June 29, 2010 ; Peaks and Valleys

I'm almost through the wilderness, about 20 miles from Monson, Maine, I'm hoping to do about 10 miles today (Tuesday). I called the family from the top of Barren Mountain, Maine (2434 feet), which is about 7.5 miles from Greenville, Maine. You can probably locate that on Google Earth for an idea of where I am. Here's an interactive map of the Appalachian Trail (below). Click on the Shelter option to see the shelters along the trail, I'll try and provide the name of them in my updates so you can track my progress. You'll have to zoom in on the map to get to Maine so the shelters don't appear all bunched together.


http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.mqLTIYOwGlF/b.4850633/k.9733/Interactive_Map.htm

Monday I did about 17 miles and 4 summits and it was a bear! The trail can be as wide as 10 feet and as narrow as about a foot and a half. One mountain had an ascent of about 1000 vertical feet per mile, the other 3 were about 500 vertical feet per mile. There was a lot of boulder scrambling and hand over hand climbing. To top it off, it had to rain as well, I had mud up to my knees by the end of the day and water up to my shins at times, not much fun....

I've been able to sleep in shelters every night except last night and I've been comfortable. Most of the shelters sleep 6 people, some 8, and since I'm with a large group of people, and others beat us to the site, I got to sleep "under the stars". I didn't sleep as well last night.

I've been hiking (off and on) with Nick aka "Butter" from New York City, Chris aka "Bread" from Maine, both attend Hamilton College near Syracuse, N.Y., Chris aka "Weatherman" for his weather predictions, is from Georgia, he's laid off from his construction management job, I met him on the Greyhound ride. And finally Stump, his trail name according to him, (he didn't tell us his real name). I guess Stump has already completed the Pacific Coast Trail and the Appalachian Trail before. He's hiking with us to "warm up". They're calling me "Skittles", because I'm trading my skittles for noodles from the other hikers to give me some variety in my diet.

I only did about 10 miles on Sunday, I deserved a day of rest.