On Wednesday, October 20, Baxter State Park (BSP) announced the seasonal closure of all trails on Katahdin, including the Hunt Trail, which the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) follows 5.1 miles to its northern terminus on Baxter Peak.
“Shin-deep snow has obscured trail markings and freeze-thaw cycles have created vulnerable conditions for alpine plants and potentially unsafe conditions for hikers,” said BSP in a statement published on their website. “These trails will remain closed until the start of the winter season December 1, or later if freeze-thaw cycles continue to render alpine plant communities vulnerable to damage from hiking.”
Scott Jurek aborted his latest long distance running/hiking attempt just five days after summitting Katahdin here in Maine. He was attempting a sub 40 day thru- hike/run southbound of the Appalachian Trail ( AT), after holding the record for a brief time.
“Six years after setting the fastest known time (FKT) on the Appalachian Trail, ultrarunning legend Scott Jurek is going after the record again.
Back in 2015, the 47-year-old conquered the roughly 2,190-mile trail, stretching from Georgia to Maine, in 46 days, 8 hours, and 8 minutes. His run, and the attention it received, revived the popularity of long-trail records.
Jurek is not the only person in the Maine news this past week related to the Appalachian Trail. There are two other stories of note:
Nimblewill Nomad, the 82-year-old long-distance backpacking legend, whose book, Ten Million Steps, recounts his 4,400 mile continuous thru hike of the east coast of North America, has been backpacking from Alabama. He hopes to emerge as the oldest thru-hiker of the AT.
I’ve been following the shot at the record for the oldest person to complete the AT. Check out the story and brief video of 82 year old M. J. Eberhart AKA Nimblewill Nomad. He’s just finishing up his last day in Pennsylvania, northbound.
It’s pouring rain out this Sunday morning, cutting out my usual mountain biking ride with The Bubbas in the Woods. After all the dry days we have had here so far this year, my dug well has recently shown a full 9 feet of water, which should rise even further after the next few days of precipitation.
With more rain coming in the front of the week, my buddy Frank and I postponed our three-day Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail (CNHAT )bike packing tour.
Bike packing, Maine style Nov. 2020
From the website: “Travel 83 Miles Across Northern New Hampshire. Rail trails, dirt roads, bike paths and quiet paved back roads have been linked together to produce a route across the state of New Hampshire. The route travels along river valleys and through the northern White Mountains Region of the state.”
The tour will happen, hopefully with Frank but I‘ll ride solo if he can’t make it. A solo ride will involve shuttling my vehicle along the route a couple of times and doubling mileage as I ride back to my car. I inquired about a ride from a hostel in Gorham to the western terminus of the CNHAT, but at $500, I’ll save that money by riding a bit further.
I am continuing to get stronger and losing more weight since my April 7 back surgery. Not only is my lower back and hip pain-free, but I have more flexibility in my lower torso. I continue to me surprised to see faster times on many of my recurring rides, all recorded and saved on the Strava App.
I’m planning to shift over to increased hiking and walking with a load on my back in preparation for several upcoming backpacking adventures. Number 1 on that list is a three week to 1-month-long thru-hike of Vermont’s Long Trail.
I thru-hiked it in 2011, and vowed to rehike it southbound during peak foliage season in September into October. It will be a solo attempt at age 71. I am very excited about extended nights in my new Tarptent Double Rainbow Lithium. I wore out my last Double Rainbow, then wore out my next Tarptent the Moment. I went to the 1.7 pound Dyneema Double Rainbow due to the increased height, width, improved freestanding features, and reduced weight.
I am also excited to be returning to Baxter State Park in the end of August after missing a trip there last year, due to Covid-19 restrictions and a self-imposed quarantine. I was invited to join my hiking pal Ryan in a four night excursion into the northern part of the park.
And just yesterday I was invited to join my mountain biking pal Andre on a Katahdin summit hike after one of the members of his quartet dropped out of a three day trip there in mid-August.
Early September should have me join my hiking pal Tenzing as we both finish the last of our 4,000 footers in New Hampshire. Bond, West Bond, Bondcliff, Zealand, and Owls Head need to the summited. That will involve a multi-day hike through the Pemigewasset Wilderness.
I also plan to fit in a night or two of camping at the Safford Notch campsites for Appalachian Trail maintenance on the Safford Brook Trail and campsites on Bigelow.
