Appalachian Trail Adventure Day 2 (6/18/21)

Bald Mountain Brook Shelter to Caratunk 

14.7 Miles

The first night on trail is always tough, and this time was no exception. I was comfortable and warm enough, but despite hiking 22 miles I wasn’t tired enough to fall asleep. Nerves, I guess. That meant that I didn’t sleep well, which wasn’t fantastic with another big day in front of me.

One good piece of news is that my quilt did well. A backpacking quilt is a sleeping bag with no bottom. Your sleeping pad becomes the bottom, which saved weight. I struggled a bit with quilts back in Massachusetts in April, but this time went better. However, I remain unconvinced by the claim of quilt advocates that they are just as warm as sleeping bags. I think they are inherently draftier.

Early on in today’s hike, I met a guy named Dave, and he had a cool story. He last thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1975. He is retiring soon and thinking of trying the PCT at age 70. He told me that he doesn’t think that he could use all his heavy old hiking equipment anymore, and realizes that he needs to go lighter. He asked me about all my Zpacks equipment and I told him that I was very happy with it.

A little later on in the trail, I ran into the third member of Widowmaker’s group, who had been trailing behind him and Colonel Angus. He seemed like a really nice guy and enthusiastic hiker, and I wished him all the best.

I was upset with myself because a beautiful butterfly landed right near me, but I was a bit too slow to snap the picture. I saw a lot of butterflies and dragonflies today in general. I always like seeing dragonflies because they remind me of my girlfriend Dragonfly. Unfortunately, I also saw a lot of black flies, mosquitoes, and other assorted annoying bugs today. Those ones I don’t like.

At one point as I was hiking along, a tree branch snagged my pack. I was relieved to see that nothing was ripped. However, as I examined it more closely, I realized that it had stolen my toilet paper! I was going to need that. I hiked back a few feet and found it lying on the ground. I retrieved it, happy that I had taken inventory.

The bulk of today’s hiking was going up and over Pleasant Pond Mountain. It wasn’t the biggest or steepest mountain, but it did go on forever. I was on that mountain for something like eight miles, maybe more depending on where you count the mountain as beginning and ending.

Once I made it to the summit, I stopped for lunch. It was a beautiful spot, and with a clear view I had both cell signal and Garmin signal, so that was nice.

This was generally another lonely day, but I did meet a few day hikers coming down the mountain. I also met a northbound thru-hiker later on. He was a bit brusque and didn’t identify himself as a thru-hiker, but I was able to figure it out by the smell.

After Pleasant Pond Mountain, the hiking got easier and I was able to make good time to Caratunk. It was a bit humid and getting towards hot (if made it up to 82 at one point on my Thermodrop), and the bugs were getting worse, but I pushed through pretty easily thanks to the easy terrain.

Once I arrived in Caratunk, I walked to the post office, and they directed me to a free courtesy phone at the town hall, and I used that to call The Sterling Inn for a pickup. The proprietor got there nice and quickly, which was great after my experience a couple months ago in Williamstown (see Day 4 of the Massachusetts hike if you’re interested in that story).

When I was checking in, I noticed that the Inn had a copy of a book by my old friend RTK. I complimented them on their choice of literature.

While I was writing this blog entry, I just met an interesting guy here at The Sterling Inn. His name is Eric, and he is in town for business. He has an awesome job, but it’s not for the faint of heart. He is a heights instructor. He teaches people how to climb and conduct rescues on things like wind turbines and cell towers. As you might guess, his hobby is rock climbing. He told me that the tallest object he has climbed for work was a one thousand foot cell tower. Crazy stuff.

I think that’s it for day two. As always, remember that you can’t take flight until you spread your wings.

And here are today’s flowers…