Day 61: The Creede Cut-off

June 20: I woke up and hit the trail at an early 6:30am. Wi-fi and Cobra were up but in no rush and still lounging in camp when I left. I wished them good luck and Wi-fi said he hoped to see me again later. I assured him that he would. Less than a mile from our campsite, I planned to take the Creede Cut-off, an alternate that cut a good chunk of the San Juans off from the main route that Wi-fi and Cobra intended to follow. I had had enough of the snow and sketchy areas and decided to cut out that portion. It had the added advantage for me that this low-level route was over 50 miles shorter than the main-line route.

 

Some of the scenery I'd be missing I knew was amazing. The main line makes something of a horseshoe shape with the ends pointed east and the front of the horseshoe facing west, and the alternate I'd follow just connected the ends of the horseshoe. I was a little disappointed to be missing the spectacular scenery of the high route, but at least I had seen the northern half of that horseshoe when I thru-hiked the Colorado Trail four years earlier. It wasn't worth slogging through snow or risking my life traversing a sketchy snow chute, though. Nope, hard pass for me.

Because this alternate cut out so many miles, I would certainly be days ahead of Wi-fi by the time I rejoined the main route. And the fact that he'd be traveling slowly, postholing through snow, and going slower because of his hurt leg and Cobra being fresh on the trail, Wi-fi was thinking it likely that he'd never catch up to me again. But I didn't buy that for a second. Maybe it would take him a week or two to catch up again, but he'd certainly catch up at some point. He couldn't go slow to save his life. =)

So we parted ways, unsure when or where we would meet again, but certainly not within the next week.

I soon reach the junction for the Creede Cut-off, which immediately headed steeply downhill and into a massive pile of blowdowns. The first couple of hours of the alternate were absolutely horrid and my progress slowed to a crawl. I soon lost the trail completely. Basically, there was no trail anymore. Maybe once upon a time there used to be, but it had long since disappeared in the brush and blowdowns.

The main red-line CDT stayed up near the ridge line there, but I'd be following an alternate route to lower terrain (without the snow) that leads through Creede instead.

Getting lost, however, was never an issue. I just had to head down a canyon and follow the river at the bottom downstream for over a dozen miles. So I always knew I was going in the correct direction, even if there was no trail to follow anymore. It was just slow and difficult.

Eventually the trail cleared up, though, and I made it through the blowdowns. Now that I was back on a proper trail and it wasn't blocked with countless blowdowns, my progress picked up considerably. 

The trail lead through a burn area, however, so there wasn't much shade for long sections and the sun seemed to burn especially hot today. On the plus side, the burned trees allowed me to get more views than I otherwise would have. They weren't spectacular views, but they were pleasant. 

Several hours later, I reached a trailhead at a dirt road and followed the road for a few uneventful miles.

By the time the trail re-entered the woods, it was getting late in the day and I knew I'd have to find a place to camp within the next hour or so. I took a seat on a log at the trailhead, looking over a small meadow and pulled out some snacks to eat.

Munching on the snacks, I pulled out my phone and started zooming into the topo maps and reading Guthook comments looking for a potential place to camp. I was at this for several minutes when I looked up toward the meadow and noticed a bear about 100 feet directly in front of me. I gasped audibly, "Oh my God!" I was shocked. That bear wasn't there when I sat down and I certainly hadn't expected to see one when I looked up.

I wasn't particularly loud in my exclamation. It was barely a whisper, but that was all it took to startle the bear and it immediately ran off into the woods at the edge of the meadow. I tried to grab my camera and get it turned on, fumbled around a bit, but the bear was gone in three seconds flat--long before my camera was ready to take a photo. I missed my opportunity and cursed my knee-jerk reaction that startled the bear.

Thinking back, I'm still surprised to see the bear there. That bear knew I was sitting there. It's not like I was hiding or in the shade, and he was looking right at me when I finally looked up. If I had moved slowly to pull out my camera and turn it on, I think the bear would have just watched me with curiosity and I'd have gotten a great photo given how close the bear was. Curses!

Well, at least I could be happy that I saw my first bear on the trail. Most other thru-hikers I had talked to had yet to see any.

