar Harbor aren’t until Thursday, so we’re spending a night in Belfast in a cute cottage across the street from the bay.

We checked in, unloaded our stuff, and headed to dinner. The first restaurant we tried was slap packed full of people on top of people, so we went to a more empty restaurant down the way and had some burgers. I can’t have mom catch covid on a trip to see me.. that would just be awful! We ate, we talked, we enjoyed the scenery. Afterwards we walked to the water and looked in a few shops.. man I’m so happy she’s here!

Now, I plan to enjoy every second with her.. I won’t be posting updates while we’re on our side trip, so this will be my last post for a bit. Also, while I’m thinking about it, service is apparently not great in the 100 mile wilderness, so I may not be able to post those daily blogs until after I’m out and have reached the summit of Katahdin and come back down to town, but I promise to still write every night and attempt to upload when I do get service. It may just be that you’ll get a whole bunch of posts in a single day when I get service again! Haha

The plan is to be on a plane headed to DC for the second half of my trek on 7/31.. so it may not be until then when you start seeing updates again. I apologize in advance if that’s the way it goes down. Much love to you all! Thank you for following me on my journey 🙂

Start:Bald Mountain Brook Lean-To (AT mi 2056.6). Stop: Stealth Site (AT mi 2069.3). Today’s miles: 12.7 miles. Total AT mileage: 1044.6 miles

I got up just after 7:15 and TweetyBird and Starburst were still snoozing. I felt bad making the racket packing up causes, but it had to be done. I changed, packed, ate breakfast and then got on trail at exactly 8am. I was going to go up the side trail to see if TieDye was up, but because of all the noise I had already made I felt guilty. Plus, I’m slow on uphills, and first thing this morning was a climb to Moxie Bald Mountain. I hatched a plan then to get to the top, and if he hadn’t passed me before then, to hangout up top in the sunshine until he came along.

The climb was a kind one, gently sloping upwards.. it had chunks of steep climbing, but they were all short lived and it was easy to catch your breath again. When I got to the top, it was a little after 9am. The sun was shining, the views were nice with lakes off into the distance. I was hoping for enough service to post yesterday’s blog, but that didn’t happen. I took my pack off on a big rock slab just north of the summit marker.

I walked around and ate blueberries, there were fat, juicy ones everywhere. I stretched some, and then laid down and closed my eyes for a bit. I never fully fell asleep, but I was loving every second of feeling the sun on my skin and the breeze blowing past my face. It felt beyond refreshing to not feel like I needed to rush off the top to make it somewhere else. I could just lay there and enjoy the moment I was in.

While up there, I heard several men’s voices chatting each other up. I’d peek an eye open and just make sure it wasn’t TieDye. The last time this happened, it was him! He was talking with another hiker, 3rd degree, so I popped up and headed in their direction by the summit sign. We all chatted a few, ate more blueberries, and then TieDye and I headed down off the mountain.

The downhill was the same as the up-gently sloping down with chunks of knee screaming large drops.. which were also short lived. It worked out well. Once the mountain itself was over.. it was mostly level ground for the rest of the day. Just after 1130, TieDye stopped for a snack and said he’d catch up to me. I carried on.. only to spot A MOOSE!

I caught a female moose on video!! ON TRAIL! During the middle of the day!! Usually people spot them at dawn or dusk by ponds, or by the road.. hardly ever during the middle of the day, far from water!! I recorded her for over 3 minutes.. at first she didn’t notice me, she was just walking along and I froze when I heard the weight of steps crunching branches and brush. Then, you can see on the video the moment she notices me.. she sticks her nose up and sniffs, then turns her head toward me.

We both freeze now. I don’t want to disturb her or scare her. I hoped she’d trot across the trail but she slowly turns away, slowly walks back, and when I put my phone down-she tore off running the way she had come. It was PHENOMENAL! I was so excited, I told every person I saw for like 4 hours! Lol TieDye came up shortly after and was sad he missed the moose of course, but happy I caught it on video.

