AT Days 130 to 139 - From the Whites to Western Maine: Thunderstorms, Trail Magic, and the Final State

Day 130

We woke up early to try and make the most of the day, but stopped in at the Hut to check the weather forecast. Heavy thunderstorms were expected early in the afternoon... Not wanting to get caught in a repeat of the flooding event a few days ago, we had breakfast on the move. We made great time crossing Carter Dome, Mount Hight, Middle Carter, Mount Lethe, and the other bumps along the way. That being said, the trail was again incredibly slippery in multiple areas due to the abundance of wet sloped granite that the AMC had resisted cutting switchbacks or adding any kind of aids to (the night before, an AMC  volunteer had clued us into the AMC’s reluctance to establish trail infrastructure). About a mile out from Imp Shelter the sky turned dark, lightning cracked open the sky, and the rain came down in sheets. We hustled into the shelter just in the nick of time to avoid getting soaked, but the storm had come early and nearly caught us. Since we were fairly high up, I was able to get some reception and check the weather, and the news was not good. A severe thunderstorm warning had been issued for our area for the rest of the day. Fearing the worst, we rolled our pads out to claim a spot and then sat down to read while periodically checking the weather. As the day wore on, the weather continued to be terrible with heavy rain, strong winds, and quarter sized hail. More and more people continued to filter in, slowly filling up the shelter. At one point, a large, loud tramily arrived, and rudely attempted to forcefully re-arrange people’s sleeping set-ups without asking in order to squeeze their friends in next to them. They did this, despite the shelter being at capacity and all of the tent pads being available. Finally, it came to a head after all of us already there told them to stop, and the caretaker came by and said that some of them needed to move to tent pads. A few of them tried to whine and complain that they couldn't put up their tents on platforms due to their being unable to stake them down properly, but then he came back with nails. Ha! Thankfully, a few of them finally relented, but not without pouting. This is our first full shelter in months, and the first large annoying tramily that we have encountered since the Smokies. I cannot believe that some people still feel so entitled this far into the trail, and I am crushed that it seems like the bubble is catching up to us.  

Day 131

Wanting to get ahead of the tramily, we left very early and caught the sunrise from the top of Mt. Moriah, where Instigator enjoyed her morning coffee. Once again, we experienced that incredible feeling of being alone in a sea of islands above the clouds, a welcome moment of peace after the annoyance of yesterday. I had learned the prior evening that the tramily, and apparently a considerable number of other hikers, had skipped Vermont and parts of New Hampshire due to flooding, which is why it seemed like there were suddenly tons of people around us. While this did make me feel a bit better about our pace, it appeared to be a potential harbinger of things to come...

After Mt. Moriah, we continued on down to the Rattle River Shelter along one of the nicest stretches of trail we had hiked in a while (and coincidentally, we were also out of AMC territory for a bit). At the shelter, we had a snack and caught up with No Plandy, whom we had not seen in ages. He went on ahead and headed into town, while we motored on up the climb after Shelburne Dam. Unsurprisingly, the dam’s floodgates were open, and the upriver portion was appreciably swollen. The climb up Mount Hayes was fairly pleasant, but the trail after it was a disaster. From just a little after Mount Hayes all the way to Gentian Pond Shelter, the trail was a mix of knee-deep mud, slick, sloped granite slabs, rotted boards, and heavily overgrown vegetation. Despite the slow going, we made it to Gentian Pond Shelter in good time, and we were rewarded with a mostly empty shelter with a wonderful view. Despite the tough patch, it was nice to finally have a full, good weather, uncrowded day on trail again!  

Day 132

We left Gentian Pond Shelter early to give us more time to get through this crappy section of trail. One section weirdly had a quarter mile of stairs, rebar handles, gangplanks, and swamp boards to walk on. The rest of it was completely toast, leaving us to wade through knee-deep alpine bog boards. It honestly looked like a tornado had hit the area! It was a fairly hot, sunny, exposed day with a lot of climbing so it stunk that there were no water sources on the ridge line. The views, however, were fantastic. Eventually, we made it to Full Goose Shelter for lunch, hours later than we had planned due to the awful trail conditions. There, we learned from the caretaker that the section is awaiting a reroute and that it will not get fixed until the Forest Service red tape is resolved. The reroute is planned for 2025… Anyways, after we received excellent info from him on who to bug, we crossed into Maine (woohoo!) and set off for the famous Mahoosuc Notch! It lived up to the hype as incredibly unique and fun, but it was not nearly as terrifying or difficult as the fearmongers would have us believe. We made it through fairly easily and took our time to explore the unique ice caves. We then tented in a stealth space just outside it and addressed our poor feet, which were being rubbed raw due to our socks constantly being soaked. As I lay here typing this, a mouse keeps checking out my pack. Hopefully, it leaves soon when it learns that there is nothing in it!

