June 9
End: Baldpate Lean-to, ME
Miles: 21.6
Total: 3781.7
The other two hikers (Conquered and Parkside) were up but not attempting to pack up their gear by the time that I left. Putting on wet socks and shoes was beyond old. Mud and difficult rocks were the story of the day. The only thing going for me was that it was not supposed to rain for the first day since I had left Florida (as far as I could remember).
I got to the state line and viewed the sign stating the end of the trail was less than three hundred miles away. At this point I was a little sad. The trail was slowly winding down but I didn’t want it to. I just walked on.
After some mountains I got down to Full Goose Shelter where I met Red. Parkside had said that Red was a real yellow-blazer (meaning he hitched past parts of the trail instead of hiking). Red was just packing up his stuff, though it was almost noon, and explained that he was recovering from some illness. I moved on, anxious to get through Mahoosuc Notch.
Mahoosuc Notch had been noted by several as the hardest mile on the entire Appalachian Trail, so I wanted plenty of time to complete it. I got down to the beginning of the notch and soon understood the description of the difficulties in completing this mile.
The notch consisted of large boulders and rock slabs all piled on top of each other. There were occasionally white blazes painted on the sides of these rocks as if a person could follow them in a linear fashion. I slowly picked my way across the rocks, careful not to hurt myself so far into my journey. At at least two separate times I took my pack off in order to get through a tight space and then pulled it through after me.
The notch took me under two hours to complete, and then I did a steep ascent, which was basically rock climbing. Eventually I got to Speck Pond Shelter where I took a break to eat and get water. There I met Gorgeous George, the first person I had met to be hiking the trail Southbound from Maine to Georgia.
He explained that Mt. Katahdin had been closed, and he had started at the base of the mountain in Baxter State Park. He emphasized the difficulty of hiking in Maine, which surprised me. I tried to explain the difficulty of hiking through the White Mountains, but didn’t want to argue with him over what would be more difficult.
Soon I left and headed on and got down to a state highway. I headed up Baldpate Mountain, ready to get to Baldpate Lean-to. The climb went by fast and I made it to the shelter well before dark, in time to meet two couples out for the weekend. It was interesting to talk to folks who live in the North all year, and I cooked up dinner supplemented by a couple of bananas they gave me. I lay down, took my wet socks and shoes off, and got to sleep.
