Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 78 – Confessions to The Priest
12th october 2023
Maupin Field Shelter (1354.9) - Piney River, North Fork (1377.2)
Daily miles: 22.3
Total miles: 1385.1
I slept surprisingly well. When I woke up May Queen wasn’t there but her pack was still hung up and I was very confused. It turns out she couldn’t sleep and went to cowboy camp in the forest.
We had to get the food bags down. It was a such struggle. Cal helped me get mine down and it wasn’t easy. Thankfully everyone was awake because we made a lot of noise - mostly laughing.
Maupin Field Shelter
Morning privy
We had a big day of climbing today and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it because I go so much slower on the uphills. I left camp at 7:30am. Lemonhope left earlier and the others left after me.
First up was the Three Ridges Wilderness. It started off pretty chilly but soon warmed up as I climbed higher and the sun came up. There were a couple of lookouts but the summit was wooded. This climb wasn’t too bad, the descent was worse!
Three ridges wilderness
Thankfully my ankle was so much better today. I was surprised at how much better it felt considering yesterday I was genuinely worried about my future on the trail. I was being very careful not to take any bad steps or kick any rocks to aggravate it so I was probably only doing around 2 miles an hour, but there was no pain and that was the important thing. The only time there were a couple of twinges were when I lost my balance and I could feel it then.
The downhill was rocky and a bit slidey in some patches. I fell. One moment I was taking a step the next on was on my backside. A slight bump on my shin but nothing significant.
Climbing
Early morning views
Love the light in the trees
It was about 6 miles of descent all the way down to the Tye river at 900ft elevation. I needed water but it wasn’t recommended to get it from here as it’s cow pasture run off. So I started the 3000ft climb up to The Priest.
Impressive bridge
Cow pasture water
Trail crossing
The Priest has been something we’ve been talking about for a while. An old man in Vermont told Toe it was “the toughest climb on the whole AT” (said by a man who hadn’t yet been into New Hampshire or Maine) so we had been bigging it up to be tough.
It wasn’t that hard. I mean, it was uphill for 4 miles so while that’s not necessarily easy, it was gentle with a lot of switchbacks. About a mile up there was a creek where I stopped to get water and eat some lunch at around 12:30pm. I hadn’t seen any of the crew yet, given all the uphill I thought maybe they would have caught up.
I ate the bacon jerky. Wasn’t too bad. Wasn’t great either. It repeated on me a lot which I didn’t like.
Bacon jerkey
I carried on and spoke to a couple of hikers who said they had stayed at a hostel in Glasgow last night and there were 7 SOBOs there and they were all freaking out because they had never seen so many SOBOs in one place which we can totally relate to!
Views on the way up The Priest
Feels like spring!
Ridge lines
I plodded on up The Priest and overall it wasn’t that bad a climb and I was surprised at how quickly it was done with. I got to the ledges and stoped there for a while to look at the view. I also took a picture to amuse my friends. We have been following a SOBO in front of us who likes to post nude pictures. Being a massive prude, getting naked is well out of my comfort zone, so I took my shorts and underwear off and took a picture as quickly as possible. The rocky ledge was narrow with a steep drop off and I kept thinking how awful it was be to fall now and be found with no knickers on! Thankfully I didn’t fall, not even in my haste to get my clothes back on.
I don’t think those photos will ever see the light of day. My butt is saggy and covered in stretch marks, not the pert little 20 year old bum I want it to be!
Top of The Priest
It’s a sheer drop on the other side
Ok, here it is. My deep discomfort.
Then I went to The Priest shelter. The one where people leave there sinful confessions in the book. I wrote something which I hoped would make my crew laugh.
The Priest shelter
Inside The Priest shelter
The trail then stays quite high on the ridge with a few ups and downs but nothing significant. I still have quite a lot of miles to do before camp and I will definitely be getting there in the dark. I hadn’t seen anyone today and I spent most of the day listening to podcasts or audiobooks. Today I learnt about the Irish Potato Famine, The Great Fire of London and Roman Gladiators.
I turned my phone on to see if I had service and there was a message from Lemonhope saying he was going to push on a bit further and he wanted some time on his own. Then there was a message form Toe saying they (her Cal and May Queen) were going to camp a couple of miles earlier than planned this morning at the river instead of dry camping.
My initial thought was… paranoia. It’s hard not to feel like an outsider sometimes; on the edge of this tight knit group of 3. I wondered if they would have sent a message had it not been in response to Lemonhope’s message and whether I would have just carried on and camped alone, and whether they would have cared about that? I had visions of them going off together and then I would be by myself and annoyed that I had changed my plans earlier in the trail to wait for them.
In reality I was actually pretty pleased to be stopping a couple of miles earlier because that meant I would arrive in the light and I wouldn’t have to carry lots of water.
Afternoon light
I got there at about 6:20pm with the last couple of miles of trail being the easiest all day and me pushing the pace a bit more now I was more confident in my ankle. I scouted around for the tent site and set up. As it was getting dark I would be able to watch for head lamps coming down the trail and shout out. Which is exactly what I did when May Queen arrived.
Tent pitched before dark
She was her usual bubbly, cheerful self and said she was so happy that I got the message. They had only decided to changed the plan when they got to The Priest shelter.
I’m an idiot. I was being paranoid for no reason, but it’s hard sometimes to not let your head wander to a worst case scenario when you have so much time to think.
I had noodles for dinner followed by a hot chocolate and it was good. A bit of a faff to do, but it was worth it.
Hot salty Ramen
Shortly after, Toe arrived followed by Cal. And we were all together again and I was happy and it didn’t feel at all like they wanted to ditch me. That was all in my head.
They are cowboy camping but I have set up my tent. It’s cold down here in this valley and of course we are near water where it’s always cooler. My thermometer says 11°C / 52°F but it feels colder.
