Mile 1915.1
Elevation 2,966
Miles Hiked 4.4
I left the last shelter at 7:30 AM. The shelter was .3 mile off the trail, so it took about 15 minutes to get on the main Appalachian Trail. The trail guide showed there were no extremely large elevation gains, so I thought it would be a relatively easy day. Boy was I wrong. There were many up and down climbs.
The trail itself has been very wet and muddy ever since I left Gorham, NH, so that adds to the difficulty. More than once I have stepped in mud that sunk my foot well past my boot top. And the hamstring problem with my right leg has gotten worse as I try to use both legs to pull me up on the vertical rock climbs.
On the plus side, I had a really nice ridge walk. The weather has been clear and in the 80’s. While that can be a little hot, it proved to be comfortable while walking the ridge of a mountain. What is not comfortable are all the mosquitoes. As already mentioned, the trail is very wet and muddy, so that means a lot of mosquitoes. They drive me crazy when they fly into my ears and eyes.
Once again, my pace was horrible and I did not get into camp until 4:00 PM. I set up my tent and will be climbing into my sleeping bag early tonght.