I finished my snacks and figured out a plan. The trail would soon follow a steep and narrow canyon downhill for several miles which likely wouldn't have many places to camp, but according to Guthook comments, there was at least one place suitable for camping maybe halfway down this section. That was my goal. I didn't want to camp at the bottom of the canyon where the trail emerged from the woods again since that's where it appeared I'd be getting into civilization. Nope, I wanted to camp in the woods, not civilization. I had considered the option of hiking the rest of the way into Creede, about 7 miles further, but I couldn't find any lodging online and didn't want to camp in town. Nope, I'd just pass through Creede tomorrow, resupply, then keep on going.

In the meantime, I had a campsite to find. I pushed onward, and reached the designated site about an hour later and set up camp.

I never saw any other hikers all day, except for Wi-fi and Cobra when I left camp in the morning, although I knew Skunkbear and Savage were ahead of me somewhere. Skunkbear had said she planned to take the alternate as well, but I had also seen them logged into the register at the trailhead earlier in the day. They probably weren't more than a half-day ahead of me.

I was camped about 7 miles short of the town of Creede, and I probably could have hiked the rest of the way there tonight if I really wanted to, but I wouldn't have arrived until well after dark. But as far as I could tell, there was no lodging available, and even if there was, it was probably far more expensive than I would have preferred to pay. After missing out on a zero day in Pagosa Springs, I had hoped to make up for it here but that wasn't looking like an option either. Argh!

 
I had also done more miles both yesterday and today than I initially had planned for so now I was expecting to get into Creede on Monday morning instead of Tuesday like I had originally assumed. The problem was that my laptop wasn't expected to arrive at the post office in Creede until Tuesday, and I found myself kicking myself for trying to send the package ahead such a short distance. I was literally hiking faster than the post office could move my laptop. I'd have to drop into the post office and have them forward it to me to the next post office, but I should have just skipped this post office completely. I can't even say that it was only obvious in hindsight--it should have been obvious to me when I mailed the package just yesterday! It was only going 40 miles up trail!

Anyhow.... now I just had one more task to take care of when I did make it into Creede tomorrow. Oh, well.....

It was sitting on a log with this view that I saw my first bear on the trail, only about 100 feet ahead ahead. But when I finally noticed it and exclaimed with being so startled, it dashed off into the woods on the left in three seconds flat so... no photo of the bear.

Day 52: Back to the trail!

July 31: Six days after leaving the trail due to my foot injuries, it was time to return. I spent the week allowing my feet to heel and figuring out how to best protect them when I returned to the trail. I bought some extra large bandages that could completely cover the raw areas of my foot, on top of which I applied KT tape which I liked because it stuck to my skin like glue. It didn't come loose if it got wet--a distinct possibility on the trail if it rained, I had to ford creeks or even just because my feet sweat on a hot day. The fact that it would stay in place for days was also convenient since it meant I didn't have to replace the bandages as often. That perhaps wasn't as good from a sanitary perspective, but it meant I was much less likely to run out of bandages in the middle of nowhere.

Back at the trailhead where I had quit the trail six days earlier.

And on top of that, I bought an ankle brace for my foot just for the extra padding it provided. I used that for one foot, and a wrap for the other foot. Then I walked around in my old shoes to test how it felt. It hurt, of course--it was still a very raw wound--but it seemed tolerable walking around in Seattle and I limited my walks around Seattle to about 5 miles each day so I didn't inflame the wounds further. They seemed to be healing rapidly. 

When I wasn't tending to my feet, I spent my days working on Atlas Quest. I had completed a major update of the website shortly before hitting the trail and plenty of bugs had been detected, so it was a good chance for me to fix all those problems. It was convenient that I had so much time to work on them. A zero day in a trail town wouldn't have been enough time to fix all the bugs.

My last full day in Seattle, I tried wearing the shoes that initially caused my injuries and even after several miles of walking around Seattle, my wounds didn't get any worse.

Now, six days after leaving the trail, I felt ready to go back. AQ bugs were fixed and my feet, while not 100% healed, were much improved and I had a system to protect them that seemed to work well.

Amanda returned from a trip the day before and had the next few days available to drive me back to the trail. I called the ranger station to get a permit, but nobody answered and I left a message to call me back. In the meantime, I headed to the grocery store for a bit of shopping. I didn't have to buy much. Last time, I left Harts Pass with 10 days of food, but only spent 3 nights on the trail so I still had most of that food left. Despite knocking 3 nights off my hike, I planned to restart the trail doing closer to 10 miles per day so as not to push my feet too hard, and the slower pace meant that I now expected to cover the distance to Concrete in 9 days. I needed to resupply those extra two days of food!

