Day 171
October 2nd
Stealth Spot to Monson, ME
Miles Hiked: 24.7
AT Milage: 2077.5
This morning I woke up to the sound of Doc packing away his things which slightly alarmed me because I am usually always the first person awake at camp unless someone decided to leave absurdly early. My body was drastically aching before I fell asleep last night so I’m not surprised if it just wanted to sleep in for once. I packed away my things in the oddly warm morning air and we hit the trail around 7:30am. The trail felt ridiculously flat and easy until we began climbing up Moxie Bald mountain. At this point my legs were aching of soreness so bad I had to stop and take a breath. This past week or two my body has began to ache in a different way than it ever has before. Doc and I talked about how it could possibly be a mind-body connection that is causing the last 200 miles to hurt so bad. In other words, maybe my body is subconsciously reacting to my thoughts that are telling me it only has to operate like this for about one more week before it gets a big long break. Once over Moxie Bald, we passed Phantom on the way down. Around eight miles into the day we took a long break to eat brunch which was surprisingly early into the day but we just had a super fast pace.
It was 8 more miles to the next shelter which we did super fast yet again because the trail was so flat! Sometimes I couldn’t believe it, yet I was thankful because my legs hurt so bad. At the next shelter we had planned on stopping for the day but it was only 2pm which was ridiculously early. We decided to watch a climbing documentary called “Meru” which Doc had downloaded for us to watch on his phone. Three hours later after eating, a movie, and dreading the cold, we packed up our things and night hiked into our last town stop before the summit. I was really happy with how the day was spent because I didn’t feel like hiking at all and the fun break in the middle gave my legs a rest and my brain mental refresher. As we were getting closer and closer to Monson I suddenly felt very emotional. I started crying because it was our last town stop before Katahdin. Right before we got to the road I looked up into the dark sky and saw the stars and the milky way. They were so stunning I didn’t want to look away. The starry sky has been one of my most favorite things about Maine. I’m happy to wake up in a bed tomorrow.
Happy Trails!
Des Hikes Thru 