Maine!

I enjoyed my weeks at home with my family, and packed in lots of play time with my son. In addition, I packed on pounds—about 15, plus a few I probably added during the ride up. I feel strong and ready to get back to our hike. Forest now has a new hammock, too. This one has a bug net like my hammock, so he'll be able to sleep through the night without being bothered by pests. I think he likes it.

My family and I and Forest's trainer arrived in Maine Friday morning (July 6), after a long 2½-day drive. Leaving on July 4 turned out to be a smart move, with mostly very little traffic or delays. We avoided I-95, most of the major eastern cities and the two tunnels causing long delays in West Virginia by taking a farther western route, which took us north from North Carolina, through Harrisburg and Scranton, PA, and then over to I-95 north of New York City. The drive was beautiful and gave me a glimpse of what I would be hiking through after resuming my hike southbound from Maine.

As we drove through Maine to Baxter State Park, we must have crossed over 15 or 20 bodies of water, from rivers to streams. The view confirmed that my decision to leave my Tenkara fly fishing rod at home was a smart one. The temptation to stop and fish every body of water I crossed on the hike south would have been too much for me. I'd probably still be in Maine next year at that rate!

 

After spending the night in Freeport, ME, where we went through a power outage and almost ran out of gas (an eventful night), we headed to Millinocket where our first stop happened to be in front of a memorial to the town's own veterans who had served in World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam Conflict. I was surprised how many names were included.

From there we proceeded to the Appalachian Trail Lodge to get information on setting up a resupply point in the daunting 100-mile Wilderness. The Lodge is the only group that offers this service. All of the Trail literature said that they could provide 3 resupply points, so we had packed boxes accordingly. However, we learned at the Lodge that they now offer only 1 supply drop. This meant that I would have to carry food and supplies for 6 or 7 days, instead of the originally planned 3 or 4. Luckily, with so many bodies of water, I wouldn't have to carry as much weight in water as had been necessary in Virginia, but I would be carrying a little more weight in quilts, jackets and stove materials because of the cooler night temperatures. It's always a trade-off.

Next, we moved on to the Baxter State Park Authority, where I obtained information on several ways to approach the Mt. Katahdin summit (the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail and the highest peak in the state of Maine). I had planned to climb the summit on Saturday, July 7, but the Park Authority had already reached their limit for hikers that day. Instead, I registered to summit on Sunday, July 8, and we received our parking permit for that day. This meant that we would need to stay an additional night in Millinocket, but it would give me more time to plan my approach to the 100-mile Wilderness and repack my resupply boxes to address the new limit on the Lodge's support.

After talking with the folks at both the Appalachian Trail Lodge and the Baxter State Park Authority and looking at pictures of the trails, I made the very difficult decision to leave Forest with his trainer and my wife while I climb the Mt. Katahdin summit. Both of the Trail options are simply too difficult and steep and include too many boulder scrambles and rock faces for him to be able to hike with me safely. This will be the first time in the 10 and a half months since I brought Forest home that we will be apart. Even though it will only be for about 10 to 12 hours, I know that this is going to be very hard on both of us. I have to put his health and safety first, though.