A ranger returned my call just as I was walking into the grocery store and she helped me with a permit that I downloaded to my phone. I was set!

I finished my shopping, packed up my pack, then Amanda and I headed out back to the trail.

We stopped at a Carls Jr. for a quick lunch, a lunch that we had to eat in the car due to the coronavirus. Their dining room was not open for dining.

My permit for backcountry camps didn't start until tomorrow night. Amanda wanted to camp tonight--she was driving all the way out here again, she may as well enjoy a night of camping! So we checked out a few campsites near Ross Lake, but they were already full. We had no idea where we'd spend the night.

We reached the East Bank and Happy Panther Trailheads--the location where I left the trail six days earlier--and we decided that I would slackpack about 5 miles to the Ross Dam Trailhead where she would pick me up in a couple of hours and she would continue driving down Highway 20 looking for a campsite for us somewhere between here and Mazama. The worst-case scenario, we figured, if all the official campsites were full, was to camp on the side of the road in the national forest near Mazama.

The PNT followed the Happy Panther Trail near the south shore of Ross Lake, although views of the lake were rare because trees usually blocked the view. Mostly, it was a forest walk with the occasional hint of a lake behind the trees.

But the trail was largely in good condition. A few blowdowns that barely slowed me at all, and the trail was almost entirely flat. I walked quickly and efficiently as if I had no injury at all.

About an hour into the hike, I was passing some bushes on the side of the trail when I heard something large move in the bush. My first, automatic reaction was it must be a deer, and I looked into the bushes when I saw a small piece of black fur through the tangle of branches and ferns and realized that that was no deer--it was a bear! And I was probably standing all of about three feet away from it! Yikes!

I quickly moved away until there was about 15 feet separating us when I felt safe enough to stop and look back toward the bear. I couldn't see it at first, hidden in all the brush, but I could hear it moving. I pulled out my camera and started filming.

I stepped off the trail a few feet for a glance around the bushes and I finally saw a recognizable bear. My glance earlier was literally nothing more than a small patch of black fur. It was enough for me to know it was a bear, but that's like seeing a shoulder blade on a person and saying you saw a person. True, but it's not very interesting. Now I could see the entire bear!

The bear moved further away from the trail then started walking parallel to it and away from me, in the direction I had come. It went behind some more bushes and I lost sight of it, but then I heard it crashing through the brush and I realized it was coming up onto the trail.

And then he stepped out onto the trail. What a beautiful animal! He turned his head, looking directly at me, and I shouted out, "Hi!" Mostly just to let him know that I knew he was there and I wasn't intimidated at his presence. Not that I had any reason to think he would attack me, but I didn't want him to think I might be an easy target either.

He turned away and started walking down the trail away from me. A second later, he paused and looked back at me again, and I told him, "Hi!" again, then again he turned away and moseyed down the trail away from me, finally curving around a bend in the trail and out of view for good.

How exciting! I saw a bear! I wished I had my fancy camera to have filmed it. Deep in the trees here, the lighting was dark and my cheap camera couldn't do a good job filming it. But even a bad job of filming the encounter was still better than no video at all! =)

My thrilling bear encounter!

The rest of the day's hike was uneventful. The trail came out at a gravel road that supports Ross Dam and the power plants, then I followed it to a trail leading about a quarter-mile off trail up a steep trail to the Ross Dam trailhead where Amanda was already waiting for me. My feet were in great shape and not hurting even a little.

"I saw a bear!" I reported to her. 

"Are you just pulling my leg?" she replied, not sure if I was to be trusted. She seemed suspicious that I made up the encounter just to make her jealous or something.

"Yes! I even got video!" I replied as I proceeded to pull out my camera and show it. She seemed properly jealous. =)

She reported driving pretty much the entire distance to Mazama but found no campgrounds with an available campsite, but she did find a trailhead about 10 miles down the road in the national forest that might be a good place to camp. So we drove there and she was right, it was a great place to camp. Even better than a real campground since this location was both free and uncrowded. =)

We walked about 5 minutes down the trail and set up camp next to a nice river. I cooked up some mashed potatoes for dinner, and Amanda added Little Smokies that she had brought. It was pretty nice and filling.

And that was that. I was another 5 miles closer to the end of the Pacific Northwest Trail. But would I actually reach the end this year? That was still to be determined....

What is that? It kind of looks like a wasp nest, but what's it doing on the ground here?

