Quick update from the 100 Mile Wilderness. Odds are this won’t post until I hit Kahtahdin, but I’ll write it anyways for posterity.
I was worried I’d be all by myself for the 100 after taking two zeroes, but shortly after leaving town I met up with a guy who’s name I’ve heard a lot, but whom I hadn’t met. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of him at first, but he’s turned out to be a really nice and cool guy. He really wants to make Kahtahdin on the 25th to summit with his bubble (which means hiking the 100 mile in 4 days instead of the usual 5) and I’ve hopped on board with his plan, even though it doesn’t mean quite as much to me. We’ve done a 20, a 25, and a 23 so far and we have a 21 and a 22 left to do to make it to the base of Kahtahdin by the 24th, when all our friends will be there. If you had told me two weeks ago that I would spend the last 8 days on the trail pulling all 20+ days, I would’ve never believed you, but that’s what it looks like will happen.
My fatigue has come back a bit, although not quite as bad. We’ve been pulling slow, long days and have gotten into camp right around dark, which leaves little time for relaxation. At this point we’ve gone about 65 miles from Monson and have 45 to go to the summit. There’s one small chain of mountains, about 25 miles long, in the 100, which we passed over by the end of the second day. SOBOs like to talk up the hundred, so we were all a little worried about the mountains, but in truth they’re not much more than piddly little hills. From here on out its basically flat. I commented to my friend today that it’s almost like we’ve hiked into hiker Eden, the scenery is beautiful and the terrain is great. A few too many bugs though.
The 100 Mile Wilderness is wonderfully beautiful, but it’s not as wild as one might think. In fact, during my first two days in I saw more day hikers than I had seen in a long, long time. The Gulf Hagas Trail, which intersects with the AT is a very popular tourist spot (some call it the Grand Canyon of the east), so that definitely contributed to it. The ridgerunner counted 130 day hikers passing through by noon on the day we passed it. It felt more like a waterpark than a wilderness at that point.
Thats all for now, need to get some sleep. Looks like I’ll be summiting on the 25th now, weather permitting. Looking forward to a big hiker bash the night before. There’s a big bubble summiting that day.
.
Appalachian Adventures 