Wet Wednesday

Wednesday, September 26, started out wet. Lyle broke camp in the rain and ended up hiking in the rain in the morning. The trail was wet and slippery which made hiking dangerous. He fell twice on downs, falling once on his face knocking his glasses off and once on his back. Losing his glasses is one of his big concerns because he decided to leave his spare glasses in the car to reduce the weight in his pack. He did find his glasses and he said they weren't too beat up. He also said the only thing that was really hurt was his pride! About noon he had hiked into nice weather, in fact he said it looked like it hadn't even rained. After his rough morning he decided that he should have hiked longer on Tuesday--about 5 miles more--which would have allowed him to be through the worst ups and downs before the rain. Instead he decided to camp earlier than usual on Tuesday getting settled in by 4:00.

He saw a few more south bounders on Wednesday. Lyle says most of these are hikers that had intended to hike north but knew they were running out of time so they flipped. This means that they went to the northern trail head on Mt. Ktadin and will hike south to the point that they left the trail. This is still through hiking so they will have met their personal target. The northern trail head closes mid-October so the race is on for anyone that wants to finish the through hike in 2012.

Lyle hiked 14 miles today but ran out of daylight between shelters. This is the first time he has had to camp on a flat spot off the trail. He was set up under some pines but within earshot of some farms. He could hear dogs barking off in the distance until they went in for the night. The trail isn't too bad in Mass. and he is happy with the progress he is making.