Stratton, ME

Hi everyone-

Decided to stop here for a zero and to celebrate Dan's 50th! birthday! A warm bed and showers for 2 days-yeah! and FOOD! We've been taking Jason's advice and trying to gorge ourselves as often as we can when we're in towns!



So just a couple updates:

We've had to ford a couple more rivers but since it's been pretty decent weather, no major rainstorms, we haven't had any trouble. Water just been up to my shins or mid-thighs. The current is usually what worries me most and since the water's been lower we've been okay. Fording the rivers is one of Dan's favorite parts of hiking! I'm getting used to it since it's been easier than that Black River that Dan basically pulled me across!



Mahoosuc Notch is supposedly the hardest mile on the AT trail. It's a big boulder filled chasm. There was ice and snow still in some of the crevices and it was colder down there. It's said that that mile usually takes hikers 2-3 hours to get through. We took just over 2 hours. It wasn't as difficult as we were led to believe. We did have to climb up, down, under, & around all the big boulders but it was kinda fun actually! There was a skeleton of a moose down there-that was sad. The story is that the moose fell down in the chasm last summer and was hurt and couldn't get out. Someone tried to put it out of it's misery but failed and the poor thing suffered. It was eerie to see it there and then hear the story about it. Then there's the Mahoosuc arm-the climb out of the chasm. It's another difficult climb out and takes more out of you!



Baldpate Mountain! We were hiking up this mountain during a storm! It was raining, misty, and had wind gusts. As we were climbing near the summit, a SoBo came over the top and forewarned us that the gusts had blown him over and he fell down 20 some feet-so to be careful! I had experienced some of the gusts blowing me over, too and got frightened! So I basically crawled my way up the rest of the way. I couldn't see as my vision was distorted by the rain on my glasses. Dan verbally directed me some of the way and then held onto me and directed me by pulling and pushing me in the right direction. I think this was the most frightening experience for me so far on the trail! But we made it!



We've climbed some other mountains and it seems that it's been mostly during misty windy times. Had hoped to have lunch on one of those summits but it hasn't been calm enough or warm enough for me. On top there are LOTS of bluberries bushes. So a couple of times even though it's been cold and windy I've stopped to pick a couple and eat along the way. Another SoBo said there are lots of bigger berries and bushes further north so looking forward to getting to them. Also have had a couple of wild raspberries. There don't seem to be as many of those here though, at least not that I've found yet!



We've had a mouse gnaw through our food bag at a shelter! He ate 1/2 of Dan's cashews so we had to throw those away! Annoying! But at least that's all it did! Then a squirrel was gnawing on our food bag that we had hung in a tree. Luckily we had heard it before it was able to get into the bag. Dan has hung our food bag now between two trees to keep those pesky squirrels at bay! Seems to have worked so far. Guess they can't walk a tight rope?