Miles today: 18.5
Total miles: 1535.8
It was pretty windy overnight and as a result the trees lost many leaves and all of a sudden it looks like winter with bare trees all around. There are tons of leaves on the ground, in some places mid calf height. It’s kind of fun shuffling through them. I also love stepping on crunchy leaves and now I do that for like ten hours a day everyday so I’m a happy girl
I passed a day hiker today that said he’d stayed with two guys headed southbound last night. Catching up to new people! I couldn’t imagine who was ahead of me, as delta and I are kind of at the front of our bubble so I asked the guy what their names were. He hadn’t asked them so I asked what they looked like. He replied “male”. And I just stared for a couple seconds and he followed that up with “they had beards”. Not helpful. Later, after talking with delta he said he thought it was these two guys Cerveza and milk run, who he’d met a long time ago and who were also 19. I’d yet to meet them so I hoped to catch them eventually. I also am trying to catch this kid buddy backpacker. He is a five year old hiking the trail, trying to be the youngest to complete it. His parents switch off hiking with him while the other parent provides support–they slackpack everyday so they don’t have to carry weight. They are flip flopping so they’ve already done the northern section, summiting Katahdin in September and now are headed to springer. They are a week or so ahead f me but I’m not really making much progress on them. This five year old does serious miles! It’s a little embarrassing I can’t catch him.
Anyway, the hiking today was relatively flat for a while which was nice for a change. Good day but cold night, which seems to be becoming the norm.