Day 127 - Friday, August 13, 2021

We had a little unexpected break in the action yesterday as we weren’t able to get to Bald Mountain Road to begin our hike and ended up taking a “Zero”.  Google maps kept taking us up abandoned or impassable roads and we didn’t have cell service so we couldn’t navigate another way, now it’s getting near 11:00 am, so we ended up just driving to Monson where our hostel is. Once we got to Monson we did arrange a shuttle to take us there today as well as making arrangements to slack pack the 100 Mile Wildness 😉. Yes that’s right, slack packing the 100 Mile Wilderness - we are the quintessential “platinum slack packers” 😉😂. We are arranging this with Shaw’s Hiker Hostel in Monson. It got pretty humid and hot yesterday so I’m not heartbroken that we didn’t hike 😂😂😅.

Today we are hiking from Moxie Pond (2053.8 NoBo) to Bald Mountain Road (2064.6 NoBo) for a total of 10.8 miles.


We didn’t start hiking till 9:45 am as we had to wait for the hostel to finish serving breakfast before they could shuttle us to Bald Mountain Road 🙄. The temperature was already 81° 🥵.




Don’t know what happened to our starting picture?  So I’m using this pic of me…. It’s my blog anyways 🙄😂














Climbing Moxie Bald Mountain.




Think we found Bigfoot in Maine 😳.





Getting closer to Moxie Bald Mountain.










Moxie Pond from the summit of Moxie Bald Mountain.







Meet “Mud Angel” who started from Springer on February 16th. “Mud Angel” is from Fayetteville, Arkansas. He actually hiked the 100 Mile Wilderness with a friend last year and they decided to hike the entire AT. His friend only lasted a couple weeks but “Mud Angel” chose to continue. Since he hiked the 100 Mile Wilderness within the year it’s not required to hike again now…. unless he has some “moment” that he is trying to relive 🙄. “Mud Angel” agreed he’s good with last years completion of the 100 Mile Wilderness and will go right to Katahdin 👍🏻. 







The Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to.






Baker Stream - AWOL Thru Hikers Guidebook noted this required to be forded? We had no issues “rock hopping” across 😉.











Swimming in Moxie Pond. The water was actually quite comfortable as the air temperature was 91° with the heat index approaching 100°. Turtle Power decided to go skinny dipping - I guess he didn’t get beyond not wearing clothes in his preadolescent development  stage 🤔🙄.

We finished hiking at 3:00 pm. We met “Drifter & Hun” back at Shaws Hiker Hostel. Today they officially completed thru hiking the AT 🎉! Congratulations with your achievement 👍🏻. We are meeting them tomorrow for dinner to celebrate!!

You can feel the excitement and overall sense of accomplishment in the air…. most thru hikers who have reached this place on the trail are “knocking” on Katahdin’s door! They know they are very close to reaching their goal… but they are all also very cautiously optimistic as they know they are so close, yet so far as we are always just one step from leaving the trail.

Today has been an exciting day as Nimblewill Nomad “Sunny” Eberhart summited Katahdin today on his Odyssey 2021: Bama to Baxter journey!!

On a final note of jubilation and celebration, we have completed over 1500 trail miles today!!!


Till next time... Happy Hiking  🥾 

😋


“Acts of generosity in this wild and primitive setting…where basic amenities…are intentionally absent–are often received in a heightened sense of wonder and gratitude by hikers. These acts of generosity are referred to as “trail magic.”

                  (Appalachian Trail Conservancy)


Comments

  1. Joe ArcuriAugust 14, 2021 at 11:41 AM

    Moxie Pond! Nice! You’re almost there, 68.5% completed!!!

    ReplyDelete

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