Day 188
Start: Chairback Gap Lean-to
End: Logan Brook Lean-to
Miles Hiked: 17.1
Miles on AT: 2126.0
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Despite the blue skies, I woke up to a bunch of wet things: my clothes, the inside of my tent, a section of my quilt. *Sigh*. I spent the first few moments of the morning sopping up the puddle in my tent with my Sham-wow dupe, squeezing the excess water out onto the ground just outside of the tent door. I looked at my pile of soaking wet clothes and knew that they were not going on my body. It was too cold for that!
With my sleep clothes still on, I’d started packing things up. I had taken the gamble of sleeping in my wet fleece last night in the hopes that my body heat would dry it out, and it paid off. That was about the only silver lining this morning. As I folded my tent, my fingers froze with the low temperatures of the early morning. I had to take several breaks to warm them up before all of my things made it into my pack, but I did it!
I had a short climb up Chairback Mountain, but seeing the sun for the first time this morning lifted my spirits. Warmth! I couldn’t take the sun for granted; it felt like I hadn’t seen it in so long, and now, here it was, generously giving me its warming rays. I soaked them in for as long as I could.
Then it was down, down, down, until I reached a road with another little patch of sun. I tried to warm up while I ate a snack, but the sun’s rays weren’t as strong down here. As I got moving again, I soon entered the Hermitage Preserve and Gulf Hagas, a protected area full of old-growth white pines. This section was rumored to have nearly-flat trail, but first I had to cross a river to get to it.
Peering across the wide body of water, I could see that someone was on the other side. The water was shallow and, as usual, I didn’t want to take my shoes off, so I just sloshed through the shockingly cold water. Turns out, the guy on the other side was a ridge runner, the last ridge runner of the trail. I didn’t expect to chat for too long, but we ended up spending about 10 minutes talking. He gave me all the details on what to expect and I warmed up in the sun that had finally come out. Apparently, the trail was going to be really nice for the next few miles until the climbs, but they wouldn’t be too hard.
And he was right! Despite gaining elevation, it hardly felt like the trail had an incline. I stopped again for lunch in a patch of sun and was able to dry my feet and a few other clothing items. At these lower elevations, it was actually a really nice day. But, the further I climbed, the colder I got. On Gulf Hagas Mountain, I had to keep moving because the wind wanted to freeze me in place. It was one of the few places where I was able to get reception, but the cold only allowed me to get a few messages out.
Trying to stay warm, I pushed on, summiting Hay Mountain and then White Cap. The view from the top of White Cap was amazingly beautiful. The whole valley stretched out before me, orange coating almost every surface. And then, in the distance, I could see her, Mama K! Katahdin was within reach! But, I couldn’t revel for too long; the wind was painfully cold, so I continued on, trying to get below treeline and out of the wind.
My plan had been to go a little farther today, but it was already starting to get dark. I decided to stop at the next shelter, and found that I wasn’t alone in that decision. A couple of people from the shelter from last night were there as well, but this time there was space in the shelter for me. Not wanting to deal with a wet tent again, I gladly set up my sleeping pad and quilt, ate dinner, and crawled into bed. It was already pretty cold, so I figured the night would get even colder. WIth all of my (dry) clothes on, I snuggled into my quilt and promptly fell asleep.
And that’s day 188.
A version of this post originally appeared on TheTrek.co.