It really began to hit home that I was hiking through the final state with less than 300 miles to go. Maine seemed to almost instantly become more rugged with tricky rock scrambles and rotting log-ladders as I hiked from peak to peak, rarely seeing any sign of humans; no roads in the distance, no houses, no cell towers on the ridgelines. I loved hiking down the Goose Eye summits because there was a series of bog boards at all sorts of crazy slopes and angles that felt like a live version of Chutes&Ladders. The next morning I caught up to Fancy at Mahoosic Notch which the guidebook describes as "the most difficult or fun mile of the entire trail" and I agreed with the latter. It was a non-stop scramble over huge boulders and even some army-crawls under some of them. Numerous times you had to take your pack off to shimmy through small gaps or toss your trekking poles up before climbing. It was great!
Fancy emerging from a tunnel in Mahoosuc Notch.
Rugged ladders of Maine.
After a quick pitstop at the brand new Speck Pond Shelter we got to the Old Speck Mountain Summit and took a 0.3 side trail to a firetower. The guthooks guide had a few comments saying the views were amazing but it was a bit too hazy out that day for those to be true. It's always fun climbing towers though. We scored some sodas at Grafton Notch and considered going up to the Baldpate summit to catch sunrise but abandoned those plans after realizing how cold it would be at that elevation on an exposed bald. We stayed at the Baldpate Lean-to where some other friends caught up and we hung out before I retired to begin the final LotR book, Return of the King. Side note: Maine decided they are special call all of their shelters “lean-to's” instead of “shelters.”
View from Speck Mountain Summit fire tower...endless mountains.
Baldpate West Peak looking across to the East Peak.
Some autumn colors are poking out at Surplus Pond. Can you spot the old cabin?
The following morning was cold and dreary so I was glad to have not pushed on to the summits. The bowl separating them had a couple of decent hammock spots but would have been way too cold for comfort. At the East peak of Baldpate I stopped to listen to the dead silence and admire the impressive views which were very peaceful. Even the windmills laid still in the distance and contributed to an eerie atmosphere. I hiked on and started passing a bunch of beautiful ponds and hoped to catch a glimpse of a moose but never did. I heard it was pretty hard to score a hitch into Andover but I was out of food and could feel I was catching a cold. It took 90 minutes but finally a guy named Pete picked me up and let me know that the Red Hen Restaurant let's hikers stay out back for free. I again lucked out and got the only hammock-able trees in the yard!
Time for new shoes. Luckily I convinced Altra to give me a 40% off coupon!
The next day I enjoyed a slamming brekkie (Australian slang for breakfast that Knots (trail name) taught me) at the Red Hen, bought some DayQuil and cough drops along with my food resupply, and caught the Pine Ellis Hostel shuttle back to the trail. It was a 2200ft climb up Old Blue Mountain and then the trail flattened out for the rest of the day which was nice since my knee was acting up again and I was sick. In the evening I caught a small trail magic with sodas and snacks and then hustled up a hill to catch an amazing sunset over the Mooselookmeguntic Lake. I set a time lapse and enjoyed a second dinner sitting on a rocky outcrop above Route 17.
Tiny house down on the banks of Long Pond.
A cold front continued to move in at a bad time since I was sick and I was hiking past ponds that had free canoes for anyone to paddle around. I definitely was not going out with the wind whipping around and clouds blocking the sunshine so I hiked on. That evening I got to Piazza Rock campsite where there was only one other hiker, an English girl who was hiking the whole trail in 100 days! After a freezing night's sleep, I took a quick side trail to check out "The Caves" which were a ton of tunnels going all through boulder piles. The weather warmed up throughout the day as the sun cleared the clouds away but the strong winds remained as I went over Saddleback Mountain. It had some amazing views of Rangeley and the surrounding lakes as I traversed across the exposed ridge and over The Horn. That night I hammocked next to Spaulding Mountain Shelter where a group of college kids were finishing up a four-day backpacking trek for BASE College orientation...I should've went there! They shared their food that the university paid for and we taught Tiger, a thru-hiker from Hong Kong, how to make s'mores.
Heading up Saddleback Mountain.
Saddleback Mountain. The town of Rangely is off to the right.
View from The Horn, looking back towards Saddleback Mountain.
The following day was a race to get around Sugarloaf Mountain and down to Stratton before the rain hit. I did not make it. But I did pass the 2000 mile marker and then stayed at a very sweet trail angel couple's house over in Strong, Maine. Thanks Trisch and Ron! They are part of the Church of the Nazarene who was hosting a huge hiker feed the following week and since I had a day to kill to wait for my shoes, I helped them set up bunk beds at the church.
I got to thinking how far that mileage is...here are some other places that are roughly 2,000 miles (as a bird flies) from my hometown of Baltimore, MD:
Mexico City, Mexico
Calgary, Canada
Phoenix, AZ
San Jose, Costa Rica