But today the rain will keep me in and packing for my first overnight hike of the summer.
Start: camping “au sauvage” at stream before Moxie Pond) to campsite (Guthoook Guides @ mile 2065.5)
I awoke with the dawn when the Dark Sky App reported the temp at 75 with humidity at 85%. I was pleasantly surprised to be free of condensation inside my new Tarptent Double Rainbow (Lithium). Most of the time, camping right next to a water source tends to bring copious condensation on single-walled tents. Perhaps 1100 feet of elevation at the campsite sent the wetter air down the slope for once.
I ate my usual breakfast right out of a baggie: homemade granola and Nido brand dehydrated whole milk powder. I filled my 32 oz used Gatorade bottle, whose wide mouth accommodates my trusty Steripen, with 4 packets of Starbucks Instant coffee, drank half, and started hiking around 6:30 am- shirtless. The day was already humid and hot enough that I was sweating in 15 minutes.
I hadn’t realized just how close I had camped to the Moxie Pond Road. Where I exited the forest I saw evidence of the old high cable winter cables over Baker Stream. There used to be two cables stretched out over the end of Joe’s Hole. The hiker stood on the lower cable and held themself upright by holding on to the upper cable. I remember using a big carabiner to clip my pack to the upper cable and pushed it ahead of me. I am afraid of heights and it was terrifying. I am relieved its gone, and replaced by the reroute further downstream.
Unfortunately, the same sort of disturbing dead animal weirdness was back again with a rotting carcass of a fox sitting at the AT signpost just before the stream crossing. I was angry and moved past the sorry mess quickly.
Another long, hot humid day of hiking unfolded. I was hoping for a swim in Bald Mountain Pond at mile 7 but that didn’t happen. The side trail to get to the Pond led to a tiny strip of sandy beach with were several beached powerboats clustered together and a furious wind coming onto the shore so I moved on in the hope of a better choice to get in the water.
The day featured above treelike views along the ridges on Moxie Bald. Later, I was able to rinse off at Bald Mountain Pond, but had to be careful due to walking over slippery rocks to reach even knee-high depths. The muck was deep enough to discourage deep water swimming.
I know that there are hikers who report experiencing lasting insights while hiking. I’m mostly preoccupied with looking ahead, considering foot placement, and guessing how long it will take to finish certain segments of the footpath. That being said, it continues to astound me when I experience a childhood memory that appears novel and obscure. Today, I remembered standing next to a group of fourth-grade boys watching Mikey Mitchell chin a lug a whole icy cold bottle of Coca Cola on the playground of the Cathedral School in Fall River, MA. I remembered all the names of the starting football players on the 1967 team at Monsignor Coyle High School in Taunton, MA. Heavy meanings? I don’t think so! I believe it is brain synapses burping up adjacent connective fibers.
I appreciated my iPhone’s Atlas Guide in steering me to my tent site tonight and so did the two other hikers who came in after me today. Once I identified the potential campsite on the app’s map, I drew a couple quarts of water from a stream identified with an icon a couple of tenths of a mile before the campsite itself. We were able to spread out a good distance from each other at the grassy site, with one of the hikers hammocking up in the woods adjacent and the other a good thirty feet away.
I enjoyed chatting with the guys. We were all in our shelters before the dark even settled in. I fell asleep on top of my sleeping bag and slept better than I had the night before.
I was grumbly sweltering in the house, on another oppressive 80+ degree/90% humidity summer day. My wife Marcia encouraged me to head north to take a few days off to hike the Appalachian Trail, where the weather was predicted to be drier and cooler in Maine’s western mountains.
I pulled out the Map and Guide to the AT in Maine and decided that this section would be good for me to rehike. I’ve done this 36 mile section twice before. I planned to spend three and maybe four days to enjoy myself. The route skirts Pleasant, Moxie, and Bald Mountain Ponds, as well as Lake Hebron. The path is relatively benign, except for climbs of Pleasant Pond (2477’) and Moxie Bald (2629’) Mountains in the first half of the section Five miles of downhill after Pleasant Pond Mountain and fifteen miles of downhill off Moxie Bald toward Monson sweetened the deal.
