No Rain, No Pain, No Maine

Whelp. It’s here. I made it to the border of Maine and it feels great. I headed out early today from the Rattle River Inn after a delicious chocolate chip pancake breakfast and hiked under cloudy skies and thick humidity. After the first couple of climbs, I started to hear thunder and it opened up with an nice summer rain shower that cleared out all of the mosquitoes and black flies for a few minutes. Although we are officially out of the Whites, we still have quite a bit of technical bouldering and climbing to get through.

It’s been an amazing journey to this point and I am feeling so good about getting here without any major issues. Fingers crossed – I want to keep it that way for sure so I am being extra careful on the wet boulders. The views from the summits today were really cool with the thunderstorms rolling in. I didn’t spend a lot of time on the top because of the lightning but I did get a few good shots for you.

A few miles from the shelter I met Jellyfish’s parents and their sweet dog Tesla with the most striking blue eyes I’ve ever seen on a dog. Sweet girl – when her parents left she wanted to keep hiking with us. These technical sections are no problem for her four wheel drive. I get such a kick about seeing dogs on the Trail and can’t wait to see Chuck. Just a couple more weeks!

We are camping tonight just across the Maine border and I have a ton of food with me from our resupply. The only problem is that I lost my spoon while we were at Rattle River so I made a custom set of chopsticks to carry with me for the rest of the trip. They work great and are lighter to carry than my spoon. Every little bit helps. We have a big day tomorrow. We are going through the Mahoosec Notch which our guide describes as “a deranged jumble of boulders at the bottom of this deep cleft between Fulling Mill Mountain and Mahoosuc Mountain. Be careful, and enjoy!”