Insane numbers of people near us on the trail. Last night at the shelter was crowded, tonight I set up my tent near the shelter area without even going to look at it. There’s a few good people around like Munchies, Nomad, and Sir Stooge, but then there’s about a dozen that spend time smoking cigarrettes, lazing about town, and then skipping entire sections of trail. Impossible to get away – hike fast and you meet again when they skip a section, hike slow (ie. two 0 days in Rangeley, and we stay on their pace). There’s probably close to 15 people at or near the shelter tonight, and luckily my tent is now my preferred sleeping arrangement. Staying in a shelter right now is sure to lead a night of trying to sleep through snoring after an evening of carcinogenic smoke. We would much prefer climbing Katahdin without a horde of people there so hopefully not many of this crowd will match our intended pace of 18-20 miles per day to wrap up the trail.
Other than the big crowd it was another good day. Early fall in Maine continues to yield fantastic weather once we made it past the Saddleback ice fields. On top of Lost Pond Mountain today it was totally sunny and nearly 70 degrees – hard to believe three days ago I had three layers of clothes on going over an icy summit.
The most important landmark of the day came early, about 4 miles in – The Kennebec River – and our ferry ride across. The ferry is a three person canoe (one spot is the guide) operating four hours a day specifically to get hikers across the river. There’s even a white blaze painted on the bottom of the boat. Everyone made it across safely and shortly we came on US 201 where I had originally planned on connecting for lunch with my Uncle Mike for a bit of trail magic, but thanks to lack of phone service in the Maine woods I couldn’t get word that we would be hitting the road very early in the day and we had to cancel.
Instead it was another day of trail food for lunch and the climb up Lost Pond Mountain. We got a little surprise there when half way up we met a Maine ATC volunteer who was out working on finishing up a new section of trail. Just a week or two ago they had carved out a fresh reroute to become the official AT path next year. Little pieces of colored ribbon on trees uses to tag the path of trail construction were still on trees and there were brand new white blazes. It was designed to skip a couple tricky rocks that can be dangerous when wet, and the volunteer said we could be the first hikers to try out the new trail if we wanted. We did, and it was pretty neat. Instead of a well worn treadway eroded down so that every rock and root is exposed on top of a hardened dirt pack like the normal trail this fresh section was raw forest floor – soft and mossy, the ground felt like a sponge as it absorbed my steps. The reroute was less than half a mile, but it was a unique experience and a nice change of pace.
Just miles the rest of the day. A long slow downhill with a few too many little sections of quick dips back uphill mixed in, crossing Moxie Pond by hopping across rocks, and then about three miles of gradual uphill to camp. Like I said, didn’t even bother looking at the shelter itself, found a sweet tent site on the way in just a few yards from a little stream. One week from tonight we should be camping at the foot of Katahdin.