This morning, I packed up nice and early and was walking by 5:30 AM. I only have 15 miles to go to get to Abol bridge, where the Appalachian Trail enters into Baxter State Park. Then from there, I will hopefully only have a handful more miles to get to a campsite for the night. And that campsite will set me up to climb Mount Katahdin in the morning.
Even after yesterday’s really big day, I was still feeling fantastic this morning. Which I was really hopeful about but also a little nervous. Yesterday I did just shy of 29 miles, which obviously wasn’t something I was intending to do my first week back on trail. But I think setting myself up to climb Mount Katahdin in good weather was a critical decision. The trail this morning after I left the shelter was smooth sailing. It was so nice and easy and there were hardly any roots or rocks. I just cruised along and got to enjoy myself.
A waterfall just past my camp site.
The bugs did wind up being pretty bad, so I wore my wind gear and bug net for a while. But that’s really not a huge deal. At least I have those layers and they’re light and breathable enough to be able to wear them in case of bugs. This morning I was making really good time too. I was going the closest to 3MPH that I have since my injury.
Some perfect stone steps through the forest.
The trail went past Rainbow Lake, which is really beautiful. And I was going through this lovely moss covered pine forest. It was just a great way to start off a day. Today is going to feel like a reward in comparison to yesterday. I should only have to go about 20 miles and then I’ll have plenty of time to rest and relax.
My plan was to push on all the way to rainbow ledges. I remember that that was one of the last places where I got cell reception before completing the Appalachian Trail. So I’m hoping I’ll get some service there and be able to take a quick break and get some content posted. I haven’t been able to get any blogs or videos since I left Shaws the other day. Which obviously is not the end of the world! But I do try to stay up on everything. And it’s much harder to stay up-to-date when I’m not able to post regularly, if that makes sense.
After a few hours, I began to approach the rainbow ledges. I went by southbound hiker, who I chatted with briefly. She looked really familiar, but I think it was just my mind playing tricks on me. And then as I made my way up towards the rock ledges I ran into a familiar face. It was Hell Yeah Jesus, a hiker who’s also doing the calendar year triple crown. We almost met for the first time back at Kennedy Meadows south. He had gotten there just before me and was hanging out with Jay Go and waiting for me to arrive. But we hadn’t been in communication so he had no idea when I was actually going to get there.
Heading up toward the rainbow ledges this morning.
He wound up hiking out before I got there, so we never met. Then he spent a couple very difficult and slow going weeks making his way through the Sierra Nevada. It seems like very tedious and exhausting hiking, but he pushed through. We’re talking about wildly deep snow, post hiking, and dangerous river crossings. That’s why I flew back out to the East Coast at the same time. I just didn’t want to deal with all of that snow in California and everything that it entailed. Though at the time, I also didn’t anticipate the late season noreaster, which would hit the white mountains. So obviously both of us had our own issues which we had to deal with.
But because of all of the snow and slow going terrain, Hell Yeah Jesus eventually made the decision to head back out to the East Coast. The unfortunate thing is that even after hiker’s made it through the Sierra Nevada, which normally marks the end of the snow. Because it was a record snow year throughout Oregon, it meant there was still a ton of snow in Northern California. So it just never stopped. Hell Yeah Jesus got really exhausted by that and came back to the East Coast. Which is how we are now finally meeting one another. He still has to complete all of the miles between here and Hanover, New Hampshire. So we’re actually on a pretty similar schedule for the year currently. He’s about 300 miles ahead of me on the PCT. But I have a little bit less mileage remaining out here on the East Coast than he does. It was just cool to finally cross paths.
Rainbow lake was so beautiful!
Right after running into him, I made it to the top of rainbow ledges. I had just enough service to check the weather for Mount Katahdin. Which fortunately still looks clear for tomorrow. That means that all of my efforts yesterday were definitely worth it. I didn’t have super great service though so I wasn’t able to get anything posted. But it looks like the trail descends briefly and then climbed back up again. Even though I’ve been here before I really didn’t remember if it went up to another exposed high point. I wound up just deciding to continue on and hopefully get service again later. Which wound up being a mistake. The trail never got higher or more open. I probably should’ve just wandered around on the rocks until I got decent service. But what can you do?
Because of the bugs, I also forfeited a good opportunity to sit and take a break. I planned to sit up and get some work done while I sat. After I continued along the trail descended pretty quickly and got quite buggy. So I never wound upcwanting to sit down and actually take a break. I would be coming up on a shelter pretty soon, but could only assume the bugs would be just as bad there.
Another outlet where I was able to see views of the lake.
The bugs were really bad there, but I did sit down for a couple minutes. I wanted to eat a snack before I continued the rest of the way toward Abol bridge. While I was there a couple section hikers were there as well. I talked to them briefly before continuing on. And at this point, I only had 3.5 more miles to go to get to the store in Baxter State Park. My current plan is to hopefully stay at the Birches tonight. That’s the thru hiker tent site, which is only 5 miles from the top of Mount Katahdin. Which makes it the perfect place to camp if you plan on summit in the morning.
