Category: AT Maine 2025

Monday August 11, 2025. 64 degrees and sunny.

Up at 6:00. Ed and I had coffee and ordered breakfast to go from Wawa. Said goodbye to Lisa and got on the road at 7:15.

Uneventful 11 hour drive. Went from this view of the New York skyline…

To this view of a camp in Monson, Maine…

Arrived at 100 Mile Wilderness Adventures in Monson at 6:30pm. Chatted with the owner and headed to the deli in town for takeout dinner before they closed at 7:30. Had a nice dinner while chatting with the hostel caretaker for a few hours.

We split a nice little 2 bunk cabin. Unfortunately Maine is having a heat wave. It was 93 here today. Insane for this time of year up here. Very dry as well. Poor ventilation in the cabin and can’t leave the door open due to mosquitoes. 

Our ride picks us up at 6:30 tomorrow morning. Looking forward to 3 hard days starting tomorrow. In theory we will be back here in 8 days, but I won’t be surprised if it takes 10 days.

I did not enjoy the second half of Maine during my AT thru-hike last year. It was late in the season and I was getting burnt out. I would barely see a single person on trail during the later part of Maine. Plus I had to skip ahead in the Hundred Mile Wilderness to summit Katahdin before they closed the mountain for the year.

In addition, my plans to thru-hike the Colorado Trail in 2025 fell apart after a health scare this spring. That freed up the month of August for me. Therefore I decided to push myself and go back to Maine and hike the second half of Maine from Rangeley to the base of Katahdin in Baxter Park. 

August is the perfect month for Maine. The weather is cool. The bugs are almost non-existent. And the days are still long.

My friend Ed agreed to join me on this adventure. We would spend a fair amount of the summer section hiking, exercising, and generally trying to get ready for Maine. This part of Maine is arguably the second hardest part of the AT. I was really looking forward to the physical and mental challenge.