Day 162
September 23rd
Old Speck Pond Shelter to Andover, ME (East B Hill Road)
Miles Hiked: 14.9
AT Milage: 1935.1
This morning I didn’t leave camp until around 8am. I slept extremely well last night because I was so exhausted from the Notch. My first climb of the day was Old Speck Mountain which is the third highest mountain in Maine. When I got to the top I climbed the fire tower that had a ladder instead of stairs. I spent a little bit of time up there before heading down into Grafton Notch where I crossed the road and started heading up Bald Plate Mountain. It was a cool windy morning and it looked like it was going to rain. Around 11am I took a long break at a shelter where I rested, refilled water, and ate. My body was feeling very sore.
After the shelter I continued up to the peak of Baldplate where I joined up with Doc. We hiked the rest of the day together. It looked like it was going to storm and the mountain we were on was completely exposed rock face with hardly any foot holds. It was such a bad place to be in the rain but we beat it!
The next shelter provided another opportunity for a break so I took it. I had now hiked five miles and only had five more left to go. Hiking with Doc, we busted out the last five miles pretty quickly. I was happy to have company to keep me motivated and that I finished the day hiking before dark! It was around six when we reached the road/camp spot. We knew it was a small road in the middle of nowhere and chances of getting a ride were pretty slim. Out of pure luck a car came alone within five minutes and pulled over to give us a ride to town. It was a gentleman driving from Quebec Canada to the town we were going to for business that had to do with a paper mill. He took us into town where we got dropped off at the general store. I bought some chocolate milk and a sandwich for dinner before walking across the street to a restaurant that lets hikers tent for free behind it. I set up my tent and watched several episodes of the office while it poured rain. In the middle of the night after I was just about to fall asleep, I heard a rustling near the bottom of my tent and woke up to a skunk trying to dig undrneath my tent. I yelled to scare it away without causing it to spray. Luckily it left but it came back about 15 minutes. I was so terrified the skunk would spray my stuff and I wouldn’t be able to replace any of my gear. I scared it off yet again and got a tiny bit of sleep for the night.
Happy Trails!
Des Hikes Thru 