The buildings on the far side of the lake make up the Ross Lake Resort, a floating resort on the lake. The PNT runs through the trees on the mountain behind it, but I planned to check it out during tomorrow's hike.

Ross Dam, and the PNT crosses directly over the top of it! But that's for tomorrow... I'll have a lot more to say about Ross Dam during tomorrow's hike. =)

Day 5: Polebridge! Civilization! Sort of....

July 20: I woke up, packed my stuff and hit the trail. I planned to complete about 20 miles of hiking today and needed an early start if I hoped to reach my goal. I didn't have to do 20 miles. I'd be hiking out of Glacier National Park in a few hours and at that point, I could camp almost anywhere I wanted. The reason for my long day was because the next 20 miles was a road walk and I wanted to get past it. The Pacific Northwest Trail is legendary for a lot of road walks, and today was going to be the first section I'd have to navigate.

The nice part about this road walk, however, was that the vast majority of it was on gravel roads which made it a lot easier, and the road was still wet from the sprinkle yesterday evening so the occasional vehicles driving by didn't raise any dust. It also helped that it was so early in the morning. I suspect the gravel road into Glacier was probably busier later in the afternoon as more visitors arrived and people out for the afternoon left.

Being a road walk, I figured I'd make good time. The road was in good condition, easy to follow, not muddy. Twenty miles was still a big day this early in the hike, but my pack was already about 10 pounds lighter than when I started the trail from all the food I had eaten, and it was flat almost the entire way. Boring, but flat! I thought 20 miles was totally doable, but even if I grew tired, I knew I could probably find somewhere to camp on the side of the road if necessary.

I started hiking by around 7:15, and neither of my neighbors appeared to be stirring yet so I slunk off without saying goodbye. Every 20 minutes or so, a vehicle would drive past me leaving the park. I recognized them from the campground. The road was active, but not super busy. At least not this early in the morning.

The moon was nearly full. *nodding*

A couple of hours into my walk, a car entering the park pulled up to a stop next to me and rolled down their window. Probably wondering why I was walking out here in the middle of nowhere.

"There's a bear on the road about a quarter-mile back," he told me.

A bear?! Yes!!!! Cool!

He just wanted to give me the warning and continued his drive into the park. I dropped my pack and pulled out my fancy camera with the 300mm zoom lens. I definitely wanted to see the bear and get some great photos, but I definitely didn't want to get too close to him either!

Another car entering the park stopped next to me and told me there was a bear about 200 yards back.

He must be walking in my direction! First a quarter-mile back, and now just 200 yards away? I hadn't moved at all! =)

That car continued it's journey into the park as another vehicle approached. Where did all these cars suddenly come from?!

This truck was traveling out of the park and I recognized it as my Texan neighbors. They stopped next to me and the wife--in the passenger seat--said she thought that was me walking down the road and asked if I was interested in a couple of Clif bars. Sure! I wasn't hungry yet--still too early in the morning for that and I was saving my appetite for some real food later, but I was happy to get a couple of extra Clif bars. I also told them that the previous two vehicles that passed me going into the park said there was a bear on the road a little way ahead so to keep their eyes peeled.

"But don't scare it off!" I said, waving my camera around. "I wanna get a photo first!"

The Texans continued on, and I finally did as well hoping the bear was still on the road. I also unholstered my bear spray. It probably wasn't necessary, and neither of the two drivers said anything to suggest that the bear was acting aggressively, but better safe than sorry!

A few minutes later, I saw the bear. It was at a curve in the road but leaving up small hill, maybe 100 feet away. I got one photo of it before it was off the road and into the brush where I couldn't get anymore photos. Not good ones, at least. I was glad the bear wasn't on the road anymore--it would have been difficult for me to walk around the bear at a safe distance if he had still been on the road. Three vehicles were pulled over just past the bear--including the Texans. It was a traffic jam!

The bear had a collar on it. Did that mean it was a problem bear they were monitoring? Or just a bear that they monitor even when it isn't a problem bear?

'Twas a grizzly bear! I came face-to-face with my first grizzly bear! Or, okay, it was mostly a face-to-butt encounter, but still.... a grizzly! And my best bear photo! =)

The bear didn't seemed pleased with all the vehicles and people around and apparently decided to leave. He turned around and started going up the hill. I snapped a few quick photos before I lost sight of him in the brush. The photos weren't great but I only had seconds to snap them before the bear was out of view. I was a little disappointed he didn't linger just a little bit longer.