Those next few miles were nice and easy. The first mile or two still had some roots and rocks to navigate around. But then it got relatively flat for the remainder of the day. Before I knew it, I popped out on the road. Then the trail follows the road to the store. And continues along the road briefly until you get to the sign up area for the Birches. A Ranger sits there all day long to ensure that hikers go through the proper channels to summit the mountain. Only a certain number of hikers are allowed to camp at the Birches. But because it’s so early on in the year, I don’t think I’ll have a problem.
The forest was so lush this morning. Maine has been incredible.
Before heading over there, I stopped off at the store. I was really hoping that they had sandwiches or something. I need a little bit more food to get me past Mount Katahdin. I think I’m going to hit some kind of a store tomorrow, but because I don’t have service I can’t really confirm that yet. This store didn’t wind up having a ton of stuff. Later on in the season, they’ll probably get a better variety of food. I grabbed a couple drinks, another knorr side for dinner, and some bags of chips. Outside the store I hung out and drank a soda. Up until this point in the day I was feeling really good. My body was super loose and I really hadn’t had any discomfort. Which was a great surprise after the big day yesterday.
Views from rainbow ledges.
I sat on the big rock in front of the store and did some stretching while I drank my Dr Pepper. Then all of a sudden a car whipped up right in front of me. When the driver rolled down the window, I realize it was Cooper! One of the live-in employees at Shaws. He must’ve dropped someone off or pick someone up, and just randomly saw me sitting there. That was such a cool coincidence and really made my day. That’s the magical thing about the trail community. You can just be sitting at a relatively random location and someone you know could just pull up in a car. Obviously I’m on the trail which makes that much more likely. But if I had arrived five minutes later or earlier, we probably wouldn’t have seen each other. We talked for a little bit before he continued on. But I let him know I was planning on probably going back to Shaws Thursday evening. It just depends how far I make it today and how it’s going to work out to get a ride from the border.
The names of two familiar hikers! Chia and Hell Yeah Jesus. It’s always fun seeing familiar names in the hiker log books.
I finished my drink and then continued on from there. When I got to the sign up station at the Birches, I hung out with Donald for a little while. He’s the same Ranger that helped me in 2023 when we were signing up for the birches. He’s just a ridiculously nice guy and makes the whole process much easier. Some rangers can just be a little less hospitable. But Donald is such a nice guy and really tries to make everything as easy for through hikers as possible.
I mentioned to him just how appreciative I was for him in 2023. And how delightful he made our experience entering the parking and climbing mountain Katahdin. Now I got to see him again! And I am the only hiker signed up for the Birches tonight. The bugs are pretty bad so I’m sure I’m going to have to set up my tent. But at least I’m able to stay there at all.
From there, I had 5 miles to go to get up to that campsite. And I don’t know what it was, but these last 5 miles were the hardest of the day. The terrain was ridiculously easy. But I think I just stiffened up when I sat down outside the store earlier. Because after feeling really good all day I now just felt really tight and mildly uncomfortable at times. That’s been a really funny thing with this injury. I’ve never experienced ups and downs like this before. Usually my healing process is a lot more linear. I’ve definitely had injuries where I think that they’ve improved and they radically decline. But this one just fluctuates very often. Yesterday I did practically 30 miles and I felt amazing. Today I started the day feeling amazing. And now I felt pretty crummy. At least it’s going to be an early day and I’ll get lots of rest tonight before climbing the mountain tomorrow.
Crossing over the bridge heading toward the Abol Bridge store.
For most of the day today, I was listening to Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer. A book that I started a really long time ago and wound up pausing. But I decided to attempt to get back into it and finish it. And like a lot of books, you really just have to push through whatever section of the book feels a little more dry. Sometimes I just get a little bored in the middle and can’t continue on. But once I started it again today I got into it and nearly finished it by the time I got to camp.
I think I got to the Birches right around 3 PM which was awesome. Though I stopped to stretch a bunch of times along the short distance. Once I got to the camping area, I got my tent set up. There are two really nice shelters there, but the bugs are terrible. And after I got my tent set up, I walked down to the Ranger station so that I could register to climb Mount Katahdin tomorrow. Thru hikers can climb for free, you just have to inform the Ranger that you’re doing so. I brought the slip that Donald gave me and paid $10 to stay at the Birches. The Ranger Paul was ridiculously nice and we wound up talking for a while. He also gave me some advice on the saddle trail. That’s the trail I plan on using to descend Mount Katahdin tomorrow. It’s just not a trail that I’m personally familiar with. But seems like a safer option if the weather isn’t great.
And once I got all of that figured out, I headed back to camp to relax for the rest of the night. My body was feeling insanely stiff. After stopping and standing around to talk to the Ranger, I stiffened up even more. It was crazy how quickly that happened. It really blows my mind. When I got back to my tent, I laid and did my full physical therapy exercise and stretching routine. Then I ate some dinner and got some writing and video work done. The nice thing is it was so incredibly early!
Entering Baxter state park!
