It was a crisper day and cool walking along ponds. We only had a few minor elevations to go over today, the biggest of which was only 1000’ over Little Bigelow Mountain. If we were younger and more ambitious, we could make it to the Kennebec River by tomorrow. Bear and Sassy could easily, but it looks like we are all committed to summitting Katahdin as a tramily. Even so, I don’t want to push the point and fall too far behind. I am Easily Forgotten.
The most amazing part of today is that we still made another 4000 miles of progress today. It is very easy to trace the trail’s length as it grows over the years. Each year sees the 2000 mile mark move south a couple of miles. By the time we hit our 6th marker, the trail has lengthened over 20 miles in just a mere 5 years.
We stuck together today and stopped on the shore of Flaggstaff Lake for lunch. GCN cooked a hot lunch to reduce his time in camp before bed. He’ll be able to get in, set up, and go to bed while the rest of us have to cook a hot meal. This is probably the smart move, but I have never been accused of being smart on the trail. Bunny and I have decided long ago that we like to end the day with a hot meal and start the day with hot coffee or tea.
There are a few things I need to mention about Bear. It’s been going on ever since we entered the Whites and I just can’t stand it any longer. It is a heinous thing for an engineer to do and he takes joy in performing this act in front of me. I honestly wonder how we have hiked with them this long. If something is worth doing, it’s worth DOING RIGHT. Bear folds his maps in any way that will expose the portion he wants to see. Did you hear that? He doesn’t fold a map on the creases! It wouldn’t take an extra 10 seconds to pull the map out, open it, look at it, fold it properly, and put it away. I’m not OCD. I don’t knock 3 times on the tent before entering. I don’t snap my fingers and turn 3 circles every day before starting to hike. I do, however, believe in folding things (tents, sleeping pads, and yes, maps) properly and putting them away. Mechanical engineers…please!
After lunch I tried to distance myself from the map abuse and pushed myself too hard walking to check if my legs were really better. I was hiking at a pace over 3 mph and reinjured my knee before getting to camp. The last 1/2 mile was hell. I’d take a few steps and rest. I had been way out front, but everyone ended up passing me and getting to camp ahead of me. To make matters worse, I wasn’t wearing my knee braces. If I’m going to finish the trail, I can’t be doing stupid stuff like this.
The lean-to was full but no one likes to sleep in shelters unless weather is terrible. Bear and Sassy still hadn’t decided on a spot when I finally arrived. There was only one spot big enough for our tent that didn’t have roots all around. We let them have that spot and we took a level spot next to them filled with roots. As much as I have bitched about Big Agnes’s sleeping pads, they are sufficiently thick enough for us to sleep on just about any surface. Chip set up by himself so we couldn’t hear him sobbing as he fell asleep.
Sassy went to the privy. When she came back, she told us it was bicentennial privy. If this were true, that would make it the oldest, continuously used privy on the trail. I had to go check it out even if nature wasn’t demanding so at the moment—think of the poop history here if it is 42 years old. That would make the contents much older than the age of the average thru-hiker. It was, in reality, an ATC Biennial Conference Privy erected in 2017 but it was a Cadillac of privy in terms of size and capacity. Oh, if poop could talk (the privies would be even creepier).
There was magic in shelter, but people in there had already taken it all before we arrived. All they left us was empty beer cans and zip lock bags. I went to bed dreaming of food that wasn’t dehydrated and beer. I counted empty beer cans, instead of sheep, to make myself fall asleep. I’m not normally much of a beer drinker since turning 50, I prefer the classier way to get trashed—wine.
EFG