Day 1 start and finish
I called Shaw’s Hostel in Monson to schedule a shuttle to Caratunk where the Appalachian Trail picks up again after it crosses the broad Kennebec River. After paying the $70 shuttle fee, one of the staff trucked me over to the Caratunk AT parking lot just uphill from route 201. I started hiking at approximately 11:30, but not before I encountered some weirdness.
First, came a frustrating conversation with a fellow with Massachusetts plates on a completely loaded Subaru wagon that stuffed with camping gear. He was from Boston, had a European accent, and when I asked him why he found himself to be in the lot he indicated that he stopped to make some “adjustments” to his car. The conversation turned to hiking where he told me that he was headed to Baxter. When I asked him about his reservations he told me emphatically that they were not necessary, as he planned to day hike. I started to school him up on Baxter’s unique reservation system and he cut me off, then launched into a diatribe about how Baxter hates hikers and that Baxter won’t even take peoples’ garbage and trash. He went on to blame the policy for “Trash all over the place up around Baxter making the towns look like garbage dumps.” I wished him luck and as I walked toward the entrance to the trail I gagged from the stench of a big dead bloating porcupine that had been placed on the signpost marking the trailhead. Not an auspicious start. When I finished the trip I called an area game warden to report the problem.
Not the greeting I expected
Within 5 minutes of sweating in the heat and oppressive humidity, I removed my shirt, hiking shirtless for most of my trek, changing into my dry t-shirt each night before slipping into my tent. Prior to hitting the sack I‘m in the habit of rinsing off so that I don’t grime up my down bag. It cooled off enough each night that I draped the summer weight bag over my body after falling asleep unclothed on my pad.
No one was in any of the four shelters that I passed on the AT. It was understandable, as Appalachian Trail Conference discourages hikers from congregating in the shelters due to the risk of spreading Covid-19.
Sign = altered trail life
I became very angry about some graphically obscene graffiti in a couple of the shelter walls. I lost the one pencil I brought with me but none of the registers in the shelters had writing implements with them.
High point of the afternoon
I was forced to hike until 7 pm due to no water in the 6 mile stretch from the Pleasant Pond Shelter to a weak stream just before Moxie Pond Road where I scored a flat spot to set up my new Double Rainbow Li Tarptent ( review forthcoming).
Double Rainbow Li
A hawk had let up on his attacks:
I needed water to complete my dinner and breakfast as well and found enough to rinse the grime and sweat off, which was probably my most pressing want.
The problem was I couldn’t eat the freeze-dried ( Good-to-Go) Bibimbap, a spicy Korean mixed rice with sesame carrots and spinach. I was so tired I had no energy for hunger, and in my diminished state the “ immensely flavorful spicy sauce” tasted like spiced ground cardboard and was too hot for even me on one of hottest days of the summer. I ate about a third of it and packed the rest away to try again tomorrow. I usually can ingest Fritos, and had a fresh bag with me but only ate a little.
I did not experience the AT that I remember today where I only encountered one southbound hiker, who didn’t even look up when I greeted him as moved off the trail to let him pass by. The AT in Maine in mid-August is usually populated with northbound thru-hikers eager to finish up and chat a bit about their long hike.
It was a big afternoon of walking nevertheless with twelve miles down even with a zero morning of miles. I had hope for thunderstorms, showers, or even a downpour to come in while I slept, but no.
I’m all over it with presentations in the next four months:
Presentation title :9,000 Miles of Attitude: Aging and Endurance
From the ages of 57-63 Tom thru-hiked the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide National Scenic Trails. He is a Maine Guide and is currently writing a new book about mental and physical conditioning and extending one’s ability to fully engage in outdoor recreation activities. For the past 25 years, Tom has been singing and playing accordion in King Pirogi, a four piece polka band. He plans to hike and bike exactly 2,020 miles in the coming calendar year. Tom grew up on a dairy farm. In 2014 Tom was the 230th recipient to be awarded the Triple Crown of Hiking award from the American Long Distance Hiking Association after thru-hiking of three of the USA’s longest National Scenic Trails. His first book, “In the Path of Young Bulls: An Odyssey on America’s Continental Divide Trail” was published in 2017. After retiring as a psychologist and mental health counselor in 2002 Tom has been guiding individuals and groups on four season adventures in the Northeastern US. His current interest is inspiring others to engage in wilderness adventures at any age.
