Into the Wilderness

August 21 & 22

Miles: 13 & 15 (2089/2189)

Location: Stealth camping along Long Pond Stream

Weather: Very nice, a bit too warm; looking like it is going to rain this evening

Complaint of the Day: Slow start to the day. I was awake at 6:00 like I normally am, but the hostel I was staying at in Monson last night doesn’t start breakfast until 7:00 and the first shuttle to the trail wasn’t until after 8:00. It took awhile to get moving on a day that I was hoping to get a lot of miles done.

Yesterday was simple enough. I got up and I cruised into town. The trail was easy and flat and I was looking forward to a real lunch so I made quick time into Monson, the last town on the A.T. before reaching Katahdin. The hostel there, Shaw’s was pretty nice, but I didn’t really care. All I needed was a shower, laundry, and a bed to nap in. The fact that it had a quality breakfast this morning was just a bonus. 

Since Monson is the last town on the trail, all the hikers stop there. And that means that there were a lot of hikers starting up again at the same spot at roughly the same time this morning. There were at least 3 vans full of people who got dropped off this morning just from Shaw’s. The trail was crowded this morning. I haven’t seen that many thru-hikers in one area of trail since at least Virginia. It took awhile for the traffic to spread itself out enough to feel normal. 

I am now in the Hundred Mile Wilderness, the most isolated section of the entire trail. The next true sign of human civilization will be Baxter State Park, home of Mt. Katahdin in about 80 miles from here. With all the rest I had gotten yesterday and the the good breakfast I got this morning, I had hoped to get a solid 19 miles in today. But the hostel shuttle didn’t drop me off until almost 8:30 so that made it tough. I suppose I could have pushed it, but there was no place to camp between mile 15 and 19 today. If I had gone past this camp spot along the stream, I would have had to hike to at least 7:00 to get to the next shelter spot with water. And I knew that most of the other hikers I started with this morning were also trying to get to that spot, meaning that even if I had wanted to hike that long, the shelter would have been crowded and possibly full by the time I got there. So I finished a little early today after starting late. I will do what I can to make it up tomorrow. I will get up early and try again to push towards 20 miles.