Day 133

Despite the mice crawling over the tent last night, we thankfully had no issues. With the nice cool air coming out of the notch, I made a case for sleeping in a bit since we were headed to Bethel, and the weather seemed halfway decent for once. After we packed up, we slipped our way up the steep climb of Mahoosuc Arm and made it to Speck Pond and Speck Pond Shelter, where we had breakfast and chatted with the AMC caretaker while some scouts ran around shouting. The caretaker informed us that some nasty weather was indeed blowing in soonish, so we wrapped it up and hoofed it up to the Old Speck Fire Tower. Heavy wind and mist had settled in, but there was no lightning or thunder, so we chanced a trip up to the top. While we were there, a trail runner surprised us by running up behind us, so we chatted with him for a bit before walking back down towards the road. It turned out that he was the owner of The Gem, the local movie theater in Bethel, and he told us that if we made it in time to catch Barbenheimer, he would spot us some snacks on the house! 

He ran off ahead to return home (how the heck do people run in this slippery terrain?) while we slipped and slid our way down past the gorgeous waterfall until we eventually made it to the road. Thankfully, there was no lightning or hail to worry about, but we did get a good soaking! Between the weather and the remoteness of the area, we had to wait for quite some time before we were finally able to catch a hitch into Bethel. The driver was a kind older gentleman returning from an early morning of fishing, and he was all too happy to take us the 20 miles into town! Once there, we had a huge brunch at the Crossroads Diner, and then walked across town to find lodging. Our first choice was booked out, but then we happened upon the Sudbury Inn, a cozy little B&B right near everything. We dropped our packs in our room, went grocery shopping, got cleaned up, and headed to The Gem. Unfortunately, we were too late for Barbie, but we did manage to catch Oppenheimer! It was slightly jarring but wonderful to go from the trail to Christopher Nolan in the span of a day. The theater was really pretty, and it seemed to serve the community as much more than just a simple movie theater. There were workspaces and local artist promotions all serving the local area. Wade, who saw us there, told us how happy he was to have us and provided us with snacks on the house! If you stop in Bethel, I highly recommend stopping in at The Gem!

After the movie, we headed back to the Sudbury Inn and had dinner in its basement, Sud’s Pub. The Pub was the local ski bum bar, but off-season. The food and drinks were excellent, and it was so nice not having to wander around town to find food. After dinner, I took our stuff over to the laundromat and promptly fell asleep waiting for it to finish. When I came back to our room, Instigator was already out cold, so I quickly wrote this, and now I plan to pass out as well!

Day 134

Eager to keep up our momentum, we got up at a reasonable time, had breakfast at the B&B, and headed to the crossroads to find a hitch back to trail. It took a little while this time around (but not as bad as the wait for a ride in), but eventually a wonderful woman from Texas pulled over in her converted van and offered us a ride back to trail. She was from a part of Texas near my hometown and was excited to have some people to talk to. She had a cute dog that sat in my lap as I rode on the floor in the back. As we drove on, unfortunately, all of the rocking and rolling of the older van made me quite car-sick. When we made it back to Grafton Notch, I had to sit for a while before I was good to go. Unlike yesterday, the parking lot was now teeming with people, and we saw a pair of Sobos get offered a ride immediately. 

Once I was feeling better, we made it up to Baldpate Lean-to where we stopped in for a quick snack. From there, we took advantage of the wonderful weather and pushed on over the scenic Baldpate peaks, soaking in the views and some much-appreciated sunshine. From there, we pressed on past Frye Notch Lean-to, and found a gorgeous stealth site along the West Branch of the Ellis River, right near the waterfalls. After we had set up camp and had dinner, Instigator tucked in to read, and I headed over to talk to Forrest Gump, another hiker camping there. It was so nice today to have a wonderful section of trail and clear weather after a town stop, instead of getting poured on and covered in mud. So far, I’m really enjoying Maine!