March 21 Maine Sport Outfitters : Rockport, Maine
Backpacking & Hiking Symposium 10-4 details will be posted when available
March 27 L.L. Bean, Freeport, ME 7-9 PM Book Talk “In the Path Of Young Bulls: An Odyssey on America’s Continental Divide Trail”
Tom Jamrog, Maine Guide and Past President of the Maine Association of School Psychology, has over a half-century of experience exploring the outdoors. In 2014 Tom was awarded the Triple Crown of Hiking award from the American Long Distance Hiking Association for his thru-hikes of the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide National Scenic Trails.
At the age of 63, Tom rose up out of retirement to assemble a team of 4 proven long distance backpackers who took on the daily challenge of walking over 2,500 miles over a 5 month span on the Continental Divide Trail. The book details the daily ups and down of life on the trail and also serves as a resource for section and long-distance hikers in planning their long distance adventures.
Trail Days: Damascus , VA Friday May 15- Sunday May 17
Attitudes, Actions and Apps: Lessons Learned from 9,000+ Backpacking Miles
Uncle Tom ( AT GA>ME, 2007) was awarded the Triple Crown of Hiking award in 2014. He published his first book “In the Path Of Young Bulls: An Odyssey on America’s Continental Divide Trail” in 2017. Tom will discuss his experiences and research from his upcoming book on endurance and essential training ( physical and mental) for long distance backpacking success. Topics will include gait analysis, pain management, recovery myths and facts, over- and under-hydration, and meditation.
Old Mill Conference Room, 215 Imboden St.
on Friday May 15 from 12:45-2:15 pm
You can also stop and chat with Tom at the Atlas (Guthook) Guides vendor booth, where he’s working for the weekend.
I’m riding a wave of opportunities to get out and hike again. In the past couple of weeks I’ve made two overnight trips to the White Mountains to target the remaining four of New Hampshire’s forty-eight 4,000 footers. I’m combining forces with my very good friend and hiking enthusiast Tenzing, who lives in NH. Tenzing needs a few more summits than I do (7) but neither of us mind a few extra mountain hikes, so he’s doing a few repeats and so am I.
We haven’t hiked together for five years. A couple of weeks ago we had a very successful trial hike of 3,268’ Kearsarge North.
This week, I drove up to Silver Lake, NH to stay with my brother-in-law Cam, who put me up for a night so that I couldn’t have to drive up and back from a long day of hiking three more 4,000 footers: Mounts Tom( 4051’), Field (4350’) and Willey (4285’) in Crawford Notch.
We picked the best day of the summer so far to hike. I awoke to 47 degrees, and rendezvoused with Tenzing at Intervale. The cold temps quelled any lingering mosquitoes or black flies. The views from on high were much better than average, although there was some cloud cover up high. We spotted cars at two ends of our route and were hiking by 8 am.
Tenzing headed up
By 9:30 AM we had completed out first 2.5 miles, trudging upward at a very good rate of 2.1 mph. The summit of Mt. Tom was reached by 10:15 AM.
Tenzing Atop Mt. Tom
Tensing informed me that he had previously submitted Mounts Tom and Field on Sept. 18, 1994.
Number two 4,000 footer- Mt. Field
UT on Field
After short breaks for water and snacks, we meandered up and down the ridge to reach the summit of Mt. Willey at 12:30 PM.
And Willey is #3 today
From there is was a long, and often treacherous descent to a segment of the Appalachian Trail, down to the parking lot off the highway.
The views from an outcropping were rewarding today:
Tenzing viewing Mt. Washington and Webster cliffs
Tenzing posted this additional information on his Facebook page: “A piece of advice anyone wishing to climb Mt Willey: try to avoid climbing and descending from/to the South. The trail is extremely steep, highly eroded, and the footing is frequently scree or loose gravel and very slippery!”
Heading Down
Me descending long sketchy ladder section -Photo by John Clark
Tenzing and I have another hiking trip planed to check off two more 4,000 voters on 9/10-9/11. Then a 3 day, 2 night hike overnight in October to complete Tenzing’s last 5 and my last 1.
September and October are my favorite months to hiked spend time in the New England woods. I’m fortunate to be able to hike tough stuff and to have friends like Tenzing that I can share my experiences with.
Tom Jamrog's Weblog 