We knew rain was in the forecast so the camera stayed well tucked away. We hoped to beat it and to be settled before it started. We didn’t make it, but lucky for us, the rain at least held off until midday. The morning was still windy and chilly, but dry. We hiked near a couple of lakes this morning. Lakes known for moose sightings. We kept stopping to look, but weren’t successful. I’m determined to see a moose on the trail. Well… I’m hopeful. Hopeful is a better word than determined.
Right before lunch, we hit the New Hampshire/Maine border. This is probably my favorite state crossing yet. Filled with celebration, I sang “I can’t contain… MY JOY FOR MAINE!!!” Another hiker, named “Slip ‘N Slide” was already there with celebratory beer on the the ground next to him. We sat, a bit wet, but oh so happy.
We are in Maine!
It was early afternoon by the time we stopped for lunch. We decided to go to a shelter. Unfortunately, the shelter was .2 miles off of the trail down a steep, rocky path. Which means we get to climb up and out of the stupid thing. It was was full of thru-hikers dodging the weather. Most of them had their sleeping pads and bags out and had called it a day. I wanted to stay there, knowing the rain would be starting soon. As a group, we decided to push on.
Almost immediately after leaving the shelter the rain started up consistently. At first it was just a fine mist. It eventually got to be a bit more, but never anything too hard. Even a light misting is enough to make the rocks slippery. The trail would take us up boulders, sometimes we would need to use ladders (wooden ladders or metal rung set into the stone) to climb up and over. In the trees, the weather wasn’t so bad. The thing is, most of the afternoon was spent up on top of balds, not down in the trees. The balds were stone on top. Sometimes the stone gave way to bog sections, areas of muck so deep you would easily lose a trekking pole in it. To get over these areas, the trail maintainers floated 2×4 boards for us to walk on. On top, we had high winds, low temps, and rain. I was wearing thermals underneath my rain gear because I have two sets of thermal bottoms, I could afford to get one of them wet. Warthog only has one set. He chose to just wear his shorts and t-shirt underneath his rain gear so he could have the warm, dry layer afterwards. It made me worry for him, so I tried to hike as fast as I could through the exposed areas – but slow enough to be careful.
We came across a mom and daughter hiking duo on top of the balds. The poor mother was being blown all over the top. I watched her fall into the low bushes twice. I tried to make my way to her, but before I was there, she was up again. We waited to help, but the daughter insisted they were fine. They didn’t look fine to me. I remember thinking that I needed to tell my mom about this moment. That I would never ask her to hike through hurricane winds, etc… you know, because I love her. The next day we would come across this pair on the trail again. They would stay at the same shelter we would (one that was full when we arrived). When those two arrived people made room because that poor mother was hypothermic. I thought the daughter was hiking the trail and brought her mom out for the weekend. I was wrong. Turns out, both are section hiking the AT. The mother has completed all of the trail, with the exception of Maine. This was her goal, her dream. She just had the misfortune to be out here in miserable weather.
Everyone was slipping and falling today. Wonder Woman started to go into a bog. Her foot slipped off of a board and she went in up to her knee. Snow Monkey was able to pull her out before the rest of her followed. I lost my footing on some of those boards too. I tripped, fell forward, slammed my knee into the wood and slid off to the edge. As I was going down, I thought, “Please don’t be a bog!” Thankfully, it was a section of boards that was lined with low bushes. Instead of my right side being covered in stagnant bog water, I was met with the pleasant scent of evergreen. It still hurt, but could have been far worse.
After what seemed like an endless rollercoaster of rocky balds and bad weather, we finally started to descend down the mountain and into the safety of trees. The trail was slippery still, but we had tree trunks and roots to catch ourselves on. It was around 6:30p when we finally arrived at the shelter. The front was covered with hikers’ tarps to keep the rain out. I looked in, hoping for room. If I wanted to be a bother, I probably could have made people squeeze together. That would work for two, not for four. We all decided to look for camping spots instead. Almost all of the viable options where gone. Finally, we saw a tent platform where someone was set up in front of, but not on. We would literally be camping two feet away from this person. It’s a rude move to set up so close. Considering the weather, I know they will understand. Snow Monkey and Wonder Woman didn’t want a platform. They don’t have thick, blow-up sleeping pads like we do. They use thinner, foam pads. It’s been good for them. However, on the platforms, the wind blows underneath them and seems to make things colder. Instead, they found a nice spot tucked between trees with soft ground.
Warthog and I were strategic about the way we set up camp. We put together the poles first, then laid out the tent. We quickly suspended the tent on the poles. Then equally as fast, threw the rainfly on. Now that the shell of the tent will stay as dry as it can, Warthog can take his time staking it out. He worked as fast as he could, but had to be careful too. You can’t have slack in the rainfly. If it touches the canvas of the tent itself, water will leak through the sides. While he did that, I threw our packs inside then dove in after them, taking off my rain-pants and shoes. The floor was soaked from both the standing water on the platform and the water dripping off of the packs. I pulled out our “dirty” water bags. Once he’d finished staking the tent, Warthog ran down to collect water from the stream. My goal was to try to get things semi-dry before he got back. Knowing how cold I was in thermals, I wanted to get him dry and warm. I pulled down the front of the tent to be able to lay my jacket in between the mesh and the rainfly. I will do the same with Warthog’s jacket too. Since our rainfly leaks, the jackets act as a second barrier to keep the water off of our sleeping bags and faces.
We wiped down the floor with our towel to get the standing water out. Then inflated the sleeping pads to give us a dry spot to work. Once those were inflated we changed into our dry clothes and pulled out the sleeping bags. Our bags are zipped together for more warmth. We huddled together in our nest of feathers, letting our bodies finally relax. We were both exhausted. Battling weather drains you. It was so comfortable, we accidentally fell asleep around 7:30p. I woke up again around 9p, realizing we still needed dinner. Since we were so close to the other tent, I didn’t want to start that process now. 9p is the understood “lights out” quiet time. We decided to be respectful to our neighbor, we would skip dinner tonight. It’s the first time we’ve missed dinner and it makes me nervous for how I’ll feel the next day. At the same time, the last thing I want to do is move. So I slept more. I woke up again an hour later at 10p needing to use the restroom. It was still raining. I didn’t want to get wet, but had to go. I leapt out as fast as I could and took care of business. Feeling and looking like a wet cat, I slunk back to the tent slightly defeated from the rain, but grateful for the dry bag I could climb back into. Despite the way everything around me was saturated with water, we had a small bubble of comfort. I cuddled in and fell back asleep.
-ansel