100 Mile Wilderness: Part 2
Day 5 of 100 MW: 8 miles
We did 16 miles on day four, which I did reluctantly, so I was insistent about having a low-mile day the following day. Thinking about this low-mile day kept me going the previous day, so while I started the day kind of sluggish- it didn't matter!
Seth hiking over a dam thing.
I'm so happy under this weird twisted tree.
We did our eight miles, which ended at a lean-to. Most everyone we had been keeping pace with were stopping there for lunch. They were planning on doing another four miles to the next lean-to and wanted us to continue also, but I was insistent on ending the day early. With everyone moving through, Seth and I got the entire site to ourselves for the evening and that's when the real talk started.
This picture could be our official portrait for the wilderness cult we plan to join depending on the kool-aid served.
Super candid moment for me. So sad. So defeated. Great pic of all the bug bites on Seth's dome.
Seth and I spent the afternoon in the tent thinking of all the things we'd rather be doing than walking the wilderness. These options included: watching Netflix with Billie, taking a trip to Paris or other destinations in Europe, setting up a residence together finally, faking an injury, faking a pregnancy, or taking a train ride down the east coast. We had an evening of leveling with one another about how unenjoyable it was to be in the wilderness for days. We wondered what kind of people actually enjoy doing this. We wondered whether we really fit into this hiking community. We lamented the idea of a honeymoon hike because, really, you're too disgusting to be touched and most kisses are passed through mosquito nets. You want to talk about intimacy? Try being next to your spouse in a confined space while he wipes his ass with a baby wipe. Not a whole lot of romance on our honeymoon hike in the wilderness, so far. Also, Seth's right foot had started to hurt pretty badly, so that's a little more on top of everything. It felt really good to get it all out there and be able to speak freely without other hikers to overhear. We laughed about our misery and our fairly immediate desire to return to our ordinary lives. But as is always the case on backpacking trips- there is nothing to be done in the moment. The only option is to trudge along.
Seth lights his pipe and the real talk about our hike ensues.
Day 6 of 100 MW: 11 miles
We mentally prepped for this day because we would be hiking up a 3,600 ft peak, which was the highest in the 100 Mile Wilderness.
All ready to go after our restful day!
Seth climbing up White Cap Mountain.
The hike was tough, but not too terrible. We were ready for it and looked forward to getting some cell service at the top. I could tell that my body had started adjusting to the miles because this 11 miles felt ok on my feet instead of excruciating like the 10 miles had felt a few days previous. We ended the night back with the group of about 3-4 other hikers, who decided to make this day their short day.
The temperature had dropped a bit the night before, so even though we had a sunny day- it was chilly on the peak and I started catching a chill when we would stop for breaks.
Lunch! Peanut butter and peanut M&M's are so delicious. You add sesame sticks and you got the perfect crunchy texture. Yum! It is unlikely my hands are properly clean.
Day 7 of 100 MW: 11 miles
Now, we did not mentally prep for this day and it ended up being a beast. We weren't anticipating the climb up Chairback Mountain, which had some similar rock scrambles as the top of Katahdin.
Climbing.
Climbing.
We were lucky to have some really wonderful weather these first few days. The 100 MW is known the be really tough when it's wet because it's very rocky and rooty, which makes everything precariously slick. We hadn't had to deal with very much of that and were rewarded with great views after our climbs.
Enjoying the summit with a pipe.
So I imagine some people are looking at these pictures and might be thinking, "Oh, wow, gorgeous- that looks so excellent- what a great time!" If you had the option to Stairmaster for two hours with a 30lb pack to get a good view, would you do it? My sister told me that that's not really the point, but what I'm saying is after two hours of Stairmastering you start to lose sight of the point. WHAT'S THE POINT OF ANYTHING? I mean, as I'm writing this post I have a bit more perspective and I'm glad I did it and it's done. At the time, I would have been ok if that mountain did not exist.
And then there's this:
My pack started biting into my back pretty good by this day.
Day 8 of 100 Mile Wilderness: 14 miles
A fellow hiker who checked the weather on Chairback Mountain said rain was expected in the morning. So Seth and I were up by 5am to get out as early as we could before the rain. We got a couple hours of rain-free hiking, which was great because we were just going up and down over balds, which are rocky peaks of mountains.
