The "100 Mile Wilderness" is a section of trail about 100 miles long that crosses no public roads. It takes an average of 10 days to complete. If you like tromping through inches of mud and muck for miles and miles, pushing through deep, swift rivers in your underwear, and malicious biting bugs then this is definitely the trail for you!
After two weeks off, I was ready to be back on the trail; but leaving my mom's car behind as we walked away swatting mosquitoes away from the only skin not covered by our bug jackets, I had to wonder if we were ready for the days ahead, and I promise you, they were tough. The terrain itself was not particularly difficult but the trail is generally ill-maintained, probably mostly due to inaccessibility. Everything on the trail was wet...and slick. At times streams would just run straight down the trail and other times the mud and muck would be more than 6 inches deep. Our socks and boots were wet and soggy more days than not. So for the first time in almost 400 miles, we started developing blisters. We would have hiked in Chacos but that would have given more for the bugs to feast on.
The slippery terrain meant lots of falling, some bruising the body, but most merely bruising to the ego. And some were hard on our gear. Hiking through the bogs on day 3 Evan slipped, landing on a rock and his beloved hiking pole, snapping the pole in half. We later realized that the sole of his boots was actually broken and likely caused this slip along with others. I think he has decided hiking with one pole isn't great, but doable. It does however make fording river crossings more challenging. I also fell a good half a dozen times, mostly banging up my bum and knees.
By day 5, we finally out-distanced the bugs! The terrain got harder as we entered the mountains, but the bugs got fewer! Our first day day bug free we had planned on doing a long day, but instead found a beautiful [small] sandy beach and decided to call it a day and relax. We spent the day sunning ourselves in a rare glimpse of sunshine and warmth. We were glad we did because a day later a cold front rolled in, so it rained much of the time we spent in the mountains and the trail got even muddier. We had been hearing for days about the amazing views from the mountain tops, but unfortunately all we saw was grey (and wind and rain). Cold & wet and hiking in sloshing boots we made our way 12.8 miles (our longest day in the 100 miles) to the West Branch of the Pleasant River where we stripped down to our underwear and sandals and pushed our way across the swiftly flowing river.
Day 10 in the wilderness was hike out day. We were so excited to get out, we were up and walking out of camp before 6 a.m. It was set to be an 11 mile day with two river fordings and guaranteed mud (after more rainy days). At 7:30 we made it to our first river crossing. This crossing had a rope strung across the crossing in an attempt to make things easier. Usually you can just grab the rope and walk across using the rope for balance. Unfortunately, this rope was a little more slack than Evan anticipated. Pulling against the rope he made his way into the water, where his backpack dipped under the rushing water, soaking everything in his pack & his boots which were hanging on the back of his pack. Luckily, he never let go of the rope, so he pulled himself up and lugged himself the rest of the way across the river while water kept splashing out of his now bucket boots.
Needless to say, we are happy to be in town clean & dry. We trudged our way in to Monson and the Shaw Hostel to a report that our expenses would be covered thanks to a fellow thru hiker we've never met in thanks for some courtesy we extended to his wife on her way out of Baxter Park just before we hit the trail.(A HUGE, HUGE Thank you to Plank & Mary Jo.) Everything is very much appreciated! Not everything has been so bad out on the trail. We have met some amazing people! Starting with the bubble means that folks are a lot more relaxed about how they are taking the trail, and we have met so many more like minded people than we did starting late in the season in Georgia.
Due to us having 1 less camera for this section of the trip we have a lot fewer photos, and no way to share them yet, but hopefully we will be able to show some pictures sometime in the near future. So until our next stop, happy trails.
Hello, guys - It was good to meet you at Happy Hill; in fact, that was a good crowd overall. Hard to see how you can do meaningful blog entries and meaningful mileage, but you certainly have. Good luck on the rest of your walk!
ReplyDeleteIt was great to meet you too! Thanks for following up on our blog!
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