Three by Three

As I prepared to leave Becky’s (my sister) for the final time after slack packing and visiting with my family, I planned the next nine days to include three stays off trail. I knew I would stay at Shaws Hostel in Monson before doing the 100 mile wilderness and Amy and I decided it would be nice for us to spend a night together in a single room cabin in The Forks. Getting from Becky’s to The Forks would take about 5 days but roughly halfway was the Maine Roadhouse, a hostel that has a very good reputation with hikers. I decided to stop there as well to experience the hostel and potentially meet more hikers. This made my schedule to conveniently have 3 blocks of 3 days hiking with a comfortable place to stay at the end of each 3 day block, hence the title for this post.

Day 164 through Day 166 – Route 4 to Maine Roadhouse (Route 27): mile 1973.9 to mile 2006.1

As I resumed normal hiking (no more slack packing) the 4,000 footers were not done yet. First up was the difficult climb up and over Saddleback Mountain and The Horn. Going was slow on this first day where the terrain kept my pace to roughly one mile per hour. The views on top of Saddleback made it all worth it. I ended the long day at Poplar Ridge Lean-to for a total of 10.7 miles for the day.

The next day brought Mt Abraham, Spaulding Mountain and Sugarloaf Mountain. The trail actually skirts these three peaks with blue blazed side trails to get to the summits. I chose not to take these side trails to obtain more views. By now, I was too weary to venture off the white blazed path and the views would not be that different from the ones I got on Saddleback or the ones I would see from the Bigelows in a couple of days. Day 2 of this first leg ended at Crocker Cirque Campsite at mile 1998.8, crossing the 2,000 mile marker would have to wait until the following morning.

The third day was a relatively short 7.3 mile jaunt to get to Route 27 and get picked up by one of the Jenns from the Maine Roadhouse. This short hike still included two more 4,000 footers as I had to hike over South Crocker Mountain and North Crocker Mountain. I made it to Route 27 before noon and a call to the hostel got me a ride within 15 minutes. Being the only passenger for this ride, I sat in front with Jenn. During the ride back to the hostel, I learned that the owners of the hostel, both named Jenn, were high school friends in their early 50’s, divorced with grown kids and looking for something different for the next chapter of their lives. They bought the hostel a little over a year ago and seem to be doing very well. They have the right attitude and have garnered high reviews from hikers that stay with them. Their sense of humor shows through when you receive your receipt upon payment as the LLC they registered the business under is “What Were We Thinking”.

I was ready for dinner before most of the other hikers except for one female hiker called Poppins (as in Mary Poppins). Poppins’ husband (forget his name) follows her in an RV, moving every week or two and he was there with their vehicle. I went to dinner with them and had a nice scallop dish and a couple beers. When it came time to checkout, Mr. Poppins (I’ll call him that) insisted on paying for my meal. The trail is just full of the nicest people you could meet, even if you can’t remember their names.

The next morning, the Jenns made a wonderful breakfast. Once breakfast was over, those returning to the trail piled into the small school bus that they recently purchased and off we went. We got to the trail shortly around 8:30 am and I was ready to begin my next three day section of trail.

Day 167 through Day 169 – Maine Roadhouse (Route 27) to Route 201: mile 2006.1 to mile 2043.1

After getting off the school bus and crossing Route 27, I had one more set of 4,000 footers to get over before the difficult western Maine terrain would ease up. The climb up Bigelow West Peak was not too difficult and the views on top were breath taking. Less than a mile through a short saddle brought me to Bigelow Avery Peak for more of the same. The second peak is named for Myron Avery, the architect of the Appalachian Trail and the man responsible for bringing the trail through Maine. The views from both peaks overlook Flagstaff Lake. Supposedly, you can see both Mount Washington and Mount Katahdin from these peaks but I’m not sure I did.

I ended the first day of this leg camping at Safford Notch Campsite. The trail to the campsite went through a large boulder field where caves were formed from boulders leaning against each other. Even though I only did 10.4 miles, the late start and rough terrain over the Bigelows made for a late arrival at the campsite. I went to bed as quickly as I could because I had decided to go further than I originally planned for the next day. The Kennebec River crossing was coming up on day three of this segment and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to cross as the ferry hours are only 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

I did get an early start and this day’s hike was proof that the tough terrain of western Maine had finally come to an end. I hiked 22.6 miles before stopping for the night at Pierce Pond Lean-to. This is the first 20+ mile day since Massachusetts, something I didn’t think I would be able to do while in Maine. This set me up nicely for a 4 mile hike to the Kennebec River where the official trail crossing of the river is provided by a Maine Guide and an Old Town canoe. The level of the river here varies drastically as there are hydro electric dams both above and below the crossing. It can be waist deep in the morning and 8-12 feet deep in the afternoon. I was able to contact Amy to inform her of my new ETA for pickup on Route 201, just after the river crossing. She drove the 2.5 hours from Becky’s to spend the night with me in a one room cabin we rented for the night. The cabin was at The Forks Adventure Resort on the same property as the Kennebec Brewing Co.