Day 135

We hit the trail early after a surprisingly good sleep at our rocky tent spot next to the river. As soon as we hit the trail, we immediately had a climb up to Wyman (Why man!?) Mountain. Part of the way up, near Surplus Pond, we stopped for a quick breakfast before the rest of the slow climb. Knowing we had miles and several climbs to do today, we continued down the trail, until at one point we were passed by the various members of the large tramily we had encountered at Imp Shelter... Near a particularly picturesque waterfall at the base of the mountain, before the immediate next climb up Moody Mountain, I asked one of them where they were headed, and they informed me they were going to the Bemis Mountain Lean-to, which is coincidentally where we were headed to (but not anymore)…. At the base of Moody, on the other side along South Arm Road, we were surprised by trail magic from Yogi, a thru-hiker from a previous year, who was offering freshly grilled dogs, burgers, beer, soda, and weed. Fueled by sugar and processed meats, we rocketed up Old Blue Mountain and the remaining PUDs until we eventually found a nice stealth site near the AT’s intersection with the Bemis Stream Trail. I think today was probably the first day since crossing into Maine that the trail was not especially picturesque. That, compounded with all of the PUDs, made it a tough day, so I am especially thankful for Yogi and his well-placed trail magic! It took the sting out of running into the annoying tramily a bit, and he provided some much needed calories.

Day 136

We started the day around 6 am at our stealth site near the AT’s intersection with the Bemis Stream trail. It had unexpectedly rained overnight, but I guess that’s how New England works. We immediately hit a small climb, complete with a deep alpine bog with rotted-out bog boards. Eventually, we crawled into Bemis Mountain lean-to to make breakfast, but it had taken us much longer than planned due to the conditions. From there, we began the long descent down to Bemis Stream. Along the way, the slick slabs of angled, wet granite lead to Instigator taking a nasty fall and hitting her head hard. She was in a lot of pain and had a visible bump swelling up, but thankfully, she didn’t show any signs of further damage. Once she had recovered, we waded across the stream and climbed up past ME Route 17, where we were rewarded with more incredible views. After the climb, I noticed that Instigator looked like she was in a lot of pain and seemed to be having a tough time. We chatted next to Long Pond, and it turned out that she had a wicked headache and felt horrible from her fall. We decided to cut the day short and immediately stopped at Sabbath Day Pond lean-to, just a bit down the trail. She ended up sleeping the afternoon away and feeling a bit better, with just the bad headache persisting. It goes without saying that I am incredibly concerned for her, but she stressed that she did not think the fall was severe enough to warrant a visit to a doctor. While she slept, I chatted up some local college freshmen who were staying nearby and were leading a boys’ summer camp. They were a wealth of knowledge about the local area’s geography, and in return, I got to teach them how to properly build a fire and grill burgers! While I was hanging out with them, an older hiker came through and jumped into the Pond, and somehow miraculously did not get a single leech on him, despite the numerous nearly foot-long leeches swarming near the shore. I turned in early, heard a loon on the nearby lake, and spent some time reading. Here’s to a better tomorrow!

Day 137

After intermittent rain all night, which forced us to sleep with the vestibules closed, I was delighted to wake up with a completely dry tent! We then packed up and hit the trail, wanting to make some decent mileage today to make it to Stratton by Thursday. Our initial 10 miles down to ME Route 4 flew by due to the easy terrain and excellent trail maintenance. Once we made it to the parking lot, we were delighted to find trail magic from a former thru-hiker and his Mom! The glizzy count was increased to 45, and I was able to grab a few extra snacks for our longer-than-planned haul to Stratton. The trail magic let me skip my packed lunch to have more calories later and slam some sugar to help power me up the Saddlebacks. Unfortunately, through all of this, Instigator still felt like hell from her fall yesterday, but she was doing marginally better. Taking it slow and easy seemed to be helping a bit, though. Along the way up, we passed Piazza Rock, and the nearby shelter had a 2 seater privy with a Cribbage board between the seats. After our relatively easy climb up, I made a quick call to The Maine Roadhouse and was able to reserve a private room for a night, two days from now. We enjoyed the gorgeous above-treeline hike from Saddleback to The Horn before descending to our goal of the Redington Stream Campsite for the night. The platform is a little rickety, but it is in a gorgeous forest on the side of the mountain, and we have it all to ourselves!  All in all, a wonderful day on trail!

