May 18, 2025 5 min to read

AT Blog: Day 127 and 128

Back on Trail and Saddleback Mountains

Day 127:

Wake up in the morning at the inn. I wish my biological clock would reset on town days, because despite my weariness I’m still up shortly after 5 AM.

After resting and catching up on things on my phone, eventually my sister and mother are both up as well. Before repacking we decide to head to breakfast at a little coffee shop called Classic Provisions.

I decide to get a breakfast burrito, a smoothie and a cinnamon roll, which really fills me up, plus the roll is amazing. They both get the breakfast sandwich which looks pretty good and share a cinnamon roll. Afterwards we head back to the Inn, ask for a late checkout and I get to packing.

I always go much slower repacking on town days, it feels like I have low energy plus I have to repack everything. That includes the new food, but also washing out my water filter, repacking clothes and anything else in my bag. My mom and sister help out as they can.

Eventually after a long time I finish packing and use the restroom one last time. I put my pack in the car and we head out again to look at the shops and grab a small lunch. We end up getting a new hat for my sister’s friend and a few other trinkets too.

We get a medium pizza for the 3 of us to share. It’s half and half, half meat and red peppers and the other a homemade blueberry BBQ sauce and chicken. Surprisingly it’s pretty good and the blueberry is faint so it’s not overpowering.

We also make plans for the final days of the trail. I only have 230 miles left and my parents may want to see me several days before I finish and support me. It is difficult as I would be in the 100 Mile Wilderness. Named due to its isolation and far distance to any towns. There are several roads that cross through it but none of them are commonly used and many of them are gravel logging roads.

We end up calling a few places to do research. What I’ll likely end up doing is just paying for a shuttle to town to meet them instead of them having to pay for a rental car that can handle rough roads. I also call my dad while I have signal to let him know what we have learned.

Afterwards we head back to the car, and I change into my clean hiking clothes. We start to head out but stop at a little market on the way, ending up just getting waters. When we arrive back at the scenic overlook where I get back on trail, we all rest in the car for a few minutes before getting out again. They walk with me to the trail, while my sister carries my pack over for me. We say our long goodbyes and I start to tear up. But a reassuring thought for all of us is that it’s only a couple weeks left till I’m done.

While they shout their goodbyes into the woods, and call out Marco and me polo, I head on. It’s only a 3.7 mile hike to Sabbath Pond Lean-to, and it’s not too remarkable except for the pretty pond. There’s a small beach thats a popular swimming hole but I’m not much in the mood. I get to the lean-to with little fuss and there’s already two SOBO hikers there. It’s funny as I stopped at my usual time, the SOBOs are surprised I am coming in so late. I suppose the same was true for me early on, but as they continue moving south they will get longer stamina too.

We chat for a while before I head out to set up my tent and relax before heading to bed.

Day 128:

Both southbounders are gone by the time I’m up, I still take my time in the mornings.

I head out of the shelter and cruise along. It’s fairly flat and with the exception of the bogs is easy going for the first 10 miles. I take a short break at a campsite to eat some more monster cookies I was given and keep going.

I stop by Pizza Rock shelter where the shelter has a board game set up between the two seats in the privy, and a sign that says game on.

At Maine 4, I get some mini trail magic from a family finishing their trip. The parents had hiked the whole trail, and had come out for two days with their two sons to hike. They were both very young and they had a backpack for the baby and were having the older boy hike himself. Reminds me of old photos with my dad carrying me. I always make the joke to folks that I call dibs on the next ride. They were great and the baby seemed very interested in my trekking poles. Maybe I should hire him to keep track of them.

I then proceed to start up the Saddlebacks. I slow down to go up them but not by much. I see a decent amount of day hikers and section hikers as it’s one of the few ranges in Maine above treeline. It’s a beautiful view on top of Saddleback mountain and the Horn.

I finish the day by going to Poplar Lean-To, where there’s a couple of section hikers and Harmonica who started at the Florida trail and headed north to here.