The Unpolished Princess

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.

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: Bethel, Maine (AT mi 1925.9). Stop: The Cabin (AT mi 1936.2). Today’s miles: 10.3 miles. Total AT mileage: 911.5 miles

My alarm went off at 7am (on my watch) and I was so tired that I turned it off and then turned on my phone alarm for 7:30.. Mark, the motel owner, was scheduled to take me back to Grafton Notch (where I got off the trail yesterday) at 8am. I sure like to cut it close.

I did get up at 7:30, but man oh man was absolutely every muscle in my body sore. Especially my arms. Those puny things aren’t used to doing so much work and yesterday was CrossFit mixed with a tough mudder, in my humble opinion. lol.. I tossed down some ibuprofen and set to work getting dressed, packing, and eating a quick breakfast. I made it outside to meet Mark at 7:59 and he rolled up in a different van at 8:02. Perfect!

He asked me if I’d be willing to help him out this morning, and follow him in the other van to drop it off at the mechanic for routine maintenance stuff, he promised it was on the way. I didn’t care, I would have helped him either way.. he’s so dang nice! After we dropped the van off, we hit the road. A few minutes later, another hiker called Mark and he had to turn around to go get him, since he was dropping us off at the same place.

We finally made it to the trailhead at 8:45, and then there was trail magic at the parking lot. Well, no hiker in their right mind would turn down fresh scrambled eggs and coffee.. naturally, I didn’t either. I actually started hiking just after 9am. I knew when I started I probably wouldn’t be making the 16 miles I originally intended. This is also when I came to terms with the fact that I won’t make it to Katahdin before my mom flies to Maine. Ahhh. So much pressure.

Anywho-the start of the trail was an uphill climb of 3+ miles to the top of Baldpate Mountain. The trail was so well maintained, rock steps almost perfectly placed the whole way! Don’t get me wrong, my sore body ached going up them and it took me a God-awful long time.. but I appreciated the trial maintenance crew’s hard work! Haha
At the top I sat down and uploaded yesterday’s blog. When I was done I realized it was practically lunch time, so I went ahead and ate up there, too. I sat there for at least an hour.. the scenery was hazy but gorgeous. Mountains upon mountains for miles, until the haze fuzzed them all out. I wished I could have just camped right there.

The downhill from there started off sketchy, steep rock faces that weren’t slick but the fear of sliding off the mountain was present regardless. Then I got into some slick business that definitely landed me on my already bruised butt a couple times. Ha, how great. I stumbled my way to the next shelter for what seemed like hours upon hours. I finally showed up around 2:30pm.

There was a couple there, southbound.. I was chatting with them about the idea that I had originally to go another 10 miles to meet my goal, and how utterly silly that is. They laughed and agreed. I decided I didn’t want to stay at the shelter, since I still had several hours I could be hiking. I was planning to go to a waterfall about 4 ish more miles away. They told me about a road crossing just past that and the name of a hostel that will come pick me up from there. Hmmmm.

I filtered some water and hauled out of there. When I got to the top of a small, unnamed mountain, I got service. I called the hostel and got the last bunk. They told me where to call again so they could come pick me up.. the trail literally turned into actual trail not long after that. I was cruising! I finally was back to hiking 2.5 miles per hour again! I got to the waterfalls and called the hostel back, I was half a mile away from the crossing.

I made it to the road crossing at 4:45. I didn’t have service there, so I sat in the parking lot.. took my shoes off and aired out my feet. Drank some water and looked at my app to attempt to come up with a miracle to make it to Katahdin by the time my mom gets here.. hahaha-I truly don’t think it’s going to happen now. But it is what it is.. we plan, God laughs. I’ll just have to get off trail those 4-5 days and enjoy every second with her, then finish up Katahdin and fly down to Harper’s Ferry, WV the day after.. whatever day that might be.

A nice lady came and picked me up about 15 minutes of sitting there. Another man doing a quick little hike to the falls said if my ride wasn’t there by the time he got back that he’d drive me to the hostel on his way home. Wow. I’m loving these folks in Maine, at least in these rural parts.

The hostel is very friendly and tightly fits a whole lot of hikers.. I got there right at dinner time, so I got to eat before showering. Dinner included salad, pork tenderloin (mom knows this isn’t my favorite, but ya know what? I ate it, I just wouldn’t do it again), mashed potatoes, corn on the cobb, greens, and garlic bread. It was at this moment-with my plate full and lemonade in my cup-that I decided I’m going to slack pack tomorrow and stay here again tomorrow night.. lol. They also gave us brownies and ice cream. AND-I get breakfast tomorrow, too. Yep-they’re going to have to kick me out.

I showered and organized my gear to slack pack 13 miles tomorrow. I wanted to do 22, but they’re all acting like I have 9 heads-so I’ll go with their flow since they know what they’re doing and have hiked these mountains before. Haha. It feels weird to slack and not actually get any further than I would if I carried my pack, but I’m just counting it as extra home cooked meals now. I’m getting 2 or 4 more meals out of this deal, not any saved days for my itinerary.

Anyway, it’s bedtime. I’ve got to find somewhere to plug in this phone and then climb up on my top bunk in a crowded bunk room. Hopefully it’s comfortable, or that’s going to make the next few days awkward.. since it’ll be my bunk those days, too.

Sweet dreams, y’all.