Rock Hopster

• Today I traveled 21.7 miles with 3583 feet of ascent.
• I woke up at the Sterling Inn and had a big breakfast. My hiker hunger is growing and I started to feel bad about clearing out their continental breakfast selection, but I’m sure they’ve seen much worse.
• My hike began this morning with the iconic Kennebeck River crossing. This section of the river is right past a dam that intermittently releases overflow into the river, which causes water levels to rise a few feet rapidly. This makes it super dangerous to ford so there is someone stationed there every morning with a canoe to ferry hikers across.
• This morning the ferryman was running late so I wasn’t able to start hiking the trail until about 10:30am. There was about a dozen northern bound hikers waiting on the other side of the river, but I was the only southbound hiker.
• I’ve got 37 miles to cover before the next town so my goal is to cover that in two days. The second section features Bigelow Mountain, the first of many 4000+ ft mountains that I’ll have to cover in southern Maine. I’ve heard a lot about how challenging and exciting southern Maine is so I’m psyched to get a preview of what’s to come.
• I developed a small blister yesterday, most likely from hiking with wet feet for two days, so my goal today was to keep my feet dry! So every muddy patch and old steam bed the trail ran through I had to hop across on roots and rocks. There were a few mile plus stretches where over 80% of my steps were bouncing between roots and rocks. It definitely tires my feet out but it’s pretty satisfying to lock in and find your groove.
• Today drove home the lesson that my hiker is SO much more enjoyable if I’m not checking my distance traveled or my watch every 15 minutes. I made it my goal to only look at my map once an hour or when I needed navigation help. It made the miles pass by so much smoother instead of looking at my phone every 0.3 miles traveled waiting to get to my destination.

Peace!