MAINLY PAIN Nights of Jun 28 to Jul 1 2013

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.