Day 10, July 9, 17.6 miles

Woke up at 4:30 am with the birds singing and trucks zooming down the highway. So excited to get up and have breakfast at Qu’s. Wow. It was delicious.

Today almost killed me. Hiked 17.6 miles up and over Mt. Killington. It was a big, long climb. It didn’t rain until the last mile today–a big improvement. I took my first spill today. After all this mud, rain, roots and rocks, I fell going UP a granite wall. Didn’t really hurt me too bad, just banged my knee pretty good. All is well, though.

I hiked today leapfrogging with Michele and her dog, Rosie. Rosie got in a tussle with a porcupine and ended up with about 10 quills in her nose and mouth. Looked painful. Michele pulled them out one-by-one–ouch.

We finished our day and got off trail and got into town to the hostel. It’s a pretty cool hostel, but pretty dirty. It’s run by some spiritual group and they don’t charge, but they accept donations. There’s a shower and washer and dryer–SCORE!! There’s a deli below the hostel too and it’s actually good food. Got a cup of tomato soup and a spinach, egg sandwich.

Tonight at the hostel is pretty much everybody I’ve seen lately. Michele and Rosie, Peter Pan and Clifford, Loon and Remedy, Poego and Biscuit and a couple others that I don’t know. The girls have one bunk room and the guys have two bunk rooms. It smells like hiker stink and incense. 😷

I passed the 1700 mile mark today, but didn’t stop to make my 1700 stick sign to get a pic, because I got one of the 500 miles to Katahdin sign. Now I have less than 500 miles to go. Slowly getting it done.

I’m planning to hike a Nero tomorrow. Short miles so I can rest myself a little. My legs, knees and feet are screaming. Hopefully a Nero will do the trick and I can hit it hard again Saturday.

Thanks for the emails, texts and comments. I can’t always respond, but I am getting them and I appreciate them. Also, sorry for the disorganized posts. My pictures don’t go where I try to put them and I’m too tired and I don’t want to waste battery to try to make it work, so they just end up wherever they want to go. Anyway, hopefully you don’t care.

Good day and good night😊