Later on in the evening, I walked around a bit more to loosen up. And I went and asked Paul the Ranger a couple more questions. He was just such a nice guy. It was cool to chat with him. And by the time I walked back I felt way better already. I was glad that I did all the stretching and also gave myself a chance to walk around a little bit more. I’ve just never personally experienced anything like this. I’ve heard from a lot of people that these symptoms are pretty common, where you feel super tight and sore until you get moving. Then once you actually get moving, you loosen up and you feel really good.
This is just really new for me so I’m sort of figuring everything out for the first time. I can only imagine that in the weeks to come my body is just going to slowly but surely heal, and this will continue to improve. Like I said, it’s just been hard not having a perfectly linear healing process. Though of course I understand that healing will never go that way when you’re actively doing as much as I’m doing.
Heading over to sign in with the ranger for the Birches.
In many ways this healing process does remind me a bit of my injury experience on the international Appalachian Trail. The interesting thing is that I also got injured in 2023 around the 3500 mile marker. Around that time I had a few different things happen, but the culmination was me tearing a muscle in my right calf. I think I had some hip tightness and maybe even glute issues prior. Everything was super manageable though and wasn’t really giving me much of a problem. But then eventually, some kind of repetitive motion caused me to tear the muscle in my calf. Which resulted in a 12 week healing process that was really slow going and definitely not linear. The only thing I preferred about that process was that it seemed a bit simpler. I compression wrapped from above my knee all the way down to my ankle every single day. Doing that made it so I could keep my pain around a six or seven for the entire day. Then I was hiking 30+ miles every single day. While my pain was pretty intense, it didn’t grow through throughout the day. So in many ways, it was manageable. Though some other things did flare up because of this injury.
Climbing some rock face, heading toward the Birches.
I hiked like that for the major majority of Quebec, all of Nova Scotia, all of Prince Edward Island, all of Newfoundland, and all of Alabama after I flipped back down south. There were many times when I felt like the injury was improving and I attempted to stop using the compression wrap. That would always result in me setting myself back. Pain would increase and things would return to exactly how they had been on day one. And I repeated the cycle two or three times throughout the healing process. After a while, I realized my mistake and stopped getting too eager. And finally after about 12 weeks, I just kept the compression band on well after the pain had completely subsided. I think I probably compression wrapped for close to a week even though I felt like the injury had completely resolved itself. And then eventually I stopped wrapping it every day. Basically, by the time I finished Alabama and got onto the Florida Trail, I was able to hike normally again. Most partial muscle tears take 4 to 6 weeks to heal. But I would say as a general rule of thumb, injuries take two times as long to heal if you’re hiking 30 miles a day while you’re healing.
A mossy green pine forest.
While these two circumstances are incredibly different, there are many similarities. The most prominent of which is the time that the injuries occurred. Clearly the 3500–4000 mile marker is just a difficult time for my body. It’s the equivalent of having hiked nearly 2 thru hikes in a year. It’s basically the equivalent of walking all the way from Key West to Canada. And I think it’s hard for a lot of people to understand how that additional mileage compiles on your body. It’s one thing to do a singular thru hike and rob your body of nutrients, while simultaneously exhausting yourself and living at a caloric deficit. But when you extend that for long periods of time, you’re quite literally depleting yourself of bone density, and muscle mass in some ways. There’s a whole lot of stuff going on in the background. So I think as you begin to break down it just makes the ability to injure yourself much more likely. That’s just my non-medical theory.
Even knowing that I was prone to injury around the 4000 mile marker, though, I still got injured. It was something I was thinking of in the back of my head, but I also was feeling really good. And even when some mild pain started to arise it wasn’t incredibly concerning. But I’m just happy that it’s at a manageable point right now. When I first got injured a couple weeks ago I remember thinking that I just wish it was the type of pain I could hike through. I wanted it to be like 2023, where I was majorly uncomfortable and injured, but could still get miles in. Obviously, now that I’m able to walk again, I’m wishing that I was in zero pain or discomfort. Even though it’s very manageable, and I would still say I’m riding it about a 2 or 3 out of 10, I still want no pain. But I would much rather manage some discomfort a day today and still be hiking, rather than not be hiking at all.
My tent set up at the Birches. I was the only one!
For the rest of the night, I just lounged around and rested my body. I even set an alarm on my phone and love myself now for about an hour. Then I woke up to the sound of Paul coming over to the Birches to say hello. He wanted to show me the list of all of the hikers who had made it to Mount Katahdin thus far. Thru hikers register separately and he knew I wanted to look at the list of names. Many of which I recognized. He also brought me a muffin, which was so incredibly nice of him. It seemed homemade and was a corn and blueberry muffin, which I’ve never had before. We chatted for a little bit and then he headed out. And I had a couple more snacks before finally calling it a night.
I’m surprisingly exhausted even after doing a slightly shorter day today. But it felt so good to be able to lay and rest a bit today. Now tomorrow morning, I’m going to plan to be hiking sometime between 4:30–5 PM. Even though the weather looks good, I want to get up Mount Katahdin as early as possible. That way if some bad weather does roll in, I’m able to get up and over the mountain early. I’m so incredibly excited to wrap off this northern portion of the trail. It’s just bringing me one step closer to being completely done with the Appalachian trail. Which after all that that’s been said and Dunn is going to be a very incredible experience.
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