Traffic started moving again and I set down my pack and returned the fancy camera into it. It was much too bulky and heavy to carry in my hands for regular point-and-shoot work.

As the morning wore on, the traffic on the road increased. And--as the warm weather dried the road--dust started becoming more of an annoyance.

I eventually crossed the boundary out of Glacier NP at which point there was a short distance to the small community of Polebridge. Civilization! Sort of...

Polebridge was certainly the largest community I had reached on the trail, but it's not entirely "civilized" either. The entire town consists of a few buildings and is located completely off the grid. Electricity is provided by solar power and generators and there was no cell phone coverage at all.

I spent most of my time in Polebridge on that bench on the right side of the porch of the Merc. Very comfortable! =)

I was ready for lunch but had arrived too early to get food at the saloon and went to the Merc instead--a small store with food, souvenirs and a bakery. The place was adorable! I bought a Coke and a cinnamon roll to wait until the saloon opened. I also purchased a few postcards which I wrote in a chair on the patio and mailed at the old-fashioned mailbox in front.

I also ended up with a jalapeno roll for free--part of their "hiker special" for anyone who hikes or bikes into the town and stops at the Merc. Actually, they usually give fritters for the hiker special but they didn't have any available when I arrived and allowed me to pick from their selection of rolls and I picked the jalapeno roll.

I made myself more comfortable on their patio by taking off my shoes. I planned to hang around for an hour or two living the good life. =)

One man asked me if I was thru-hiking the Continental Divide Trail. I guess I already had that thru-hiker look going! Only took 5 days! I told him no, I was thru-hiking the PNT. The CDT was a few days behind me now. He said his daughter was hiking the CDT. She had started at the Mexican border and was now in Colorado at some place I had never heard of. Apparently, it was a really bad snow year in the Rockies and thru-hikers on the CDT had been having a pretty rough time. I joked that if she made it to Canada but wanted to keep hiking, turned left at Goat Haunt and she could keep hiking all the way to the Pacific Ocean! =)

I chatted with other tourists who were coming and going and eventually noticed the population of the town steadily climbing which I assumed was normal as the morning and afternoon wore on until I overheard one tourist saying that Glacier NP had been closed. WHAT?!

So I asked about that and apparently the parking lot at Bowman Lake was full so the park service temporarily closed the park to new visitors!

"Don't blame me," I joked. "I didn't bring a car!" =)

This was my appetizer while I waited for the Northern Lights Saloon to open for lunch. =)

So everyone who was being denied entry into the park were doubling back to Polebridge to kill time until they could enter the park. Parking in the town was starting to grow scarce as well. Cars were parking on the side of the road quite a ways down the otherwise empty road.

When the Northern Lights Saloon was scheduled to open, I wandered over there for lunch except they hadn't actually opened yet. I waited at an outdoor picnic table until the saloon opened about 5 minutes late.

I ordered a burger which came with home fries and by the time I finished, I was absolutely stuffed. It would have been easier to roll down the trail than walk! I ate more food between the Merc and the saloon than I had in the last two days!

Before I left town, I used the toilets because hey--flushing toilets! It was a luxury I hadn't seen since I started the trail! And now that I was out of the national park, there probably weren't going to be pit toilets either.

My lunch at the Northern Lights Saloon. (I was reading my Kindle while it was being prepared which is why you see that on the side.)

Then, about two hours after I arrived, it was time to leave town.

It took nearly 10 minutes to pass all the cars parked on the side of the road and I wondered if there were more people stuck in Polebridge than there were actually inside of the park!

A short ways out of town, the road became paved which was a curse and a blessing. It was a curse because it wasn't as comfortable to walk on but it was a blessing because the passing vehicles--and they were a lot of them now!--didn't raise any dust.

The road out of town was overflowing with the vehicles of people unable to get into Glacier NP!

But it only lasted a few miles before the trail veered off onto Hay Creek Road--another gravel road that was gloriously empty of vehicles now that I wasn't on the main road between civilization and Glacier National Park. Only one car would pass me the entire rest of the day.

A few miles down Hay Creek Road and I saw a pack left on the side of the road. It was bright purple with an orange pack over with a bright purple coat next to it and I figured it was probably a girl hiking the trail who dashed off into the nearby trees to pee. It seemed logical enough. I figured it must be a girl given how purple all of the gear looked. It didn't seem like the kind of colors a man would choose.

