One Hundred

Well… I’m packed up and ready to go. Last hundred miles and change, with a very big food carry. Let’s do this. (Tomorrow, after breakfast.)

I’ve worked out my post-Katahdin travel logistics as best I can. I’ve had long discussions with various people, and most of them seem insistent on answering the questions they’ve decided I’m going to ask, rather than the ones I’m actually asking. When I finally get direct and say “But that doesn’t answer the question I’m asking,” they slow down and listen, and the answer is always “Oh. I don’t know that!” So it goes, with humans! So I’ll put off buying my Amtrak ticket until the day before I need it, fingers crossed, and I’ll hope the whole shuttle situation from Katahdin works itself out, fingers crossed. Logistics make me ridiculously antsy. Plus, there’s the whole Katahdin thing, lol. I’m pointedly ignoring that. I refuse to even look at the views of it. I’m pretending it’s not there. Neener! 😝

Word on the street is that Treetrunk’s hand got worse and he went to the urgent care. The current informed speculation is that the beast was a fisher cat.

I’ve been seeing tons of hikers I recognize, or I think I do, and some recognize me, but it’s mostly just ‘in passing’ stuff. Siren and Pokerface were here yesterday. (I met Siren back in May.) The three of us are Phillyites. The weird leap-frogging contines. And there are flippers, too… and so many people slackpacking that it’s impossible to tell who’s actually where.

Somebody a while back… oh! It was the Kiwi from Human-Nature… he said that as time’s gone on, people are more boasty about not having slackpacked. Personally, I haven’t slacked, but I also haven’t boasted, or considered it boastworthy. I don’t generally mention it, because who cares? But you know, I realize that while I’m not exactly proud of it, I’m happy that the journey’s been continuous and always NOBO. I think if I started to bite off pieces every town stop and do some bits SOBO, some NOBO, and other bits other ways, I’d lose this massive sense of epic. It’d just be a bunch of little day hikes. Sure, I could get the merit badge at the end, but it’d be a different hike entirely—one that doesn’t really interest me. I like my continuous footpath. I like the progression that led from Georgia all the way to the Hundred Mile Wilderness, one northbound step at a time.🙂

Tomorrow: Into the Hundred. I’m not sure I’ll be posting again until the end, because of battery issues, but we’ll see. I wish battery packs weren’t so damn heavy!

Update: I bought another small battery pack in Poet’s Gear Emporium (which is actually a fabulous outfitter), so I’ll hopefully be good for the whole 13 days, if necessary. Lets me listen to a little pod, and read a little, without worrying so much.

Also, I hear Treetrunk’s on his way back from the hospital. Hope he’s OK!

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