Camping East Falstaff Rd 2018.3

We started the day motivated as there aren't many mountains left overall on the trail and we'd tackle one right in the morning. But after about an hour we realized that the Bigelow Mountains are tough. And so we only had made 6 miles for lunch.
That's the problem with using all your energy vertically instead of horizontally. After the last peak - Mt. Avery named after one of the main initiators of the AT - the terrain looked like it's going to flatten and and allow to do more miles. Maybe it was the weather or just a general exhaustion but this section was super hard on us. Especially because the Junior Bigelow Mountain didn't have anything of interest, just a sign. Julia also had some trouble and fell several times because of the slippery Salomon boots.
At the end of the day (7ish) it finally got flatter and we pushed hard to make it to a campsite near Lake Falstaff.
But on the way there we came by a road crossing and got some incredible trail magic. It was already dark so we decided to set up our tent there. They gave us beer, sandwiches, pasta salad and sweet goods!!! We couldn't get enough and we ate a huge portion each. They are coming there every year on the labor day weekend, feed hungry hikers and have a reunion. In our tent we made a plan for the next day to catch up miles and get to the ferry (more about it tomorrow). So we set the alarm to 3 in the morning :DRead more