June 29
End: Cummings Farm
Miles: 31.5
Total: 4182.4
It felt a little weird to be leaving the Daltons’ house. I had taken my first ever triple-zero there. As far as I knew, I lived there. Nevertheless, I packed up my things and Eric and I drove to the yard. I made sure that I wasn’t missing anything, then started down the ATV trail.
The ATV trail went for a long, long way. Occasionally I would get out of the way of oncoming dirt bikes or ATVs, but mostly I was alone, except for a few mosquitoes here and there.
I walked and walked, then walked some more. Finally I reached Mars Hill. Eric had already taken me to the Mars Hill Post Office to get a new pair of shoes from a mail drop. I just stopped in at the IGA to use the bathroom, then continued on.
I was soon off of the gravel trail and back on the road. There were very few cars driving on these roads. I was excited to be getting very close to the Canadian border, which I had been anticipating almost since the beginning of my trek.
At some point I realized that I had left my Vitamin A&D cream in the restroom in Mars Hill. This was devastating not only because I had been carrying that particular tube since Orlando, but also because I really needed it at the moment. There was nothing I could do but walk on.
After hours of road walking I reached the Canadian border. I took the border trail heading North, and was not pleased to find that it was just a muddy jeep trail which went up and down all sorts of hills. I had called up the Houlton Border Patrol, so I knew it would be fine to walk right along the border, which was just woods.
It was getting pretty hot out, and I was growing tired of drinking warm water. It had been raining buckets for the past few days, so all of the streams were flowing fast. The trail crossed over a fast brook, and I decided to replace my warm water. When I took a look at the water I gathered from this brook, I could see a tiny brown particle had made its way into the bottle. I tried several times to get totally clear water, but could not. The rain had washed too much stuff into the brook. Dying for cold water, I just drank what the brook provided and moved on.
When I arrived at the Easton Customs station, I encountered a big problem. The trail emerged on the other side of a large, fast-paced, deep brook. I found the customs station was unpopulated, and then started looking for alternative routes. I ended up crossing the brook at the best point I could find, but it took forever and I had to wear my socks and shoes just to make the crossing possible. Very frustrated, I trudged on.
As I kept going, I noticed large dark clouds coming my way. This day was not getting any better. I was hoping to get to Fort Fairfield Lean-to, but that was still hours away. As the clouds got closer, I walked down a path in a field and made my way to a farm house on a nearby road.
I was very lucky to meet the Cummings, if I remember correctly. Stewart and his wife took terrific care of me. They fed me, took a look at some of my photos from my trip, let me take a shower and wash my clothes, and sleep in an upstairs bedroom. It was very satisfying to watch the rain pour outside the window. The day had been tough, but I could at least claim a good ending.
