Miles: 2,119.5 — Woke up on Miles’ birthday to frost and frozen condensation, warmed up with a fast hike to the Pleasant River. My sister’s hidden note at Gulf Hagas was still waiting for me — one of the sweetest surprises of the trail. That night at Logan Brook, I coaxed a tiny campfire to life for what would be our last on the AT. Four days left. I tried to soak it in under a sky full of sharp, cold stars.
We woke up on Miles’ birthday in his tent on a hill. Frost covered the tent walls in a thin layer of frozen condensation. We woke up around 8am, our usual, and were out of camp by 8:30am. No breakfast before we left camp because we just wanted to warm up. In the chilly morning we hiked together, keeping a fast pace. We crossed KI Road and got down to the Pleasant River. We got water, since we each had only a half-liter, and ate a quick breakfast.
Today was the day that we’d pass Gulf Hagas. Back in July my sister had hidden a note in a log-book box on the AT near Gulf Hagas. She’d sent me a photo of the box. That was over a month ago! Now we were finally there, and I crossed my fingers that a ranger or ridge runner hadn’t thrown her note away. I check each log box that we passed and in the third one we found her note!
She wrote a little encouraging letter to us and it was so sweet. We were so close to the end now. I thought of all of the days on which receiving a letter like this would have been exactly what I needed to push through. It was one of the most thoughtful things my sister had ever done for me. I tucked the note into the plastic baggie where I kept my headlamp and batteries for safe keeping.
We moved on to the next river fording, the Pleasant River! The two of us rolled up our pants before we got the river to try to acclimate to the cold a little bit. My hairy hiker legs had goosebumps all over them. We sloshed through the shallow, cold river as quickly as we could without splashing (because splashing meant completely wet pants instead of damp cuffs). On the other side of the river sat a ridge runner named Gin Gin. She told us and another thru-hiker about Baxter State Park. How to get there, how to plan, reserving campsites, etc. We decided to reserve a campsite next time we got service, we were in a bit of a bubble.
After that we meandered up and over Gulf Hagas Mountain. On our way down toward the Sidney Tappan Campsite, we came upon a beautiful rock staircase built by trail maintainers. One particular rock had a large K painted on it with an arrow. The view was only partial and mostly covered by leaves, but you could kind of see Katahdin through those leaves.
We hurried on, hungry for lunch in the cold afternoon. At the campsite I went down the steep trail to the spring. It flowed, but only slowly. I made a spout with a small leaf and a rock to get the water into my water bag. A skill I’d practiced over and over now, so much so I forgot to even mention I learned it!
We made lunch by the fire pit at the campsite and chatted with other hikers that passed. We didn’t know anyone anymore. Our bubble had passed us weeks ago. We briefly met a few flip floppers and northbounders as we ate. Once we’d packed up we headed up the next two mountains together. As the sun set, another hiker snapped a few photos of us on White Cap Mountain. You could vaguely see Katahdin in the background.
We slowly made our way down the the next shelter, Logan Brook, and found no campsites by the shelter. Miles went ahead to see if there were a few tent sites, as recommended by Guthooks 0.1 miles ahead. I went down and got us water.
Miles set up his tent for us to share again. I don’t know why I even bothered carrying mine! There was a little fire pit and we were in a birch grove. So I grabbed some birch bark and tried to get a fire going. Miles tried to help and, although he’s gotten a bit better since then, he just smothered the fire every time it got going. I eventually got him to give up and start boiling water for hot chocolate. I got the fire going enough to light one very small log. It was all I had wanted, really.
I figured it would be our last camp fire of the trail. We only had 4 more days left. It seemed like nothing now. We sipped our hot chocolate and put our toes near the flames. I checked my phone one last time before I turning it off for the night. I had service! An unexpected surprise. I called my parents and made plans with them to pick me up at Katahdin Stream Campground on September 28th at 3pm and updated them on our progress. We had a short conversation and I said goodbye one last time before I’d see them as an official AT Thru-Hiker.
We stayed up until 9:30pm and then snuggled into the tent together. I tried to soak it in. That night I got up to go pee around 2am. I forgot my glasses, as usual, and when I looked up at the blurry sky all I saw were twinkling, glowing little blurs. The stars were shining so brightly in the clear cold night sky. I knew it would be things like this that I’d miss. Standing in a birch grove, the most picturesque campsite we’d maybe ever had, on the side of a mountain in Maine with the sky humbly twinkling. I took a deep breath of the cold, sharp air and went back to bed.