Tuesday, August 26, 2025. Up at 6:40. Warm, breezy, sunny. We are in no rush as we only have 11 flat miles.
If there was any doubt that I have a leak in my sleep pad, last night took care of that. I had to put more air in it 4 times. I may try to find the leak and patch it this afternoon.
I’m also running low on batteries. Not sure why one of my power banks only lasted 2 nights. Should have been 3+. I may have left WiFi on yesterday 🙁
We took an hour to dry our tents and clothes on the beach this morning. Breeze and sun are great. Fully disassembled the inner from the outer tent to get things as dry as possible. Inner is dry and foot print is dry. Outer is close enough. Can dry the outer more at camp this afternoon before pitching the entire tent.
On trail (mile 2146.7) at 9:00. Hope to be at camp by 2:00.
We got our first on-trail view of Katahdin. Spectacular. And emotional. More on that later.
Slippery wooden walkways all morning from the rain. Very slippery.
We had 3 mellow water crossings. Most years you have to ford these. But with the drought this year we could rock hop.
Nice walk in the woods for a few miles.
Stopped at 12:15 and 7.33 miles for lunch and water refill. Yes those are stairs bolted into the river side.
Hard last 3.7 miles. Lots of slippery nasty roots and rocks. Ed took a nasty fall at one point, but all is good.
Startled this little guy as he was eating lunch. Sorry dude.
We got to Nahmakanta Lake (mile 2157.7) at 2:20. There is a 4 person group already taking one big tent area. We found a great tent area very close to the lakeshore and about 100 feet from a picnic table. Setup camp and got a lot of gear out to air out.
It’s VERY windy as you can tell from the whitecaps on the lake. The wind is a steady 15-20 mph and is 60 degrees at 4:00pm. Hopefully the wind chills out later.
Refilled my sleep pad at 5:42. It was mostly flat by 7:00. Gonna use mine and Ed’s sit pads and spare clothes to try to make a pallet under the sleep pad to help with the cold and the tree root that is in the middle of my back!
Wind is finally dying down as Ed and I make dinner at 7:30. How about that sunset!
In bed to read at 8:40. Wind is mellowed and lows tonight are about 50. The pallet I made under the half deflated air mattress is helping. Fingers crossed on that front.
Good easy day today. I really wanted to swim in the lake but the wind and lack of sun messed that up. Got another lake to try that with tomorrow. Seeing Katahdin again brings up all kinds of mixed emotions. I’m exited to see it, but it dredges up some regrets from last year’s thru-hike. This could be my last time up here. Who knows.
That post-hike depression thing can linger for a long time. I try to look at life through the front windshield and never the rear view mirror, but every now and then ….
Technical Notes:
- Pop tarts 360
- Fatty beef stick 300
- Trail mix 170
- Zero sugar sausage 120
- Peak Refuel chicken rice w veggies 740
- Fritos 500
- Fig bar 200
- Water liters 4
- Miles 11.14
- Time 5:26
- Up 988
- Down 860
- Calories consumed 2390
- Calories burned 1800
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