Ahhhhh.....sitting in Monson, Maine, trying to motivate ourselves to leave. From here, we enter the infamous 100 mile wilderness, which is neither 100 miles nor complete wilderness, but close enough. Our bags are super heavy with food, as the only place to resupply is 70 miles out at a hostel in the middle of nowhere. A hostel where we have to walk a mile off path to reach a lake, and then use a blow horn to call a boat over to shuttle us. Nope, not joking. Amazing!
So! Maine since the notch....we slowed down for quite a bit after the rough start in S. Maine. Brownie and Adam both got sick and so we had to spend some extra unexpected time in Bethel (so awful. Going to the movies, twice, in this cute town was horrible) and Rangeley (staying right on the gorgeous town lake was also a bummer).
But it was a bummer to slow down that much...we are all tired. Ready. Wishing we were there. The experience is amazing but kind of done with hiking. So as great as these town stops were to recuperate, it also prolonged the trip.
However, the terrain got better and the mileage started to increase. One day, we got up at 4am to hike. The motivation? Hot tubs and beer. We had 19 miles to go, and had to make it by 4 to the Kennebec river. The official AT white blaze over the massive river is via canoe shuttle, and the last ride was at 4. Waiting on the other side? An oasis called Northern Outdoors....camping for $10, a brew pub, hot tub and pool. Pretty much the only thing i'd wake up at 4am for. And...we night hiked the previous night and missed a camping spot in the dark, so we literally camped in the trail. Pretty much a huge no-no, but we figured no one was going to hike before 4am. Lucky for us, the trail was amazing and we made it to the river by 2:30.
Hike 24 miles to get into Monson by Sunday night. We werent planning on making it that night but 7 miles from the road, exhausted, we forded our last stream to find trail magic on the other side. Ice. Cold. Sodas. With lots and lots of sugar. We stood around this glorious cooler and drank two each. Suddenly, filled with sugar, we saw the possibility of town food, beds and showers becoming a reality for the night. And off we went!!! 2.5 hours later, at 8:30pm, we reached the road and the Lake Shore Hostel picked us up.
And most importantly, we got to hang out with Danny "otis" and Ang "the Dock" Freedman, two amazing, fantastic friends from DC. They came up to Maine to vacation and met us in Monson yesterday to spend the day. You two are awesome and we love you!!
Ok, more later (maybe) as we have a shuttle going to the trail and im no where close to being ready.
7 more days. Katahdin here we come!