Welcome to Maine

on 25 July 2009

Yesterday was the hardest day so far. Courtney came last night to
slackpack us so I was on the trail at 5:45am. It was one of those days
where the only people hiking were thru-hikers. It was pouring and cold
as I left. The trail has become overgrown and extremely muddy, rocky,
and full of roots. Every time I hit a branch, a night's worth of
accumulated rainfall would fall on me. The shortest option for the
slackpack was 31 miles because there were no other road crossings -
not even a dirt forest service road. That in itself, especially with
several big climbs, is a big day. However, I also had to do Mahoosuc
Notch, the hardest mile on the whole AT in slick conditions. It wasn't
too bad with just a daypack though and it was a pretty cool area. It
was a mile between 2 cliffs where large boulders have fallen over the
last couple thousand years. I had to climb over, around, and under
these large boulders and there was even ice still in some of the
crevices. I finally got done at 9:15 and gladly took my soaked shoes
off. Today we're slackpacking another 20 miles.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cannot wait to see you and Mr. Bubbles. You two probably have some good stories.

Anonymous said...

YAY YOU IN MAINE! CONGRATS FOR YOUS! HOPE YOUR HAVING "FUN"...IF THAT IS THE RIGHT WORD?

Unknown said...

Hellooooo Maaaaaaaine! Yee-haw! Sounds like a gnarly day! Can't believe you are in your last state! Hi to Court. Rock it!

Andy Yale said...

Chad, this is inspiring. It prodded me to remember scrambling over some very large boulders in the Canadian Rockies a long while back, and time in the Presidential Range and up on Kathadin too.
Looks like your blog got restored. Thanks for sharing!
Andy

Anonymous said...

I can't believe after 31 grueling miles you got right back on the horse the next day! What an inspiration to us all...I warmed up the kayak seat for you. You will love going with Court. She's pretty good out there, a natural. I had a nice visit with her. Watching movies at your house is phenomenal! Eleanor Roosevelt said a woman is like a teabag: you don't know how strong she is until you put her in hot water. Court has been holding down the fort so amazingly! I'm so proud of both of you. Go out with a bang, Chad. You're so close, you'll be home before you know it! Char

Ryan said...

Slackers!

Barb said...

My only comment today can be "Wow!"

Ps: ...and, you guys are incredible!!

Barb said...

Okay, so finally last night I told Chuck that the picture of you looking out at the view with the rocks next to you? Well, I told him it looks like to me that you are communing with the rocks. The worrisome part is, are they talking back to you?!?!

We really need to get you back to civilization or my voice down the hall will be such a shocker...as we know it is already to Mr. Filzen!

Anonymous said...

Wow, Chad you are so almost a through, through hiker! You must have less than 200 miles to go. You go!

Mr. DeVoe's parents said...

Courtney - thankyou for making the trip to Maine to slackpack the guys!

brittney said...

hey my mom lived there when she was growing up

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