Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 21 – The Butcher’s Daughter
16th August 2023
Gentian Pond Shelter (286.7) - Route 2 / Gorham (298.5)
Daily miles: 11.8
Total miles: 304.8
I had a terrible nights sleep, I felt like I tossed and turned all night. I heard a mouse, or maybe another other small rodent, chewing away at something. I just had to hope it wasn’t any of my stuff that was being chewed. It sounded like it was coming from Chairback’s direction; probably all the sardine juice he spilt.
I went to sleep in my fleece again, because I’m too lazy to take it off, and I had it cinched up around my face to protect myself from the mosquitoes. In the night I woke up and felt like I was on fire I was so hot.
Morning view from the shelter
Gentian Pond shelter
Gentian Pond
A moment of calm in the morning
I woke up at 05:55, packed up and I was out of the shelter at 06:15. I needed to do 12 miles to town and yesterday 12 miles took me all day! I was hoping today was going to be much easier terrain.
It was. There were still some ups and downs. Some muddy bits. Some unreliable bog boards… I slipped on one and nearly did the splits. There were some bits of slippy slab rock, but over all it was so much easier compared to yesterday. I didn’t manage to keep my feet dry as they both took a dip in the mud.
Bogs and logs
Crumbling bog boards
Low clouds
Views across ponds
Wet and slippy rocks
Into the clouds
I had a steady stream of NOBOs heading towards me today. This feels like the bubble now. One had a full guitar on his back and one had a full banjo; people who carry instruments are in the bubble.
The humidity was bad. Some of the NOBOs commented on it too and they said the air was much nicer in The Whites. I’m looking forward to that because the humidity really slows me down on the climbs, the sweat just pours out of my face and I feel like I’m about to overheat.
I hike the whole way without stopping. I eat fruity liquorice from my fanny pack to keep my going and I filter water once and down the whole bottle so I don’t have to carry it.
Through the trees
Looking down into the valley
1900 miles to go
Some nice bits of forest
With a mile to go the trail follows a road which is brilliant after so many rocks and roots. The mosquitoes were bad on the last bit of trail but when I got to the road they were all over me; I had a cloud of them around me. There was a man set up with some trail magic so I grabbed a Gatorade and a packet of Doritos and apologised that I couldn’t stay and chat because I needed to run away from the mosquitoes
Trail Magic
The essentials
They followed me as I walked down the road and crossed over the bridge where the dam was in full flow.
I made it to the road - US Route 2 - at 13:15 and there were 3 NOBOs there getting in a car, I asked if there was room but they said no, so I tried to get a hitch in amongst this crazy cloud of bugs, people probably thought I was waving but I was just trying to swat away the 80 thousand bugs around me.
A road walk is a brief respite from the rocks and mud
The dam is open and in full flow after all the rain
About 20 cars passed, but it was only about 3 minutes before I was picked up. A guy who went out of town to get some tomatoes and saw the other hikers on the way out and had the intention of picking them up on the way back, so he got me, and then we picked up 2 more who had started to walk to town. They got in the back of the pick up and I had the first class seat in the front.
I apologised for smelling so bad and he said I didn’t which I find hard to believe but I was sat as still as possible so I didn’t disturb the air around me.
He dropped me off at Dollar General and I walked across the road to McDonald’s where Cal was and found him. First port of call was the toilet as I had needed to go all morning, then we went to find food.
The Asian buffet was highly recommended but it was closed. So we went to a sandwich place called the Butcher’s Daughter. Very good sandwiches. I had turkey stuffing and cranberry. Delicious.
Turkey sandwich from the Butcher’s Daughter
Then back to the Dollar General to resupply. Only for 2 days. I didn’t need much and now I’ve definitely got too much food for 2 days.
Our thoughts went to dinner and what we could get to take away. We went to what we thought was a bakery but was now an antique shop, Subway was opposite so we could have got something from there but then we thought about going back to the Butcher’s Daughter because the sandwiches were better and the same price, so we got sandwiches to take away.
We hitched to the White Birches campground where we had booked a cabin and the hitch took about 3 minutes and a lovely lady picked us up.
The campground had these cabins but no electricity. We thought it was the same deal as the last place we stayed but there were some crossed wires as there is a bunk house above the office for AT hikers to use but you couldn’t use the common arena if you weren’t staying in the bunk house. So we asked if we could stay in there instead and she said there was no one else booked in so we had the place to ourselves.
The bunk house above the campsite office
Found a toilet roll in the hiker box. The trail provides.
We put laundry on as a priority, they had loaner clothes which was nice, then I made a few phone calls home. It’s so nice to speak to people but it really eats into your time.
The laundry
Pre washing socks before the real wash
I found an odd mud pattern when I finally took off my shoes and socks
Showered – it felt so good to be clean. Ate my sandwich. Faffed about a bit and then it was past hiker midnight and time for sleep. Town time goes so quickly.