We crossed a stream and ate lunch and relaxed with a few other hikers doing the same. One man is finishing up his last section of his AT this year and he’s been at section hiking this thing since 1973. Talk about commitment! I showed them the moose, and then anyone with eyes as well.. haha

After lunch we started off together again. We were chatting about any and everything: wildlife, hostels, veteran outreach programs, volunteer programs, the show “Naked and Afraid.” And then.. we spot the bare end of a black bear!! We rounded the corner with the creek off to our left, just a chattering away, when the bear noticed us and full on high tailed it to the woods on the other side of the creek! It was smaller than the female moose, but still a big animal. It happened so fast and there was no way to get a picture, but I kind of think it was a younger bear as it didn’t look as large as I’d think a full grown bear would be.

So then, that turned into me telling anyone passing with ears that I saw a moose AND a bear today. What a wonderful day!! The rest of the trail followed along a creek to the right, and for an elevation profile that looked flat, it did a lot of rolling. Ups and downs, ups and downs, but it felt like a real hiking trail-not a jungle gym of obstacle courses. So even with the ups and downs, I was happy.

I was hiking along ahead of TieDye who decided to listen to his audiobook for a while, when I came across a perfect tent site for 2 on the left. When I looked at the creek to see if getting water from here would be easy, I spotted a huge swimming hole! The creek cascaded into a pool of deep, deep rocks, and then became shallow again just down a little ways. And, the best part: there was an easy access point to get to it all!

I pulled up the app on my phone and realized we were only 0.3 miles from the shelter, and the recent comments mentioned water from the stream by the shelter was dry, AND the shelter looked to be uphill on the profile. I took my pack off to claim the space behind me (just in case someone else got ahead of TieDye and wanted to camp here), and sat down to wait for him.

I decided I’d let him decide. My feet were achy, but if he wanted to push on to the shelter or even to the river crossing a couple more miles down, I’d be game. It was only 3:30 now anyway. BUT, if he mentioned he’d like to stay and swim, I’d be perfectly happy with that option! Which, shortly there after when he arrived and looked around, is exactly what happened!

We rested a bit first, laying back in the flat space we’d set our tents up in. We were going to go swim and come back to set up, but when other hikers passed and mentioned how great the spot was, I wanted to make it clear to anyone else passing while we were swimming that this spot was spoken for. So, I laid out my ground cloth and we spread our stuff out a bit before heading down to get water to filter and to swim.

The water was warm on top and ice cold below! I took my time getting in, not because of the cold, but because of the slick rocks on bare feet. I didn’t want to get cut or anything. TieDye beat me in, and then Starburst appeared. He put his poles out for TweetyBird to see when she caught up, and then he got in too! We all three swam and soaked a while. My feet enjoyed the icy cold of the bottom even though it was making the rest of me cold too. It just helps take the ache away.

We were getting out when TweetyBird appeared. She was only going to put her feet in, so I didn’t feel bad for not staying in any longer. I wanted to start drying out some before it was time to eat dinner.. lol. They ended up putting their tent up right by the water! It just barely fits on the little flat space between the rock ledges, but they made it work! It’s a pretty sweet spot, for sure.

We came up and set up our tents, got in dry clothes, unpacked, filtered water.. all the camp chores. Then we had our dinner, along with great conversation, which I always seem to enjoy with TieDye. It’s now just after 8pm and I’m sleepy. I’ve got one side of the tent vestibules open, and I’m going to see how I like that tonight. It makes me nervous, because I don’t feel “secure” with the fabric not blocking the mesh material.. like anyone could just stare in at me-but either way, I want some airflow so I’m leaving it open. Haha.

We have just a bit over 9 miles tomorrow to knock out before getting into Monson. The plan is to get there by 12, get a shower and do some laundry at the hostel, and be done by the time mom gets there! That way I’ll be clean and we won’t have to worry with laundry on our trip together. I feel awful that I don’t have service tonight, and probably won’t in the morning either.. at least for a few hours until I get closer to town. Her flight leaves very early, and I want to be able to check on her and whatnot.. make sure she’s good and everything is going well.

