Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 144, Sunday, 8/7 – Genie, Birthday, and I headed out of camp around 7:15am. Genie lead the way for the 3 miles up to Baldpate West Peak. From the top, we had a great view of Baldpate East Peak. The East peak has to be one of my favorite mountains on trail. It’s essentially a giant slab of rock with phenomenal 360 degree views. There were also ripe blueberries covering the summit that we snacked on. The weather was perfect too. It was breezy and just barely raining. I don’t know that I would have liked the mountain as much it had been one of the hot, sunny days, because there would have been no shade.

The initial descent off the Baldpates seemed a bit sketchy at first. The rock was wet, and it was rather steep. However, the rock was surprisingly grippy, so it wasn’t all that dangerous.

The last 5 or so miles of trail today were gentle, which is a nice change of pace from the last 100+ miles. I heard New Hampshire and Southern Maine were tough, but I was still somehow caught off guard at just how difficult the hiking has been.

I hiked with Aqua for the last 5 miles, got to the road into Andover (Mile 1937), and met Spunky and Symbol with trail magic. I got a few cold drinks and some snacks before the shuttle into Andover picked us all up at 2:30pm.

We got dropped off at Pine Ellis Lodging where we’re all staying tonight. We all started to get laundry going, so I picked through their collection of loaner clothes. The loaner clothes were slim pickings, so I found myself in a town dress today.

We then went out for ice cream, then headed over to the market to resupply food. The market had a counter where we all ordered hot food for dinner.