Sunday, September 27 8:31 pm 21.8 mi
AT 2144.7 Potaywadjo Spring Lean-to → AT 2166.5 Rainbow Spring campsite
Weather: Warm, humid, overcast
Trail Conditions: Rocky and rooty – despite another relatively flat day, my dogs are barking!
My Condition: Ibuprofin night! Everything is sore and/or chafey today
More trail magic today! A father-son duo – the dad thru hiked the trail in the 90s, the son “Bartender” is planning for 2026 when he’s older. We’re leapfrogging with a group from Shaw’s, and for the second night in a row 2-3 of them decided to pick up their stuff and hike on as soon as we got to camp. It makes me sad, but there feels to be a sense of competition, like Katahdin is a limited resource. Especially with the challenges 2020 thru hikers have been thrown, I’d expect there to be more camaraderie, more communal pride, more us vs the world. I understand there’s only a limited number of spots at the Birches, and they have their trail family and we have ours, but to see the collective spirit of togetherness the trail has fostered melt away so close to the end into a selfish, competitive rat-race is rather heartbreaking.
Post Trail Analysis
Again, the trail continued to surprise. I would not have expected any trail magic in the 100 Mile Wilderness given my expectations at the beginning, and here I was seeing it for the second day in a row! Bartender enjoys helping his dad give out trail magic and earned his name by always being the person asking hikers what they’d like to drink.
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