Day 138

Despite the rickety elevated tent platform, we both slept incredibly well last night. No one else rolled through the campsite, and due to our elevation, the weather was cool and perfect. We woke up and broke down the tent early to catch the sunrise from on top of Saddleback Jr, which was just a quick little climb from where we had slept. From there, we continued along the gorgeous, mostly exposed ridgeline and stopped for breakfast at the Poplar Ridge lean-to before once again heading down to cross a stream. The crossing was a bit tricky because it was swollen from all of the rain. Once across, we started heading uphill again, but not before another tricky river crossing. This time, the old bridge was rotted out, and the stream was swollen again, but we made it across with soggy shoes and socks. From there, we went over Lone Mountain, skipped the side trail to Mount Abraham due to time, and then stopped in at the Spaulding Mountain Lean-to to have lunch and dry our feet out a bit. Once we were fueled up and ready for more, we went up Spaulding Mountain, passed by the AT Completion Marker from the CCC, and then reached the Sugarloaf blue blaze. Not wanting to miss the peak and the view, I left my pack with Instagator at the fork and ran up to the summit. Despite the smoke, the views were incredible, and it was wild to see how far we had already come in one day. I took a bit of time to look around the iconic ski mountain and watch the installation of a new chairlift tower. Sightseeing over, I jogged back down, and we continued on our way. The downhill to the Carrabassett River was a bit tricky because of the steep and slippery loose rock, but we took our time and made it down safely. The river itself was surprisingly not too bad, and the iconic chained wooden board was in place, so we made it across dry with a bit of rock hopping. We then continued uphill a bit to our planned stopping point, the Crocker Cirque Campsite. Once we explored the campsite, we were disappointed to find it crowded by a local summer camp group who had spread their things out everywhere. I was annoyed after walking the whole campsite and seeing that their small group had left no room for anyone else, so we grabbed water and continued on to a slightly sloped stealth spot along the trail. That being said, I’m incredibly excited to nero tomorrow in what I’ve been told is THE best trail hostel. We have just two little peaks to nab, and I’m hopeful that we can complete them before the expected bad weather blows in. I’m also optimistic that the nero will help Instigator’s headache go away with some much needed rest.

As a side note, we saw some gigantic toads of unusual size today! We also saw a number of snakes, which increased the official snake count to 67. Hot dogs have sadly stagnated at 45…

Day 139

We woke up early from our little tent site near the Crocker Cirque Campsite as we wanted to get up and over the mountains before thunderstorms rolled in, and because we were excited to be staying at the highly recommended Maine Roadhouse Hostel. The climb up South Crocker Mountain was fairly easy, but once on top, we noticed that the clouds were already beginning to look rather unfriendly. Wanting to get down from the exposed tops of the mountains, we hustled across the mini-saddle to Crocker Mountain and started our descent towards the road. Blissfully, the trail was well cut and had a gentle slope to it, so it was easygoing, even when the thunderstorm inevitably caught up to us. We managed to make it down the road without much fuss, where we received trail magic in the form of cans of lemonade and pastries from local police officer and former thru-hiker, Bourbon Batman. He then offered us, along with two other hikers, a ride into town in the back of his patrol car and dropped us off at the local restaurant. The two other hikers, Phoenix and Harold, joined Instigator and me for a massive breakfast spread at The Looney Moose. The portions were so enormous that despite our hiker hunger, only Instigator was able to join the clean plate club. After Phoenix and I polished off our mimosas, we headed into the grocery store to resupply and rendezvous with Jen from the hostel. Hilariously enough, as I was about to shoot her a text, she walked up to me and asked me if I was KidzMeal! After we finished restocking, we loaded up into her SUV and headed to the hostel. Along the way, Jen suddenly slowed down and pointed out a moose on the side of the road! It was the first one I had ever seen, and even though it was only a baby, it was still gigantic!

The rest of the day was incredibly restful. We showered, washed our gear, and took care of all of the usual housekeeping tasks. We then cooked a steak dinner with roasted potatoes and chatted with Jen about the hostel and life. With our bellies full, Instigator and I had a movie night (we watched The Italian Job) before passing out in one of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever lain in. The Maine Roadhouse might just be my favorite hostel of the whole trail, and I’m hopeful I can return to it for a ski trip or some other adventure someday!