Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 6 – I don’t remember it being this hard!
1st August 2023
Carl Newhall Lean to - Stealth Site (mile 97.9)
Daily miles: 19.3
Total miles: 103.2
I felt like I tossed and turned all night, but the reality is I probably only woke up about 3 times and each time went straight back to sleep.
I had a fairly big day planned, a 21 mile day to another shelter; of course it would depend on the terrain. As I am lying here now in my tent writing this at the end of the day, 1.7 miles short of my goal, I feel like every thing that happened this morning happened a whole lifetime ago…
Soggy shoes and soggy socks
My new thermometer, entirely unnecessary but I like it
Privies are good in Maine
Inside the privy
It started with getting a later start than planned. I wanted to leave at 06:00 and ended up leaving at 06:45, so that wasn’t a good start. Oh and I woke up with such puffy eyes, one worse than the other. I think it’s because I’m so dehydrated, maybe? So all morning the fluid was seeping out of my eyes and running down my face, making it hard to see again.
Probably the most awful photo of me in existence! I woke up and the fluid had all pooled in my eyes
Only about half an hour in to the day I run into a couple who are lost. They ask me if there is a road near by. Nope.
After some questions it turns out they were supposed to be hiking around the Gulf Hagas trail, they started hiking in the dark and now they are 3 miles away from where they are meant to be heading and they are going in the wrong direction!
The two hikers who got lost
By combining their basic paper map and my GPS map I worked out where their car was parked and where they would need to go to get back. They should have been following blue blazes, not white blazes. The lady showed me a big cut across her left eye and she said she had slipped when trying to cross a creek, it looked really sore.
I felt like I should walk with them until they got the the junction, and I did for a bit. It was really going to stuff up my day as we were moving very slowly and the junction was 3 miles away so it might take 3 hours to get there, and I was also worried about the lady having concussion.
After a while they insisted I go on ahead. They gave me a packet of tissues and the plan was to leave the tissues on the sign so they knew which turning to take.
As I hiked on I felt conflicted, maybe I should have just stayed with them. I saw a day hiker and explained the situation and asked him to check on them. Further down I did the same to another guy who said he has means of communication to get them out of needed. So I felt better now there were 2 capable men headed towards them.
I felt sorry for them at first and then I felt a bit annoyed as this is no joke out here; you have to be prepared and you have to have a means of navigation. They had a paper map - which they said was rubbish but wasn’t actually too bad - but they didn’t know how to use it, and he was using Google maps… but there was no cell service out here it was just a blue dot on a very blurry background.
Don’t forget to look up
I left the tissues on the sign as agreed
Toads are everywhere
The “Grand Canyon of Maine”
A bit further on the trail became reeeeeal nice. For about 100 meters I could even walk without looking and the ground! This is because it’s the gateway to the Gulf Hagas trail which is described as the ‘Grand Canyon on Maine’. If I had time I might have gone and had a look.
There is a river crossing and it’s a feet wet kind of crossing with no rocks to hop, so in order to minimise how wet my feet got I took my socks off and crossed in my shoes. On the other side I squeezed out the padding on the heel and tongue and rung out the insoles and then put them back on. I couldn’t have a repeat of yesterday and the pain in my feet.
No hope of dry feet on this river crossing
At least my shoes look clean for 5 minutes
The other side of the river
From here everything just got… hard. I had made an ok pace this morning but as the day went on I just got slower and slower. It was 12pm by the time I made it up the first climb to Chairback mountain. Climbing up and over the rockslide to get there. I met a Brit on his way north but he wasn’t keen on chatting, I think he had Katahdin fever.
Squirrel eating a nut
I’ve been spotted!
How lucky we are to have a trail which goes through this dense forest
The trail is straight up and over
More muddy puddles
Grey clouds rolling in
Climbing up the rock slide. Trail goes straight up.
I made it to the shelter and I had to have a little sit down. There I met OG and Sideways. OG started the trail on February 2nd which sounds like a long time ago but that’s 5 months on trail which is pretty average. They assumed I started in the middle of July; they were quite surprised when I said the 27th.
The rest of the day is a blur of going very steeply up and very steeply down. It sprinkled a bit with rain a couple of times but nothing bad. I got some nice views at a couple of the peaks, but the rest of it was such a slog. Steep and rocky and when it wasn’t it was muddy and boggy. Lots of jumping from rock to rock, clambering up rocks and taking leaps of faith coming down big slabs of rock.
Rain in the distance
A couple of nice views today
Lots of slab rock
The green moss carpet
Views make the climbing worth it
Views for most of the day
Slab rock is nice when it isn’t raining
As the day went on my feet were getting more and more sore; same place as yesterday – right on the balls. The rest of my legs didn’t feel too bad but my feet were killing me.
I walked past the site of a plane crash. That was weird. I don’t remember if that was there or not in 2018.
The remains of a plane crash
It became clear I didn’t have it in me to make it to the shelter, and even if I did there would be no guarantee that there would be space to pitch my tent.
I cannot impresses on you enough how much up and down and how steep and rocky it was. I don’t remember it being this hard!
On the strugglebus
I love the light shining through the trees
The hard stuff, climbing over these rocks
I considered camping up here, but someone else already had the same idea and there was no room
Heading back down into the forest
Losing light fast
Eventually when I felt like I was about to collapse I saw a spot in the forest which looked kinda flat and big enough for my tent so I pitched up at 19:30, taking my shoes off being top priority.
I can’t be bothered to eat. Too much faff. I ate a bit of chocolate so I could take a painkiller. I’ve not got much food left.
As I lay here in my tent writing this my feet are overwhelming painful. They are throbbing and zinging a pulsating and they just hurt. I don’t know what the temperature is but it’s fairly cool up here at nearly 2000ft. My sleeping bag has been damp for a few days so I doubt it’s performance is tip top, but hoping my body heat will work out the dampness.
Not the best pitch I’ve ever had, but definitely not the worst!
Very very very sore feet
I’m not sure if it’s actually cold or it’s just me from having walked all day. Honestly the pain in my feet is overwhelming.
I set an alarm for 5am. If I fall asleep in the next 15 minutes, before 9pm, which is more than likely, that’s 8 hours of sleep. I want an early start because I want to get to Monson tomorrow. I want some good food and an ice cream and to feel hot again.