Hopefully I’ll have service by the time her flight lands! That’s the prayer anyway. I cannot WAIT to see her! We’re about to have some fun and good food 🙂 that’s what I plan to go to sleep tonight thinking about. The best company and good food coming our way lol.. Goodnight y’all

Start: The Sterling Inn (AT mi 2041.9). Stop: Bald Mountain Brook Lean-To (AT mi 2056.6). Today’s miles: 14.7 miles. Total AT mileage: 1031.9 miles

I got up just after 7am, used the bathroom, changed my clothes and headed down to breakfast. It was basically a continental breakfast, so I had 2 toasted bagels with cream cheese, a banana, coffee, and juice. It was no patriotic pancakes, but it served its purpose fine. I ate with TieDye and a SOBO hiker who’s name I forget now. TieDye was already packed and ready, so he’d head out before me today, but we were aiming for the same camp.

I didn’t end up leaving until a little after 9.. I packed relatively quickly, but then laid back in the bed and got yesterday’s blog post uploaded. When you know you have service, you take advantage! When I was finally ready, I took all my stuff down to the porch and then settled my bill for my resupply and my private room stay. I was quite content with the way yesterday panned out, so it was money well spent indeed.

I hit the trail with two other hikers, from Canton, GA. TweetyBird and her husband-I want to say Starburst but I don’t want to ask again and be a jerk lol. We crossed each other a couple times throughout the day. Mostly I hiked alone, listening to another new audiobook, “The Last Thing He Told Me.” Lauren recommended it and I was so excited when it became available yesterday on my free library app. I think I’m going to finish it tonight, actually.

The trail was seriously easy today. Like the climbs up Pleasant Pond Mountain and Middle Mountain didn’t even register as slightly difficult. It was padded, pine straw and dirt path, dotted with easily avoidable roots and rocks. I’m sure this luck will run out, soon, but honestly it’s been phenomenal to be able to actually hike again. There may not have been any super exciting views, but I still loved every second of it. Plus it never got too hot, my bandana never got soaked from wiping my face.. it was beyond happy hiking, for sure.

I ate lunch on a log just below the first summit, and then on the way down I shared the trail with a snake, a bit longer than I wanted to. I even got a video of the little creeper. A few hours later, before I was expecting it, my planned shelter popped up. I was shocked! The next one was 4 miles away, but over another peak, and as good as I felt, I didn’t want to push my luck by hiking on.. plus, there’s no reward to getting to Monson early, except to have to pay money to spend the night there.. lol

So, I dropped my pack at the sign to go to the shelter. There were two mostly flat tent sites right there where I was standing, but I wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything better closer to the shelter, and I wanted to make sure TieDye was there since I never caught up to him today.

I took the blue blazed trail the quarter mile to the shelter, passing huge boulders that reminded me of Chia-pets.. mossy and leafy “hair” growing out the top lol.. the shelter wasn’t very inviting, so I knew I wanted to tent (I’ve pretty much preferred my tent to the shelters ever since I got David’s.. which is enough to tell me this tent is the right choice). I chatted with TieDye a minute, he was setting up there in the last decent spot, so I was happy to go back and set up where I left my pack.

We’re aiming for the same place tomorrow, maybe a stealth site closer to Monson so we have an easier day getting into Monson the following day. I’m going to try to be packed and ready by the time he comes down the side trail, maybe we’ll attempt to hike together some tomorrow. Normally that stresses me out, but something tells me TieDye won’t have that affect on me.

I sat up my tent in the flatter of the two spots, and just after I finished unpacking everything and changing my clothes, TweetyBird and Starburst appeared. I had passed them when they were eating lunch earlier. They set up next to me in the other spot. It’s perfect down here, we’re right next to a creek with good water.

We ate dinner and hung our food bags. I was going to sleep with mine, but now I’m glad I didn’t because I can hear these squirrels and chipmunks going ateshit nearby. Squeaking and chasing each other, plus dropping stuff off trees.. random thumps to the ground. I’ve looked out of the tent a few times to verify it’s not our ropes they’re chewing and our food plummeting to the ground.

I don’t have service here, so I really hope I get service sometime tomorrow and keep it, since mom will be checking in for her flight and might have last minute questions. I called the hostel in Monson to see if they had a private room for us, but no such luck. I think we’ll probably just eat a meal in town then head elsewhere for the night.

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. I’m going to listen to my audiobook with both headphones, and then get some shut eye 🙂 goodnight y’all!