Day 149: Cold and Wet

When I woke up, it was still sprinkling a bit. Mostly just blowing off the trees, but everything was wet. It was pretty cold, too. The three section hikers (who were AMAZING snorers last night) and Uncas left early, so Boss and I took everything over to the shelter to pack up.




It was lightly raining when we left, and I was bundled up in my jacket and rain pants. It took a while to warm up, but soon I was fine moving around in just shorts and t-shirt again. Hiking was good. We hiked and hiked and caught up with the section hikers sooner than expected. One of them had just taken a faceplant in the mud, but he was ok. We met a guy named "Suicidal" who declared himself the last sobo thru hiker of the season. He was a little crazy and had so many injuries already. I hope he makes it...?


We caught up with Uncas at the next shelter for a late lunch. It was cold and wet, but so nice to be under cover. There was a short 5-minute period of brief sunshine, then it started to rain again. We made hot chocolate then took off, back to the trail.

We climbed up almost to the peak of Sugarloaf then down steep down to the river. Lots of very slow, hand-over-hand action, and I took a fall. A funny fall, though. Trying to avoid some mud, I slipped on a root, my foot dove into a thick pile of mush, and I lost my balance. I slowly fell into the bushes until I had taken a seat. No injuries!




It cleared up a bit when we got all the way down, and we got to see a few hills. We took a short break to figure out where we'd aim for the night, and headed up to the first Spalding peak. It was a big ole climb. The first mile wasn't bad (we passed by the campsite), but the next bit was a mile of stairs. The light, cloud rain was back, and all the plants along the trail were saturated with water. The rocks and roots were still slippery. We made it up the the first peak in a cloud and continued on into the saddle.

As we descended the first peak, The terrain got flat, and we found a spot for tenting. We set up and changed into dry clothes (ahhh!), ate dinner, and the rain held off. We are definitely in a cloud though. It's gonna be so hard to put those wet clothes back on in the morning!! Fortunately, we plan to stop in Stratton tomorrow, so there should be laundry. I love laundry.
(15.8mi 9st)




(PB&J - Boss Style)


-- Posted from the trail...

Location:Stealth Site between the two Spalding Mountain peaks