That's right, Monson, Maine! I have a mere 115 miles left in my journey and I am at the southern end of the 100-Mile Wilderness.
But how did he get here? And what does he want? You may ask... Well, what I want is simple: to finish up the Appalachian Trail on a sunny day, preferably August 13th or 14th. But how I got here (a MacBook Pro at Shaw's Lodging here in Monson) is quite the story...
We left off when I was just outside Stratton, a few miles past the 2,000 mile mark. If you recall, I had just survived a hail storm, my first real hail-acious experience on the trail. Well, the next day I had the Bigelows to tackle, which leads to exciting trail story number one.
Exciting Trail Story #1: To hail or not to hail?
The day started off great. I got out a little late, but the weather was beautiful. I topped Bigelow and was feeling the best I had since Old Blue. A cacophony of "OLD BLUUUE"s rained down on the Maine lowlands that day. But at the second peak of Bigelow, named Avery Peak after Myron Avery (one of the founders of the AT), I saw some seriously dark clouds to the east. The clouds mostly just made Avery Peak one of my favorite views on the AT so far. I had super dark clouds what seemed like mere feet above my head, then a shadowy area near the mountain, and in between was a sunny greenish-blue area where Flagstaff Lake was. Just incredible! I was admiring the view until I saw a big ole flash of lightning descend from a cloud and hit the lake, followed by thunder, followed by a clear band of rain to the east. Being above treeline, and especially being at 4200 feet, is not a good idea in a thunderstorm! So I admired one more lightning strike and ran down to Safford Gap, which is a little haven of sub-alpine area between Bigelow and Little Bigelow.
Oddly enough, upon arriving at Safford Gap, the thunder went away and the clouds cleared up. What I thought had been imminent hail turned into cloudless skies. "Great, let's do some Little Bigelow!" I thought. So Little Bigelow it was...for about a half mile. Then it got ominously dark...then the thunder came back...then it started to hail. I was not yet above treeline, but I kept going anyway, straight in the direction of the thunder. My thinking was that if I could just keep moving, I'd get to the shelter on the other side of Little Bigelow and be safe from the elements. And all that separated me from the shelter was, well, five miles of alpine zone, most of it above treeline. Oh well, the hail had died down, and I wasn't quite up to exposed rock yet so I felt pretty good about the decision.
I'll tell you what though, having pine trees above your head and a thin layer of needles and branches to protect you can make you feel good about a lot of things. The thunder only got louder, the sky only got darker, and Little Bigelow only went up and up and up. I finally found myself on a treeless slab of rock looking at a big ole storm approaching. And I was scared! The hail wasn't even too much of a concern. It was the lightning. I was definitely the highest thing up there, and I still had miles to go. All I could do was go as fast as possible and pray for the trail to start going down.
Now that Exciting Trail Story #1 has you excited, I might as well give you the most anti-climactic ending possible: just when I thought I was about to get slammed with the storm, the trail DID start going down. And I made it to the shelter. And I didn't get hailed on. And you all feel slighted after having read the previous three paragraphs.
It actually got sunny again, and I got to Flagstaff Lake to swim and camp. I was right on the edge of the lake, in what was probably my best camping spot ever. And the next day, I had the best hiking day ever, and I also had Exciting
Trail Story #2...
Exciting Trail Story #2: Ultra-Marathons and Blueberry Gods
I'll try to keep this one a little shorter. Basically I hiked 34 miles on Wednesday. BAM.
The terrain was just oh-so flat, after a month of it being oh-so mountainous. And I am currently reading Born to Run, about the Tarahumara indians in Mexico who can run forever, so I was very inspired. I was going to stop at 25, but if I stopped at 25 there would be no reason to include "Blueberry Gods" in the title to Exciting Trail Story #2.
I got to a shelter at 4:30, and being relatively tired and having done 25 miles, felt that it was a good place to end the day. But amidst a friendly conversation with some section hikers, the names "Five" and "Firestarter" were brought up. Some of my best trail buddies? Just left here at 3? Next shelter? Forget camping! I got my stuff together and started the last 9 miles at around 5. If I hustled, I'd be at the next shelter around 8.
After slamming a considerable amount of Mio, I sprinted up Pleasant Pond Mountain and was down- wait! No, how can I leave this mountain when there are literally too many blueberries to eat up here!? I considered my options; keep going and get to the shelter, pick some berries and get there at night, pick some berries and camp short of the next shelter... Naturally, I chose "spend an hour picking a 591 mL Smart Water Bottle full of blueberries and then run (literally) to the shelter to avoid night-hiking." That evening, after running the final 7 miles to the shelter in a little more than an hour, and arriving with blueberries for all, I became Scribbles, God of Blueberries.
And that's my last few days! I skipped over yesterday, because it was a terrible 20 mile day that I want to forget. But today will be an easy 10-ish day whenever I start, and I'll be entering the 100 mile wilderness! I'm very excited. Crazy to think that I have about a week left out here. No promises with the service in the Wildy, but I will do the best I can to provide more updates!
- Scribbles (aka Ted)
10:54 a.m. 8/7/2015
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