Appalachian Trail 2023

Off on another day hike. Sobo today along a lake but up a hill to begin with. Supposed to be clear till tonight. Then rainy tomorrow possible. If it rains will do another section day hike to keep mileage up. Then a 2-3 dayer to stitch in the section between hikes. Even though previous posts have been a bit negative it is still quite beautiful to be in mixed hard wood forests. The region is heavily covered by lakes. Maine is interesting  in that a lot of what I consider lakes are called ponds.  Throughout the KI Jo Mary region is privately owned and logged. Here the logging is only done thinning the cutting areas. So the area continues to grow and get naturally reestablished. 

As the title states: BUGS: Mosquitos are horrible. They are everywhere. Someplaces worse then others,but ever present. We wear bug nets or suits to keep them at bay. Lots of DEET helps but doesn't last as long as it says. HEAT: ITS HOT says it all. Even at night it doesn't cool down. 80's during the day and 70's at night. Rarely a breeze. HUMIDITY: Ugh. I hate it and don't miss it. We don't have it in WA. I hated it living in N.Y. Everything is damp all the time. MUCK: The trail so.far has been horrible mucky, wet, and muddy in many places. Yes the amount of rain is insane here this year. Having maintained two trails for the U.S.F.S. I tend to examine trail quality as I hike. Lots could be done to improve the trail so far. One Nobo said it gets way better in N.Y. we will see. 

1st day in Baxter state park. Throw out all your conceptions about  state parks when you enter here. It really  isn't like any other I've been too. I lived in Maine for a long time and never came here mainly due to all the rules. Reasoning being they treat everyone like an idiot. Years ago to come in winter you'd have to submit a climbing resume, etc. to climb it in winter. They've loosened up about that I've read. Getting here your greeted at the gate and get grilled about entering the park, what you have,etc. 1st time here with a reservation, yes you can't enter without one, be here no later then 8:30 A.M. But here's another stupid rule they have. We have  campsite  reservation but you can't go to the site till 1:00 P.M. So we killed some tine looking for the A.T. trail at Katahdin stream campground. Then rode around some to check out nearby areas. Came back to our campground about 12:00. Waited awhile and went and checked with a ranger to see if we co...

Mt. Kathadin, oh what a story to tell. All 3 of us where doing it together. It's 5.2 miles via the A.T. (Hunt Trail) to Baxter Peak, the highest point on the massif. Got to the trail head at 6:50. 2nd car in the lot, but slowly filled up as we got ready. Trail traffic through the day was busy, but not like some trails can be. 1st mile was a decent trail to Katahdin Falls. After that it went to hell right away. Steep is a mild word till the Tablelands. Followed a ridge line up to Tablelandd. Deeply rutted waist to shoulder deep. Boulders and rocks to.climb. Basically a stream up for over 1 1/2 miles. Then 5th class climbing to the Tablelands with a few placed metal rungs. One rain squall during the climb. Made it to Thoreau Spring about 5:00. Tarren and I went onto Baxter Peak to get to the northern terminus of th A.T. Back down to Ginger about 7. We decided to head down Abol trail to our campsite as it was 1 mile shorter a Seious down...

Yesterday was the culmination of many months of preparation  for the trip. We took a bus from home to Seatac airport. We had both applied for TSA Precheck which was a breeze getting the security. It was almost like the old days of flying.  Now came the big wait of 3 hours before our red eye flight to Boston. Arrived early as we had a 60 mph tail wind. The good thing is that Tarren was getting  sleep. Virginia and I slept only a little.  Getting the rental truck was a bit of a fiasco.  The first truck was dead, the second truck bed was not cleaned. Number 3 did the job. Logan Airport was a trip getting out of but got going north. Traffic was gnarly. Tarren ate something that did not agree with him and has spent most of the day throwing up. After a couple of stops to get some things we couldn't bring on the plane we are staying in Freeport, ME for the night. Weather  forecast  is looking nasty for tomorrow with up to 1" of rain.

More Foundations.  Hiking poles are a necessity.  They reduce the load some. For me giving additional balance as I work my way along the trail. It seems that as bipedal creature on the trail you evolve  into a quadrupedal creature. As we went up, but especially down Katahdin I relied on my poles extensively. Our poles also have springs in them to help reduce the impact on our arms. Tarren read somewhere that the tips will wear down and  have to be replaced. We will see as I evolve into a quadrupled animal will I grow a tail to help sway away the infinite masses of mosquitos. 

My thoughts on gear. A bit of background into my plans on selection. The go to book when I started an interest in backpacking was Colin Fletchers the Complete Walker. I still have my copy plus a couple of his revised editions. It is for me still the go to guide. If you've never read it its worth perusing. Actually any of his books are great reads Foundations: BOOTS. Your feet are what does it to get you there. I and Tarren are using LaSportiva boots. He has Nucleo High II GTX. Leather outer as with all kids he is tough on shoes. I have Ultra Raptor II MID GTX. I've had the best success with 2 pair of Wildcats for daily use. INSOLES. Out of the box the insoles in LaSprtivas are great. Pretty unusual for shoes. Being a professional skier you quickly learn that the most important, and expensive piece of gear are boots. The classic complaint of almost all skiers is "my feet hurt". As I've learned properly fit boots don't hurt. Ive attended Masterfit Universities b...