Unorganized Territory of Northwest Piscataquis

Julia felt better in the morning and we both were pretty hungry after missing out the dinner last night. But it took us a while to get moving and my clothes were still wet. There were some tough mountains to climb so I produced enough body heat to dry them out in the morning. This also meant that we just moved slowly and barely made any miles. Our initial goal was a shelter after about 20 miles, but around noon there still 14 miles to go. So we re-adjusted our plan to go to a campsite 8 miles later.
Shortly after we had lunch we reached the last milestone before Kathadin, the 2100 miles marker. For the past few days we started to count down the days and mountains that are left... We are exhausted and tired and in need of a break. Especially today has been hard with lots of rocky up and downs. There is barely any trail left to hike on, it's either rock scrambling, tripping and slipping on roots or avoiding mud ponds. So in conclusion, it's been an annoying day on the trail. But not just for us, everyone we met seemed to be frustrated.

Imagine climbing down huge scattered rock boulders where a wrong step means at least a serious injury while the thunder is rolling frightening close by. Rain would mean an additional challenge because the rocks would be more slippery. In that state between concentration and pace we noticed a lightning strike just behind the summit we just left. The following thunder startled us, hurt our ears and left us with a bit of a tinnitus for some minutes. Luckily it didn't start to rain and we arrived late at the campsite at a nice spot right next to the river.
Today it just wasn't possible to hike more miles, so we have to do more tomorrow. But there are the last higher mountains waiting for us so we are ready for another tough day...Read more