Hard rain woke me, but it was very brief. After that a few minutes of light drizzle or perhaps it was just the trees shedding water. I got up and packed, and by the time I was ready to eat it was dry out.
My plan was to hitch to Bethel, twenty miles south. I waited at least five minutes at the road before I saw the first car. A second car five minutes later. A third five after that. As it approached I worried I could be there for hours, but the car stopped. John is an MD who divides his time between Maine and Kentucky, and he was on his way to Portland to catch a flight to KY.
We ate breakfast together at a diner in town, and talked about religion since he had been very religious but then seems to have lost faith in much of what he had learned in seminary (he was a former ordained minister as well as a doctor). I was in no hurry since I would need four or five hours for my power banks to charge, but he had a flight to catch. I paid for our breakfast to thank him for the ride.
I walked to a local supermarket and resupplied. They had everything I needed, which may be the last time that happens on trail. Then I walked a mile out of town to the outfitters, and bought new Leki poles to replace my Frankensteined Black Diamond ones. I walked a mile back, returned to the diner for a veg omelet, and caught up on the news while charging wrapped up. Five minutes after sticking my thumb out I had a ride back to the trail from Kevin, a ski patroller and web developer.
The weather was excellent. Lots of climbing. Much of that on stretches of bare rock. At one point I was on a wide expanse of bare rock looking at the next mountain which was completely bare rock. Callus and Energizer Bunny, two SOBOs, appeared and told me I would soon be climbing that rock dome. Energizer Bunny was Korean and was carrying a giant banner about 450 Koreans who were killed, although the banner was rolled up and I couldn’t entirely understand him.
It’s surprising how steep a slope my shoes can go up or down on without slipping. The next mountain, the bald rock one, had lots of climbing on steep surfaces. A powerful wind blew, probably 40 MPH. Luckily it was at my back and helped propel me to the top.
The end destination was a parking lot, since I made the incorrect assumption that parking lots are always in flat areas. This one turns out to be on a hill judging by the map. But I stopped a quarter mile before that, by a babbling brook. Another tent was already up but as I wasn’t sure the person wasn’t already sleeping, I said nothing. The location is nice and the brook sounds lovely, but my tent is slanted on both axes so I may have trouble sleeping. I expect I will find myself at the foot of the tent every time I wake up.
Mile 1930.5 to mile 1940.8 = 10.3 miles
Bethel apparently has an excellent mineral museum but I didn’t have time to visit.