We drove into the centre of Maine for the
sole purpose of hiking the last 4 days of the Appalachian Trail. We got a
shuttle to the Southern End of Nahmakanta Lake and started hiking the Last 40
miles of what is known as the 100 Mile wilderness. It was raining as we started
and continued lightly for most of the day. The mosquitoes attacked us as soon
as we left the car and it wasn’t even the bug season yet.
Setting
out into the 100 mile wilderness
As the trail follows very close to the
shores of the lakes it is extremely wet and muddy most of the way. Add in very
slippery rocks and a myriad of even slipperier tree roots and the walking was
very tough. You could not take your eyes of the ground for a second. At 5 pm we
made it to our camp for the night after 11 of the slowest miles we have ever
hiked. And this was over fairly level ground!
Rainbow
Stream campground and a place to dry out
The next day started with a crossing of
the swollen Rainbow Stream on two skinny tree logs. To the cheers of fellow
campers we somehow we managed to get across without getting wet. It was then
more of the same only a storm passed over around lunch time and the rain poured
down. The AT Creek (as we were now calling it) turned into the AT river as we
walked up and over a low hill along a now running water course. Any
attempt at keeping our feet dry evaporated so we just walked through the
puddles. At one stage I became stuck in the mud and had to use my hiking poles
as leverage to get out, to a loud sucking noise. We arrived at our shelter for
the night at around 4pm just before another thunder storm passed over and the
heavens opened up again. We had done 11.5 even slower miles today.
Water,
water everywhere…..
The 3rd day as we eventually walked out of
the wilderness was a beautiful day with no rain. It was actually very pleasant
and a lot easier the closer we got to Katahdin Stream campsite. We finally came
to a sign marking the end of the 100 mile wilderness and some of the hardest
backpacking we had ever done. On exiting the wilderness we found civilization
and stopped for coffee, a bacon and egg roll and sat in the sun drying our
socks.
As we only had to cover 9.5 Miles toady and it was mostly dry we were in camp by 2pm and quickly hung everything we owned out to dry.
The fun had really only just begun as the
nest day we were up at 5.15am and at 7am we were at the trail head for the
final 5.1 mile AT climb up to Baxter Peak on Mount Katahdin.
Mt
Katahdin Baxter Peak Trail profile. This ought to be fun….
The first 1.1 miles were very pleasant
going but after this the trail rose a further 3,500 feet in 4 miles. Once out
of the tree line at the trail was a series of white lines painted on the large
boulders. Some of these had steel rungs to aid climbing but were very difficult
to reach. Twice Sandra had to use my knee to get a boost then I had to haul
myself up. We didn’t stop to think how we were going to get down. We
passed a hiker that had been struck by a large rock that came loose and was
slowly making his way down.
Rest
stop at the “Tablelands”
After a short level section at the
Tablelands it was more boulder scrambling to the top. It took us 5 hours to
climb the 4,187ft in 5.1 miles to reach the very impressive – NOT – sign
marking the top of Baxter Peak and the official end of the Appalachian Trail.
The
official end of the Appalachian Trail
With thunderstorms forecast we didn’t stay
long and began the equally arduous climb down, much of which was done on our
hands and asses.
At the Tableland we passed a guy with a
baby in a back carrier on his way up. DUMB ASS (He would later get a fine and a
summons to appear in court by the rangers).
It was with some relief that we made it
back into the tree line and a more gentle descent with still no sign of the
thunderstorms.
We could hear a helicopter nearby and
shortly came to the injured hiker we had passed earlier. In 4 hours He had
descended one mile. Unfortunately with nowhere safe for an extraction He would
have to continue walker to a lower location. He would be extracted about 30
minutes later. This was the 3rd of approximately 30 such rescues each year on
the mountain.
Just
follow the white lines, what white paint……
We arrived back in camp exactly 10 hours after
we had set off. After a relaxing hot cup of tea and a quick dinner we climbed
into our tent for an early night. Aaaaagh.
We were now on borrowed time as we now
expected the immigration department to reject our tourist visa application as
we had waited too long before submitting.