Samwise Hikes the Appalachian Trail! - Trail Journal -
	Home	| Updates	| Map	| Journal	| Photos	| Resources	| FAQ

September 30, White House Landing - mile 2122.1

I'm simultaneously thrilled and despaired to be here tonight. I hiked over 20 miles to get here, which means I'm still on schedule to summit Thursday, but it also means my feet have been murdered! I cannot believe how many sores and blisters are covering my feet, especially since I've got over 500 miles on these boots and never had any problems before. I simply can't understand it and I'm hoping and praying that a slower pace over the next three days will be enough to keep me going until summit day.

Anyway, this is such a gorgeous place that even sore feet can't distract me from its beauty. This is essentially a wilderness lodge, and it's about as remote as one can get. Hikers get here by following a logging road and then the beach of the lake for about a mile from the trail. That brings you to a boat dock with an air horn mounted in the tree, with a note to sound the horn if you want a pick-up. So I got there today and gave a short blast on the horn, which nearly scared me out of my boots, and within 10 minutes, a boat came up and in I jumped. We motored across the lake and now here I am, extremely well-fed by the massive burgers they serve, and cozied up by the wood stove here in the bunkhouse. I got three boxes and some letters in the mail, which has been great fun -- and not only that, I had Tony send way too much, so now I've become "Santa Claus" of the bunkhouse with all my gifts to dispense.

There are a lot of hikers here tonight, as has become the norm lately. They say at least 150 of us have come through in the past two weeks -- I'm definitely in the middle of the pack. In some ways it's frustrating to be with so many people in the middle of the Wilderness, the most remote section of the whole trail. However, there's not really anything to be done about it, so on to Katahdin we go!