No views on this day. The clouds starting descending onto the mountaintops.
Walking in the fog.
The rain kicked up slowly. Started to drizzle just a bit- not too bad. As the day continued, the showers started to really come down. We got very soaked and the temperature dropped, so I ended up with drenched, saggy, cold pants. Seth and I stopped at a shelter to change into our rain pants and I got chilled very quickly. I had to start hiking before Seth was ready because I was worried about how cold I was getting. Right after we had changed into some drier things we had to ford a river. I forded/fell into the river- hands and feet full-on in the water- which I guess didn't really matter because I was totally wet anyway. But falling into the water made my shoes totally waterlogged, which can be actually dangerous if your feet get too wet and your skin starts getting rubbed off. It actually felt kind of good to have water in my boots- like have squishy gel surrounding my feet, which was a nice break to achy feet. Nonetheless, we started to get more worried about our wet feet and cold. Falling into the river did give me an adrenaline rush, however, so I was stomping up the hills after that. Meanwhile, Seth was slipping A LOT. Hiking over the slick balds and slippery roots was pretty frustrating for Seth, so he was hurting pretty badly by the end of the day.
Seth cooking dinner after our rainy day of hiking.
My #nofilter Game of Thrones-esque picture.
Winter is coming.
This is as sane as things got after changing into warm clothes.
I was very glad to have night clothes after a day like this. I was able to change into my dry base layers and have a very warm evening in the shelter. This was the first night Seth and I spent in a shelter because we didn't want to get our tent wet. We were in there with only two other guys, so it wasn't too crowded. We felt good about covering all those miles in the rain. Glad to have a lot of up and downs out of the way and less miles to do as we headed into Monson, ME for our break.
Day 9 of 100 MW: 10 miles
Starting our last day in the 100 MW. Ready to be done.
The rain stopped overnight, but our clothes remained wet. We only had 10 miles to go and were prepared to knock them the hell out. Alas, the wetness over roots and rock would not allow a quick escape. And neither would Seth's foot. His right foot that had been bugging him the past few days was shot, so every step was painful for him. All the falling the previous day didn't help any of that foot pain either. I had my fair share of falling this day as well, despite mananging pretty well on the rainy day not to fall.
Like when Seth was taking this pic- I told him I wanted it to be an "action shot" and this is what I managed to do. I mean, it's accurate, hanging off my poles like that being an action shot.
These 10 miles seemed to take forever. The terrain wasn't that bad- I think we just wanted it to be over in every single moment, so every single moment it wasn't over felt terrible. By the end of the day, Seth was wincing on his feet. We started passing more day hikers and northbounders coming out of Monson- they looked so fresh and smelled so good. When we started to hear the highway, I triple-checked my hearing to make sure it wasn't rushing water or wind in the trees. I was never so glad to hear the highway.
We're out! This is the parking lot at the end of the 100 MW.
We had the hostel pick us up. The hostel is basically a large boarding house. Seth and I showered and went into town- a 5 minute walk- to eat at one of the two places to dine. We felt much better after eating some delicious french fries and mozzarella sticks as an appetizer. I had a burger. Seth had a cheesesteak. On our walk back to the hostel, Seth turned to me and said he felt better and things didn't seem so bad now.
Seth had a friend ship us some cigars.
The guy who owns the hostel said the rest of the trail really feels more like a bunch of weekend backpacking trips strung together because towns are much more frequent and we'll become adept at doing "nero" days where you hike less miles and spend some of the day in town. He says that makes it feel like you're getting more breaks. We'll just have to see.
Seth putting his feet up.
I don't mind his dirty feet.
Both of Seth's feet are swollen at this point. He spent some time icing them today and putting his feet up the wall. We're going to keep the miles low tomorrow and probably make it to the next town in 2-3 days. It definitely feels psychologically better to be hiking towards a town three days away versus nine days away, but Seth's feet may be dictating how the next few days go, so we'll just have to see about that as well.
Seth's swollen feet. Ugh.
