Appalachian Trail Adventure Day 6 (6/22/21)

Caribou Valley Road to Carrabassett Valley

8.7 Miles

Today was my day to try my first ever slackpack. A slackpack is when a hostel keeps most of your gear at the hostel and then drops you off down the trail. You hike back to the hostel, and thus cover the same miles, but in a much easier way. This was a perfect day for a slackpack, because it meant that I could take on the Crockers, two more four-thousand footers, without needing to carry a pack through the dense humidity, and with the knowledge that I had a shower waiting for me at the end of the day. How was that for a run-on sentence?

The first two hikers up in the morning were Bag Bowl and I. He is apparently a glass blower in real life, and so he gave me a beautiful little glass decoration he had created, I guess as a way of remembering him. He called it an Appalachian Trail seed. Bag Bowl is doing a crazy type of hike called a yo-yo. He is hiking the entire trail northbound, turning around, and then hiking southbound. More power to him, but if I ever manage to complete the trail once, I will consider that an accomplishment.

Woody, one of the employees of the hostel, was my driver to the trail this morning. He navigated the Caribou Valley Road, a dirt road with some maintenance issues, skillfully. We had an interesting conversation on the way, and he explained to me that his long term plan was to live in South America and/or travel the world, and I wish him good luck with his plan.

When I first got hiking, the conditions were akin to a marsh. There were bugs everywhere, mud covered the ground, and the humidity was intense. I hiked as quickly as I could through that area, and then the trail started to climb steeply. That was actually easier than the marsh, and so I made good progress.

Before too long, I met Juggernaut. She was a southbounder, but going north like me. She and her brother were doing a slackpack as well, but through a different organization. I ended up passing them pretty quickly, but I figure that I will probably meet them again down trail.

As I neared the summit, it started to rain. Bear has pointed out a few times that he hasn’t been rained on yet on trail, and I knew he was taking a zero today and not hiking. “He did it again,” was all I could think. The rain continued on and off the rest of the day, but it never got serious.

After I summited the mountains, I met a pair of southbound hikers. An amusing conversation ensued as I tried to explain that I was actually a southbounder even though I was currently hiking north. It was confusing, but I think we got it sorted out. I hope to run into them again as I go south.

I knew that I needed to finish the hike quickly, because the pickup from the trailhead was at 1 PM, and it was going to be close. Thankfully, the trail became relatively easy towards the end, and I was able to finish at 12:45. All put together, I did a little over eight miles in four hours, so that was pretty good.

When I finished, I met four people at the trailhead waiting for the shuttle. Two of them, Weebles and Salt Lick, were hikers that I met at the end of Day 1. The other two, Gazelle and Mack, were new to me. I thought they had interesting trail names, so I asked for the stories behind them. Weebles were apparently an 80s toy, Salt Lick was named because she was sweatier than a salt lick, Gazelle was named for a 90s infomercial guy that he apparently resembles, and Mack isn’t a trail name. Her real name is Mackenzie.

Speaking of trail names, Bear came up with a good one. When we got back to the hostel, Woody told someone to put the oven into pizza mode, and Bear commented that Pizza Mode would make a great trail name.

The hostel has become a popular place today. Yesterday there were tons of open bunks, and today they ran out of bunks and people had to start buying private rooms. Hard Goods and Medicine Man are here. It’s kind of like a trail reunion of everyone that I have met so far.

The hostel’s beautiful dog, Zoe, was coming around tonight with her tennis ball trying to get people to play with her. I threw the ball for her a couple times, and she was pretty talented at retrieving it.

Most of the evening was spent hanging out chatting with Billy Goat (Angie who got the shakedown back at Shaw’s), Gazelle, Mack, and Bear. I am not sure what tomorrow’s plan is. I think my goal is to go over Spaulding and make it to the edge of the Saddlebacks, and then climb them the next day. We’ll see how that works out.

Until the next entry, always remember that you can’t take flight until you spread your wings.

And today’s flowers…