Saturday, July 19, I arrived back from my 11th year on the Appalachian Trail. Going into this section I did not know how difficult it was going to be. I had hoped that I had the worst behind me but actually this section was harder than last year’s. The hike began at the summit of Mount Washington on June 26, about 9:00 am. Hedy and I arrived in Portland the day before, picked up our rental car, and then found HQ in Gorham, NH. It rained the entire day and well into the evening. I was uncertain if I would be able to set off on the morning of the 26th but the weather had cleared and we were the first ones to enter the auto road for Mount Washington.
The starting point was 332.5 miles from Katahdin. I crossed into Maine in the early morning of July 2 (281.4 mile mark) and stopped at Caratunk, Maine, July 17 (151.3 mile mark).
Every day was a tough hiking day. I took a zero day after perhaps the most difficult stretch of hiking in my life. This was the final New Hampshire section (HY 2) to Grafton Notch in Maine. This stretch was 31 miles and I divided it into hikes of 12, 9 and 9. The last hike included Mahoosuc Notch, Mahoosuc Arm and Speck Mountain. I was exhausted when I exited the trail and thankfully it rained all night and the next day and gave me a perfect excuse for a zero day. This was July 4th. I took a second zero day on July 8th. I had broken my pinkie on my left hand on the first day hiking (Mount Washington) and Hedy and I drove into Rumford, Maine to have it checked. We picked up Vivian and Andrew at the Portland Airport that evening so it seemed like another good excuse for a zero day. Other than that, it was hiking every day. Most of it very challenging.
Like last year I found that while the trail was extremely difficult that the experience and beauty offset that. This was my best section yet, even better than last year. I am nicely positioned to complete the AT next year, which was my goal. Over the next few weeks I will be working on my page providing details of this 11th year and uploading photos.
