Shaw's-hike Redemption

So now that I’m through the “100 Mile Wilderness” and at a hiker hostel in Monson, Maine, I have access to a computer and can do some serious blog updating (with pictures). I know I could split these up into individual days and posts, but I feel like that's kind of fake since timestamps should reflect the actual date and time of the event they log. So I’ll start at the beginning and go in chronological order.

Mount Katahdin-6/6/2011

Trail start, 0-5.2 Miles

At the start of day 1 I was picked up from the Bangor, ME airport hotel at 7 am and taken to Baxter State Park to finally begin my journey. It was about a 2 hour drive, most of which I spent talking to the shuttle driver about what I could expect in the coming hours. He said that he had hiked Katahdin multiple times, and gave me a heads up on the trail on the mountain. Apparently, I didn’t get the memo that HIKING the mountain meant actually doing some rock climbing…the mountain is a mile high, and the entire 5.2 miles from the campground to the summit and back took me 9.5 hours to complete. And I ran out of water on the way down. 5 liters just wasn’t enough. Still, the view was pretty awesome, and there were lots of cool things to see on the way up/down Katahdin. (see pictures of waterfall and landscape). I also met “Overload” that day coming down the mountain, and we’ve been a team ever since.

Sign at summit

"Overload"

White House Landing-6/10/2011

~45 Miles from Katahdin

As explained in my previous post, the White House Landing is a wilderness lodge about halfway through the 100 mile wilderness. You get there by hiking off the trail for about a mile and a half around a lake and ending up at a boat dock with an air horn hanging from a tree. A sign next to the air horn prompts the hiker to use the air horn to signal a ferry pick up. A rather unorthodox way to get to a lodge, but fun nevertheless. And the burgers, of course, were amazing.

The one pound burger!

Only downsides: a creepy hiker named Ron who had already been there for 3 days when Overload and I showed up (he snored like crazy, but he dropped out of thru hiking a couple of days later) , and that my phone failed to charge when the people who owned the lodge offered to plug it in overnight. My battery was dead for 5 days after, and cloudy/rainy days made my solar charger nearly useless for bringing life back into it.

The lodge complex

The view from the lake shoreline

Main dining hall

Clothes line (with clean clothes)

The 17 Mile Day-6/14/2011

88.5 Miles from Katahdin

It was a day of mountain climbing. Literally. In the 17 mile stretch of the trail we covered that day, there were 5 mountains Overload and I summated; totaling 11,757 ft of elevation (counting just the peaks; not including random ups and downs encountered on the way from one mountain to another). We started at 6 am and finished at 9:45, ending at the shelter on Chairback Mountain (which we climbed entirely with headlamps in the RAIN). We both admit it was a VERY stupid idea, and while we were climbing it I started to think to myself “shit, this is usually how bad survival stories start.” Luckily, we made it safe to the shelter, but we were dog tired and didn’t get up until late the next day.

Monson, Maine-6/15/2011 through 6/16/2011

114 Miles from Katahdin

Thank God. Overload and I had been talking about getting here since White House Landing. We REALLY needed a break. The terrain in Maine is no joke, and after being on the trail working hard for 9 days, it was nice to just be in a town and have a bed to sleep in and what not.

We’re staying at a hiker hostel called Shaw’s. Great place. Quiet sleepers, warm beds, showers, foot care, shuttles to major outfitters, grocery shopping, etc. Well you gotta pay for it of course, but geeze…even though it’s a small town that’s admittedly (by the locals) and obviously dying, it’s still great to be in a place where the simple luxuries of “the real world” are present.

The hiker hostel

Breakfast

I used the SHIT out of the post office. I mailed home a BUNCH of stuff, and lightened my pack drastically. I overloaded her for the 100 mile wilderness (since there aren’t really any reliable re-supply points along the way and I packed in most of my food) and she’s starting to break down a bit. 45 pound load in a 35 pound pack…part of the frame broke off. I used my tent pole repair kit to fix it though, so hopefully it won’t give me too much trouble.

Here’s a list of all the stuff I mailed home:

Heavy military poncho (replaced with pack cover from outfitter)

Camo pants (replaced with lighter pants from outfitter)

Solar charger (almost useless)

North face jacket (replaced by light rain jacket from outfitter)

Cloth food bag (replaced by dry sack from outfitter)

Large compass (found smaller one out on trail)

Deodorant stick (completely ineffective)

Leather belt (taking heavy damage from sweat. replaced with nylon belt from outfitter)

Pistol (kept it at the bottom of my pack, unloaded and inaccessible. useless for defense purposes and extra weight)

Passport (“You don’t need a passport for a domestic flight, dipshit”-Overload)

Bandoleer (planned on using it to store small items, but never actually did it)

Extra 550 cord (I was just carrying too much of it)

AKL fraternity lettered shirt (planned on taking it up to Katahdin, but forgot. Been carrying it ever since, but it’s made of cotton and therefore not very optimal)

I also swapped my heavy boots out with some trail shoes (basically heavy duty sneakers). I’ll give them a shot for 3 days, but I mailed by boots ahead of me to the next town. If the shoes work out, so much the better. If not, I’ll have my boots back. The main issue is that my boots get sweaty and then turn into mini cesspools, and no matter how often I change my socks, the boots stay wet. With the shoes, I am hoping that my feet are happier.

Trail Names:

Out on the AT, there are unofficial stoppage points composed of named lean-tos (best described as a small shack) spaced roughly a day’s walk apart. At each lean to or shelter, there is a notebook officially called a “trail register.” Each hiker that visits the shelter is encouraged to write in the notebook just to make their presence their known to the world so a record of their progress can be consulted should anything happen to them. Yet, like the average internet forum, the most random postings show up in these registers, and each person goes by a “trail name,” or name given by other hikers to a person based on an aspect of themselves.

For instance, “Overload”. Overload is Overload because he started with a 75 pound pack (which he happily mailed home today).

And “Columbus”. Overload and I named him because we saw him coming the opposite direction on the trail, and after talking with him for several minutes, realized that he believed he started the day heading south when he was, in fact. heading NORTH. Good thing we stopped and talked to him…he would have kept going all day and ended up right were he started.

“Green Thumb.” a "horticulturalist" shall we say. But also knowledgeable in using plants to address immediate needs. For instance “Here, Vitamin C should make you feel a bit better. Grab some of those pine needles and we’ll make some tea.” Or “Damn, that’s a deep cut. Here, use this moss…it’s antibacterial.”

And there’s mine. I am Foot-Z (but anyone reading this whom did not meet me on the trail is discouraged from calling me that). The name comes from the following scenario:

Hurd Brook Lean-to- 6/7/2011 ~6:45 pm

~18 miles from Katahdin

Overload: Whaddya say whaddaya know? You look deep in thought.

Me: Yeah, actually…I’m looking for a good spot to dig a hole

Overload: Okay…why do you wanna do that?

Me: Well I mean, my feet are kinda hurting…I feel like making a foot bath.

Everyone at camp site: -intelligible inquisitive mumbling-

Overload: Yeah, you’re gonna have to elaborate on that…

Me: Well I’ve got this poncho here and soap and clean water and everything…all you have to do is dig a hole, put the poncho inside it so it holds water, add some soap and some hot water, and then bingo, you got a foot bath.

Everyone at camp site: -intelligible mumbling of approval-

Overload: I gotta say…in all the camping trips I’ve been on and all the years in the military, I have never seen anyone make a foot bath before.

And the name stuck with me ever since.

Oh, and the procedure for making that wash basin in the scout manual. Which is probably the only reason I remember it.

Until next time

--Adrian