Check-in wasn’t until 4:00 PM so we drove past the resort to look for a place to have a leisurely lunch. We ended up at Hawk’s Nest and had a very nice lunch. With nothing else to do in this remote area, we headed to the resort in hopes of checking in early. Although our cabin wasn’t ready, they had showers I could access and the public laundry was available, the two things we wanted to check in early to get done! After I got showered and Amy started my laundry (boy, do I miss her on trail!), we hung out in the lounge near the bar at the brewery. There are worse places to wait for your room to be ready and/or your laundry to finish.

While the laundry was finishing, it began to rain and the forecast called for more than an inch of rain overnight. I have had decent luck in that on many occasions poor weather coincided with planned nights off trail. That’s not to say I didn’t get my share of soaking rains, but it’s always nice to be sitting in a warm dry building while it is pouring rain outside, knowing you aren’t going to have to setup or tear down in the rain. After finishing our beer in the lounge, it was around 3:00 PM and our room was ready to check in. We picked up our laundry on the way to the cabin and were pleased with the cabin. It was very cozy and we lounged around, enjoying each other’s company while we waited for it to be time for dinner back in the brewery.

It did indeed rain all night and it was still raining when Amy took me back to the trail after cooking me a nice big breakfast. One more three day jaunt and I’ll be in Monson, ME getting ready for the 100 mile wilderness!

Day 170 through Day 172 – Route 201 to Shaws Hostel (Route 15, Monson): mile 2043.1 to mile 2079.8

Back in Virginia, when Amy was still hiking with me, we needed to remove our boots and put on our water shoes (aka Crocs) to ford a stream where the bridge was out. The FarOut app (the app of choice for hikers on the trail) had warned us with a big caution icon on the map. Until now, that was the only time we had needed to wade in the water to get across. That changes in a big way from here until the end of the 100 mile wilderness. Fording rivers is so commonplace on the trail in Maine that you don’t even know you will need to do it until you get to the stream or river and can see the path with white blaze on the far bank. Actually if you take the time to read the description of a water crossing in the FarOut app, you may get a clue that a dry crossing may not be possible.

I had at least one such crossing each of the three days between Route 201 and Route 15 in Monson. For the most part, these weren’t too bad with water coming up to the knees with occasional depths close to mid-thigh. On the final day before getting to Monson, shortly after one such crossing, I came to a bog where the path went to the left and came to a log that offered a dry crossing. I figured why not, I can walk across that log. The water was about 18″ deep and I lost my balance about halfway across the log and an attempt to hop to another log near the far shore failed and I landed on my backside in the water. Needless to say I was not happy but at least I knew I would be in Monson soon and would be able to launder my clothes.

One thing the heavy rain brought with it was an over abundance of mushrooms along the trail. There were so many varieties of mushroom that I am now contemplating getting a book to help me identify all the various types. I photographed lots of mushrooms in this section and during my trek through the 100 mile wilderness.

I made it to route 15 by 10:30 am and was about to call the hostel to let them know I was ready for a ride when I noticed three ladies about my age getting off the trail. I asked if they were headed toward Monson and they said yes and were willing to give me a ride. During the conversation on the way into Monson, I learned they all knew who my uncle was (he was a CPA in the area and did a lot of people’s taxes). It turned out one of them was a couple years behind my cousin in high school. They also knew of Amy and her parents. The reason for this familiarity is my father’s family lived in this area and Amy moved to the area when she was in middle school.

Shaw’s Hiker Hostel is one of the oldest and more famous hostels on the Appalachian Trail and is even featured in Bill Bryson’s book, “A Walk in the Woods”. I had reserved a private room ahead of time and was all checked in by noon and got my laundry going as soon as I got showered.

Meanwhile, Amy was having her own little adventure as we tried to figure out a way for her to get to the middle of the 100 mile wilderness to hook up with me in a few days. My sister and brother-in-law had a family wedding to go to and other commitments after and couldn’t help. Our RV friends, Rob and Laura, quickly came to the rescue. They were planning to camp out in the Millinocket area (Medway to be exact) to wait for me to complete the trail and help out anyway they could. On the way to the wedding, Amy was dropped off at a truck stop / Dunkin Donuts in Auburn, ME, near the access to I-95. An hour and a half later, Rob and Laura pulled in with their Class A motor home and swept her up. They drove a few hours north and stayed at a Harvest Host location in Palmyra, ME. Looking at the map of the area, I quickly realized that Palmyra was only a 50 minute drive from Monson. I texted them and suggested we get together for the afternoon. Amy, Rob, and Laura were all over that idea and they were soon on their way to meet up with me.

We had a wonderful afternoon/evening together. I gave them a tour of the hostel so Rob and Laura could get a small taste of what it might be like on the trail. They helped me get resupplied as we had to drive to Guilford to get to a grocery store of any significant size. This gave Amy the opportunity to show them the high school she graduated from. On the way back to Monson, we stopped at Turning Page Farm Brewery for a flight of beers. We got back to Monson and walked from the hostel to the Lakeshore House for dinner. After dinner, it was time for them to return to Palmyra but I would see them again in a few days when Amy joined me on the trail for the final 55 miles.

Daily Data

Day	Miles	Total Asc	Total Desc	Steps
164	10.7	3976	2709	30177
165	14.2	4097	4307	40901
166	7.3	1994	3287	24786
167	10.4	4183	3372	32221
168	22.6	3526	4563	62618
169	4.0	232	895	13584
170	14.7	3313	2555	39611
171	13.0	2171	2641	36656
172	9.0	1528	1184	30705