But what direction was she hiking? Once I reached Bowman Lake, I hadn't seen any hikers on the road walk! It wasn't a trail. The only people who would possibly be hiking this road would be other thru-hikers. Could this be a thru-hiker?! I wanted to know!

But it seemed rude to disturb the girl while she was peeing so I sat down nearby and took a break. I was ready for a break anyhow.

After sitting around for more than five minutes I wondered if she was doing a number two. Then after 10 minutes I started wondering if she was having trouble. Then 15 minutes went by and I started wondering what the hell happened to this person? Did she get attacked by a bear and dragged off?

I started wondering if I should report this abandoned pack. But how? My phone didn't work here and I certainly didn't want to walk all the way back to Polebridge. Maybe the next vehicle that drove by? Which could be... who knows when?

About 20 minutes after I first arrived, a girl walked up in the opposite direction I had been hiking. Ah-ha! The owner returns! I was immensely curious about the abandoned pack. She explained that she had walked back to get water at a creek just out of view and stopped to eat lunch while she was there.

I was flabbergasted! To leave her entire pack unattended to get water and have lunch by a creek? We weren't just in bear country--we were in grizzly country! And even if a bear didn't get into her pack, squirrels and chipmunks certainly could have. It seemed incredibly irresponsible to leave her pack entirely unattended like that. I get nervous leaving my pack unattended for even a couple of minutes.

She spoke with a British accent and confirmed that she was from England. She flew into Kalispell and got a ride to Polebridge where she planned to start hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail. She skipped Glacier National Park completely because Polebridge was easier to get to than the official start of the trail, then only make it a couple of days down the trail before deciding to quit the trail and was now hiking back to Polebridge with the plan to hike around Glacier National Park. For a little while, at least. She seemed embarrassed to admit that she had already quit the trail, although I didn't think that was a big deal. I was surprised she was okay with missing Glacier National Park in the first place, though, because it was amazing! Gorgeous, gorgeous scenery!

I wondered if she realized how problematic getting a permit could be, but considering that she was no longer restricted to just following the PNT, she could veer off on other trails to explore if the campsites on the PNT were already full. It was easier when your route could be flexible.

We chatted for about 10 minutes then continued on our separate ways. I was a little disappointed I hadn't found another thru-hiker. Now that I was out of the park, I expected my hike to be very, very lonely and was hoping to find some company along the way, even if it was just for a short while.

Late in the day, dark clouds rolled in and a light sprinkle started to fall. I was annoyed. Again! Rain, again?! Argh! It had rained every single day on the trail so far! I ducked under the branches of a thick pine tree in the hopes of waiting out the rain. The rain stopped after about 15 minutes and I continued my hike still dry. =)

A couple of hours before sunset, I had done my 20 miles and reached the end of the road walk. Well, kind of.... It was obvious that the road used to continue ahead but they piled a bunch of dirt and boulders in front of it to block access to vehicles and turned the former road into a trail. But it was the end of the road--vehicular traffic could not go any further than this trailhead.

The trailhead had a large pullout for vehicles and a fire ring where people had clearly camped regularly. Being such a remote location and the fact that only one car passed me in the last few hours, I felt safe to set up camp right at the trailhead.

I did have one car drive up a short time later, a local who explained that he drove out to find out where the road went. Okay.... "Well, this is it!" I told him. =)

Then he turned around and drove off and I had the rest of the evening all to myself.

After 20 miles... the end of the road walk! Yeah! =)

The Polebridge ranger station marked this entrance to (and exit from) Glacier NP.

If you got a postcard from me from Postbridge, this is where I mailed them from!

Inside the Merc smelled wonderful with all the stuff the bakery was baking!

Day 137: Bears and Moose and Maine!

July 22: I got a later start to the day than I'd have preferred. Breakfast at the hostel was served at 7:00 and if I wanted it (and I did!), I had to linger until then. By the time I finished breakfast and packed up and was ready to go, it was 8:00.

Not a bad start time, but not as early as I'd have liked.

The bear ran perhaps 20 feet in front of this railroad track! But I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of the bear.

The trail follows paved roads on the outskirts of Gorham for perhaps half a mile, and within minutes of leaving the hostel, where the road crossed some railroad tracks, I saw a bear dart across the road! A bear! A bear! It ran across the road, though, and was back in the forest before I could even fumble for my camera. It probably ran not more than 50 feet ahead of me. Very exciting! Hike nearly 2,000 miles through the forest and the best bear I've seen on the trail was running across the road in civilization.

