Day: 141
Date: Tuesday, 12 September 2023
Start: ME Route 15 (AT Mile 2083.7)
Finish: Barren Mountain (AT Mile 2101.9)
Daily Kilometres: 27.0 (Ascent 4534', Descent 3117')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 3414.7
Weather: Mild and overcast with almost continuous rain in the morning and an occasional sprinkle in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Cooked breakfast
Lunch: Trail mix
Dinner: Pop tarts
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported
Highlight: None really
Lowlight: Wet, muddy and slippery trail.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We again enjoyed the hostel's big breakfast at 7:00am and were shuttled back to the trailhead in a packed van with about seven other thru-hikers in light rain at about 8:15am. The hostel co-owner and driver, a former thru-hiker (and English Lit teacher), gave us a spiel about the 100 Mile Wilderness and a few short poems about the trail and how life-changing it can be. Impressive!
For our last 100+ miles to the trail's end on Mount Katahdin, we have a Plan A, that sees us finish in six days on Sunday, and Plan B that sees us finish in seven days on Monday. Plan A is relatively aggressive, but we really would like to finish on Sunday so for today our goal was 17 miles which we knew would be challenging given our late start and knowledge that the first two days of the 100 Mile Wilderness were reputed to be difficult. If we can stick to the schedule for the first two days our confidence will be high.
For the morning we decided to hike non-stop the six plus miles to Little Wilson Falls which took us the best part of four hours. The trail was tough with ups and downs, bogs and slippery roots and rocks. In particular, the wet slate was treacherous and we had to take great care. At the first creek crossing Dave slipped and fell half into the water which made him very unhappy. All the while it was raining with varying intensity and as we leapfrogged some of the other thru-hikers we joked about how much we were all enjoying ourselves. Misery loves company, and it was good to know that nobody was having a good time.
For the next section, there was an alternative route of about the same distance, including a long roadwalk, that avoided two significant fords and we decided to go that way. A number of the other thru-hikers we met during the day made the same choice. The roadwalk was along a quiet forestry road which was pleasant but the linking track that took us back to the AT had long stretches of extremely boggy and unpleasant trail.
We rejoined the AT about 4:00pm and made the choice to try and get over Barren Mountain and to a shelter/campsite on the other side before stopping for the night. This would be a couple of miles beyond our target for the day, but there was no water in between (and we didn't want to add water to the weight of our already heavy packs for the climb) and it would likely be dark by the time we reached there.
The climb proved slower than we hoped and provided just one hazy view. By the time we reached the summit of Barren Mountain (2670') it was almost dark and we decided to camp without water or cooking dinner rather than continue on the difficult trail in the dark. We found a barely adequate space for a tent near the summit soon after 7:00pm, set up the tent and crawled in, still very dirty from the muddy trail with only some wet wipes to clean ourselves before getting into our sleeping bags. Not a good start to our last five or six days, and more rain forecast for tomorrow.
We passed the 2100 Mile mark today.
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