Journey Day 325 | AT Day 148

Atop Moxie Bald in 1986.

8/23/86

Late start. Up when Scott "Hopster" Miller hikes by. We talk, he hikes on and I pack and follow him up Moxie Bald, passing two guys, one an elderly, camouflaged gent with a rifle. Drop my pack at a side trail to the summit, hike up passing Scott. Up rocks to tower on an excellent bald. Fire tower provides views back to Sugarloaf, surrounding peaks, ahead all the way to Ktaadn, also known as Mt. Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, slightly visible over one ridge of the Barren-Chairback range. A grandson, elderly grandpa come up. We talk, I end up liking this old Mainer hunting coyotes with a 30-06.

Mt. Katahdin from Moxie Bald.

Drop down rugged side trail into the forest, down to the Moxie Bald Lean-to, but a dose of caffeine convinces me to go on despite the beautiful view. I rush through bogs, logging roads singing all the way to the Breakneck Ridge Lean-to. I take a short break to pen my bog AT Rambler tune in the trail register, then hike on over the Piscataquis River into Blanchard, Maine. At the crossroads, I stay behind the hostel in a shelter. Never meet the proprietor, but talk with Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail Conference section hikers a bit, read, then crash as a big storm rains down all night.

The trail crossed the Piscataquis River into Blanchard, Maine.