Very exciting! I wished the bear would have wandered across the road at a more leasiurely pace, however, so I could admire it better and get a photo. Oh, well....

The trail soon passed a dam then headed back into the woods and into some very challenging terrain. I cursed the trail's difficulty the whole day. Exhausting, mind-numbing difficult. If it's not rocks, it's mud. I was approaching the Maine border--expected to reach it late in the day, in fact--but I wasn't fooled that this was the end of the White Mountains. No, I definitely have very vivid memories of how difficult the southern half of Maine was.

I would tell other thru-hikers that the whole rest of the trail we've already done was just to prepare us for Maine. The mud of Vermont was in preparation for Maine. The rocks of Pennsylvania were to prepare us for the rocks of Maine. The steep, often vertical cliffs of New Hampshire were to prepare us for Maine. In Maine, all of the trails difficulties would be heaped together. Maine has broken many men.

But the trail knows no borders, and some of Maine has spilled out into the northern part of New Hampshire. I might not have crossed the border yet, but feeling was there!

However, there were a number of absolutely wonderful and spectacular views, and Mount Washington towered high in the distance to the south.

Late in the day, I reached the Gentian Pond Shelter. There were a few older gentlemen in the shelter already, and it turned out that two of them already knew who I was despite the fact that I had never seen them before. Amanda had given them a ride into town on one of my hiking days! They really seemed to like Amanda and wanted me to pass her a message about how much they appreciated the ride into town. =)

As I was leaving the shelter, I spotted a moose walking along the edge of Gentian Pond. A moose! A moose! It wasn't even running away, probably feeling safe that it was on the other side of the lake as myself. I took a few photos, then a video as it would lower its head to feed, then walk further along the shoreline and pause to eat some more. Beautiful! This was the first time I'd seen a moose that didn't just run away immediately and I could sit and admire for awhile. It was very exciting!

After getting my fill, I returned to the shelter and told the others that there was a moose in the lake, which was actually visible from the shelter through the trees if you stood in just the right place. They didn't have to go far at all to see the moose!

I really wanted to get over the border and into Maine, though, and said goodbye and continued onward. The next shelter was a mere 5 miles away, but it was an annoyingly difficult section that took me nearly three hours to reach. It was starting to get dark when I reached the Maine border a half-mile short of the shelter and taking photos for Walking 4 Fun was becoming progressively more difficult in the dwindling light. Had I realized it would take me this long to get here, I'm not sure I'd have left the last shelter!

Reaching the border was anti-climatic. It was the last state border, but I was by myself so had nobody to share the moment with. Just a quick self-pat on the back for a job well done. I'd done it. I had walked from Georgia to Maine. I can quit now, right? (I joked about that in the next shelter register. We did it! We walked from Georgia to Maine! We can quit now and honestly say that we hiked from Georgia to Maine!)

But darkness was descending so I pushed on, eventually arriving at the Carlo Col Shelter at 7:15. After about 11 hours of exhausting hiking, I'd covered a mere 16.9 miles. It was actually a pretty good number considering the terrain, but it was frustrating to have worked so hard for eleven hours and not even come within spitting distance of 20 miles.

I was so tired, I didn't even feel like cooking dinner and thought about eating my snacks instead, but a large group who camped at the group site nearby had cooked too much pasta for their dinner and came over with the leftovers asking if we'd be interested. YES!!!! At least I was. Some of the hikers had already eaten dinner and took a pass, but I wasn't one of them. =)

But it was not helping to lighten my heavy pack at all. I'd purchased food for nine days and by my third day on the trail, I'd only eaten one day of it! Dinner at the hut the first night, then dinner the next day at the hostel, then breakfast this morning at the hostel, and now dinner from the group of campers outside of the shelter. I hadn't cooked a dinner since Amanda dropped me on the trail, and I really should if I wanted to lighten my load!

Hikers at the Gentian Pond Shelter, which of which had met Amanda a few days earlier!

The view from that shelter was pretty darned awesome too!

But the real highlight was the resident moose at Gentian Pond!

This sign marks the New Hampshire-Maine border. It's a big one: the late state line! Thirteen states behind me, and only one left to complete! I did it! I hiked from Georgia to Maine.... TWICE!

I remembered the trail being difficult along this section, but it was even more difficult than I remembered and becoming quite dark. I was really racing to get to the shelter before it got too dark for photos!

The Carlos Col Shelter, home for the night!