Dispatch from Monson, Maine -- June 23, 2004

114 miles down; 2060 to go.

I am in the town of Monson, Maine after my successful completion of the 100-mile Wilderness section of Maine's Trail. It was a section for which I had allotted 9 days, but I did it in 7, so I have rewarded myself with a day off in this small, simple, but very welcome town. Locals jokingly refer to Monson as, a "speedbump on the way to Moosehead Lake." But the significance of Monson to hikers of the AT is not to be underestimated. It truly occupies a Big Rock Candy Mountain sort of renown among hikers north- and southbound. Real food, cold beer, soft beds.

A note on Katahdin, the northern terminus. Dr. Peter Balbert (to those of you not familiar with the name, this is the former English department head at Trinity) is fond of including a little Kilimanjaro background in his Hemingway lectures. In it he will provocatively assert that Kilimanjaro is the largest mountain in the world, waiting for some petulant nosebleed to correct him that, no, Mt. Everest is the largest. The distinction Balbert wishes to draw is between ultimate height and overall massiveness of a mountain. Compared to the peaks around it, Everest is a humble extra step on an already built staircase. Kilimanjaro rises with no warning out of African grassland. So though Kilimanjaro is only about as high as the base camp of Everest, the enormity of the extinct volcano is beyond compare. It's the same way with Katahdin, minus the volcanism. Mt. Washington in New Hampshire is over 1000' higher than Katahdin, but from some of the surrounding peaks, the highest point in New England is a short scramble. Hell, I went up in flip flops last summer. Mt. Katahdin by contrast rises out of the sodden, pond-strewn maple and alder lowlands of Baxter State Park. Its presence there is inexplicable and awesome at the same time. It is the first point of US "soil" (not much soil up there) that the sun illuminates every morning and the longest sustained climb on my whole hike. Not bad for day one. My scheduled starting date of June 15 was too stormy to venture above treeline, as 2/3 of the climb is. I waited till the 16th and had the oh so rare combination of perfect weather and an empty summit. That's what I get for starting my hike at 5 a.m.

To make up for lost time I consolidated my first three short days into two longer days. I found myself moving so fast as I went on that I ended up ahead of the schedule I would have been on had I started on the 15th. Even after the relatively quick time of 7 days I was hungry and thirsty and last night was threatening heavy rains and thunderstorms. I was going to bivouac on the outskirts of Monson to save a night's lodging, but I decided to bust ass the full 19 miles and hit town. Steak dinner and cold PBR. Happy me. I may not check or send e-mail again until Gorham, NH (neighborhood of July 8-9).

Me, Bjorn (still no trail name)