Sep 04 2009
Weighty Matters
Supply is the great challenge of the 100 Mile Wilderness. This seems a rather abstract and unimportant consideration until you lift an all-too-heavy pack to your back and try to hike 10 miles with it. Like many of those who have taken on this challenge over the years, I trimmed what I could from my load then shouldered the weight. This decision set the tone for my trek.
AT thru-hikers running north from Georgia travel with the minimum amount of food and equipment. Most of them have ultra-light gear and that alone sheds ten or more pounds from the load. Since they’re accustomed to hiking 15 to 20 miles a day, they traverse the 100 Mile Wilderness in 6 to 8 days, sometimes less, even though there are signs posted at both ends urging backpackers to carry at least a ten-day supply of food. I encountered one fellow who had only a four-day supply. He was resigned to hiking long days and going hungry –– a regrettable strategy if anything goes wrong along the way.
Some backpackers get creative. They have a support team that drives up one of the many logging roads in the area and supplies them on the run, or they pay the folks at Shaws Boarding House to do this. Others take a side trail to Pemadumcook Lake, where they sound a horn and the folks at Whites Landing motor over by boat to pick them up. At Whites Landing you can pretty much get whatever you want… for a price. The owners advertise it as “an oasis in the 100 Mile Wilderness” and many hikers use them that way.
Make no mistake about it, the Maine woods are magnificent woods, and the 100 Mile Wilderness – that section of the Appalachian Trail cutting through the heart of it – is as wild and beautiful as any sprawling forest can be. But its remoteness should not be underestimated. I started into those woods with a 65-pound pack and cursed this ridiculous load all the way, even as it grew lighter. Then again, I was completely self-sufficient, never having to rely upon AT shelters or anything else. In that regard, it was a bona fide backpacking trip.
The logistic challenge of this trek was interesting enough, but next time I venture into the woods for an extended period of time, I’ll do things a little differently. My big regret is that I spent too much time pounding the trail, racing against my dwindlng supplies. Next time I’ll hike ten or twenty miles into the woods and land somewhere for a few days. After all, what’s the point of being out there if you’re not going to take the time to groove on the wild?
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