Miles: 1,929.5 — Early start, Speck Pond breakfast, then hot, humid climbs over Mahoosuc Arm and Old Speck before dropping to Grafton Notch. I cruised up Baldpate on podcast autopilot while Miles battled dehydration, then crossed the windy alpine and tucked in near Frye Notch. Thirteen honest miles, Mountain House in the tent door, and that lovely “we’re getting our groove back” feeling.
I woke up at 6:30am and got right up. I felt a lot better, but I was really stuffy. The day was filled with some challenging but beautiful terrain. We ascended Mahoosuc Arm. Once we began climbing old speck, we split up for a little bit but rejoined before the summit. We stopped at Speck Pond Shelter and had breakfast around 10am. We watched as some other hikers packed up. It was rare for us to be up this early and have already made it more than two miles. It felt pretty good.
I contacted my parents from Speck Pond, and they agreed to meet us in Andover, ME the next day to bring us some resupply food and take us to lunch. It was a couple of hours from home and they said they didn’t mind.
I drank my Mio energy drink after that and thought about a nice big mug of hot coffee with cream and sugar. How badly I wanted that coffee. I hoped I’d get some the next day. I didn’t like instant coffee, I’d tried it my first couple of weeks. For a while I just drank it in cold water as fast as I could, but that was almost torture. I even tried making iced coffee with honey crystals to sweeten it. All horrible. This craving was always my strongest.
We continued down to Grafton Notch where we saw many tourists. A girl hiking up Old Speck from the Grafton Notch Side as we were descending stopped us to ask, “How much longer until the top?” I replied, “We’re thru-hikers and we’ve basically been hiking for five months straight so our pace isn’t exactly the same as yours. Its about two more miles and if you go a mile an hour that would be two hours. If you go two miles per hour you could be up there in an hour.” She groaned and complained, “Another hour?” Her friend rolled her eyes.
I was always saddened by day hikers who were unhappy hiking. I get that it’s not for everyone, but it seemed like a lot of people considered hiking a chore that someone else made them do and no something fun. I sometimes felt that way, but when I saw people in the real world I realized how fortunate I was to be out on the AT and (even if it took me a few hours to get out of my funk of tedious hiking) when I saw those people complaining I felt even more lucky. That I liked to hike, and I got to hike even if sometimes I didn’t love it.
We left Grafton Notch after a lunch break and a trail magic soda from a cooler by the trailhead. We crossed the road and started up BaldPate. Miles took it slow, stopped for snack breaks, he said he felt light headed. He was dehydrated and it was hot. I felt good, even with the heat. A layer of sweat quickly drenched my clothes and covered my skin. I kept going and told Miles I’d wait for him ahead. I put in my headphones and cruised uphill, listening to The Moth while I walked.
It was humid and hot, every day hiker I passed on the wide trail reminded me as I said hi to them. It was like Groundhog Day, “Hot one huh?” “Ready for it to rain this time?” “Hot one today!”
Once we reached a blue blazed lookout point, the AT branched off. The skinnier and more overgrown trail immediately got steeper and rockier. Vines and branches reached out into the trial, overgrown and less maintained than the day hiker trail before it. I kept going until I got hungry about five miles later. I sat down and completed a blog post while I waited for Miles. The sweat covering my skin helped me cool down quickly while I sat against a large tree.
When Miles caught up to me, I took my headphones out. It seemed like tenting in this section would be hard to find. I’d heard south bounders complaining about Maine’s tenting situation since Vermont. Ahead, there was a shelter that we were aiming for, the outlook wasn’t good. According to Guthook, it had only three tent spots and four shelter spots. I’d already seen more than four thru-hikers that day, not including southbounders. It was very likely that we might have to keep walking into the dark.
I kept climbing Baldpate behind Miles. As we gained elevation, we entered the alpine zone. The clear, bald summit of the mountain was covered in mud pits. Thankfully, there were some boards to walk on, but many of them were sunk or broken. I tried my best not to slosh, failing as usual. We crossed the windy summit in awe. The incredible beauty we saw in combination with the gusting wind, instilled a fear and excitement in me. Looking back, I could see all of the mountains I’d climbed that day. I thought of the first time I’d ever climbed four peaks in one day, back in Georgia. How naive I’d been to think that 12-mile day was so hard. It was for me at the time, and it was for most day hikers. But now, with my trail legs, it seemed so small. Literally a walk in the park.
We took in the view until we began to get cold and kept walking, attempting to get to the shelter before dark. We came down the windy balds and got to the Lean-To. The trail ran right in front of it but trail Maintainers were camping at the shelter that night, and they greeted us around their campfire. We continued up the trail a little ways and found some tent sites not far ahead. After we set up we gathered water and made our Mountain House meals.
It was a good day, only about 13 miles. That meal was so good in the humid, quickly cooling air. I savored it and ate slowly in the open doorway of my tent. There were very few bugs and I had stopped being cautious about zipping up my tent right away. We went to sleep pretty early and planned to get up at 6:30am again to go meet my parents. Trying to stay consistent from this day forward, we told ourselves.