13th August
10.4
Stratton (2001.6) to Safford Notch (1212)
My body felt great. My foot felt great. No rush to leave town. In fact I spent a very long time packing up. I checked, double checked and ripped everything out of my pack looking for my spare camera memory cards. After so much time of hiking I have a place for everything and even the smallest item is noticeable if missing. I feared that they had either fallen into the trash bag which is now long gone or they fell into my bounce box which I posted from the post office yesterday. No use getting upset, I packed up and set off, hoping that they would turn up when I picked up my bounce box at the end of the trail.
All the hikers are set to the schedule of a special hiker ferry over the Kennebec River, some 40 trail miles away. The ferry only runs between 9am as 2pm. So we were in no rush, we’d catch the ferry at 9am, in a couple of days.
We set off to hitch out of town. We didn’t even have our thumbs out to hitch when I car pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride. Well, that was easy.
Thumper and I headed up into the Bigelow Mountains. Despite an early rain shower we were lucky enough with the weather.
We climbed over several peaks including, South Horn, Bigelow West Peak and Bigelow Avery Peak, which I called Deuce Bigelow. Avery Peak was named after the dude who made the Appalachian Trail a reality, his name was Myron Avery.
He was from Maine and made sure the trail went all the way to Maine. Originally it was planned to stop at Mt Washington in New Hampshire. A great idea to go into Maine in my humble opinion.
From Avery Peak or Deuce Bigelow Peak the views were among the best on the whole trail. Flagstaff Lake in the valley below and mountains all around. Canada was only about 20 miles away on the other side of the lake. Somewhere in the distance, some 85 miles as the crow flies was Mt Katahdin, the end of the trail. I thought I could see it, a large massif in the distance but I’ve never seen a photo of it so I’m not sure. I guess I’ll find out when I get there. 178 miles of hiking to go.
While cooking up my cheesy pasta for dinner I added my usual two tablespoons of milk powder. To my surprise there were my lost memory cards buried in the milk powder. While transferring the powder from the packet to the zip lock bags I must not have looked too hard if anything was inside. I will get my eyes tested soon after this hike is finished.
Next : Day 121 – Happy 80th Birthday, Appalachian Trail
All the best information on the Appalachian Trail:
Complete Guide to the Appalachian Trail
Appalachian Trail Gear List
Appalachian Trail Gear Review
Look forward to your tips on storing and backing up photos and data. A general article about electronics on the trail, charging, storage batteries, solar etc, how your do your postings that we all enjoy, would be very wonderful.
Will, do. Might be a month or so till I get around to it.
Hehe well done with the memory cards ;-) 178 miles to go, OMG, almost there! Cheers :-)
Not long now, just hope the body holds out.
Glad you found those cards! I’d be so frustrated if lost. Btw Shepherd what is your process for downloading and backing up images along a long trail hike like this? With no backup and so much moisture from rain I would be concerned cards could be lost or corrupted. Must be a process that works for you, thanks in advance for sharing!
I use a bounce box which I constantly post to myself. The bounce box contains my computer which I use to bank up my photos. I also use online storage and a couple of backup hard drives. In a couple of months I’m going to write an article on storing and backing up photos and data. There are a lot of options nowadays. Stay tuned.
Now that’s a way to keep your memory cards dry!
But definitely not recommended. :)