Yellow, White or Blue, the Blazes are Always True - Part Two

After a night in a Motel 6 in Portsmouth, NH (They might leave a light on, but you have to get your shampoo from a vending machine), we hit the road again to finish our northern trek to Millinocket, ME.  This sleepy little town is "dying" according to the bartender in the Blue Ox Saloon.  The paper mill closed and there isn't much work around anymore.  I think the hikers are the only thing keeping the place alive, but we all know that most hikers don't spend a lot of money if they can help it.  

We arrived early in the afternoon and found the Appalachian Trail Lodge.  We saw Jaime aka NaviGator across the street and she took us up to our room.  The room was great.  We would be sharing a bathroom with the other upstairs tenants.  We brought our gear in then took the AT Museum Traveling exhibit up to the Community Center which is also know as the Bakery.  We went over to the Blue Ox for a couple beers then went to the Appalachian Trail Cafe for some dinner and happy hour.  

Appalachian Lodge - Millinocket, ME

AT Museum Traveling Exhibit

We listened to some of the musicians at the park then finished our own pub crawl by getting a drink at the Scootic In, then headed back to the room for a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow we would hike to the foot of The Greatest Mountain.

Lisa needed a puppy fix.  This little critter was hanging out in front of one of the stores

Log Entry:

AT Trip 2015-3, 4, 5
Headed north again to Millinocket, ME. Arrived around one.

Checked in at Lodge, set up exhibit in the community center then walked around down town doing our own pub craw and listening to some of the musicians.

Hung out in our room into the evening then hit the sack.

Left Lodge around 6:30 in the fog morning. Went to McDs for bfast then gas, then drove the 20 miles to Abol Bridge. Arrive Abol bridge 0720 . On trail 0730. Took Blueberry Ridges trail up into Baxter. Arrived Birches 0940ish. Relaxed for a while, checked out the campground and got our first view of the mountain as the fog had burned off and it was a beautiful day.

The trip down was very nice. The trail was perfect and we made sure we checked out the falls and ponds.

We got back to the car a little after 2:30 and drove back to Town. The total loop was 15 miles and my feet were feeling it. Lisa pulled ahead of me the last few miles as usual.

We showered and did laundry and talked to the other hikers at the Lodge. Most had finished already and were waiting for their rides and one, Slim was waiting for his girl friend to show up and was planning to summit Monday. We treated him to dinner at one of the local restaurants and had some beers back at the lounge area of the Lodge.

It was early to bed after that long day.

We were up and on the road around 8:30ish for a long drive to our next adventure. We stopped in Worcester, MA at 1 pm and found a sports bar to watch the Steelers beat the 49ers, then continued to the corner of NY, NJ and PA for the night. Tomorrow we meet Age and her friend and hike.

The hike was pretty awesome.  The foggy morning burned off into a bright clear day with clouds forming over the mountain.  We didn't get a view up the mountain until we were up by Katahdin Stream Campground.  The Blueberry Ledges trail was really nice.  After crossing the ledges, the trail entered a nice pine woods.  The trail was carpeted in pine needles and everywhere else was a thick green moss.  I felt as if I was in Elvis's Jungle Themed living room at Graceland.  It was cool.

A foggy morning as we travel through the birches on our way to The Birches

Blue Berry Ledges Trail - aka Elvis's Jungle Theme Room

Coming back down the AT towards Abol Bridge was great.  The trail was very nice and we got a nice view of Mt O-J-I and Mt Coe behind Grassy Pond.  Next we walked along the North end of Daice Pond.  From there we followed Nesowadnehunk Stream south, checking out Little and Big Niagara Falls along the way.

Lisa near Little Niagara Falls

Big Niagara Falls

Every once and a while we would pass hikers heading north.  Most were Thrus, finishing their long hike.  We would greet and congratulate them as we went along.  This was when Lisa started moving along.  I don't feel like I'm slowing down, but she steadily kept pulling ahead and I just ambled as best I could, not worrying about keeping up.  

We finished up around 2:30 and it felt good.  My feet were happy to get a break and we were both well hydrated during this hike.  The view from Abol Bridge was awesome as advertised and much better then the foggy nothing we could see in the morning.  

The Greatest Mountain - Katahdin

As the log states, we headed back to the Lodge, showered, did our laundry to prepare for the next leg of our adventure, then went down to the community center to take down the exhibit.  We had been talking to one of the hikers in the Lodge who was waiting for his girlfriend to arrive so he could summit and finish his hike.  Slim was ready to finish and told a story of feeling like quitting when he got to Pine Grove Furnace and the AT Museum and after walking through the museum, he felt much better about continuing north and here he was, ready to finish.

We treated Slim to dinner at the Scootic In and I guess my excitement from our day of hiking had me talking up a storm.  Lisa mentioned that she hasn't seen me talk this much... ever...

Gomer

We went to bed early as we would be on the road again early and had about eight hours of driving before us.  

The next morning we were up and out and on the road after another stop at McDs.  Two days in a row eating at McDonald's is unusual for us.  

It was Sunday and the Steelers were playing at 1.  We drove around five hours and started looking for a sports bar.  My phone had found a few possibilities in Worcester, MA.  We arrived just before 1 pm, parked and walked into the first bar.  Of course, all five TVs had the Patriots game on.  I talked to the owner and he told me he didn't have the ticket, but offered another place to try.  We drove another five minutes and parked again.  We saw the same thing at this bar, (all Patriots, all the time) and I had seen another Sports Bar just down the block, so we headed there.  

Steelers Nation is Everywhere, even in Pats territory

When we walked in we saw their list of games and saw our game was listed.  We found the TV that had the game and settled up against the wall with a beer.  There were three other Steelers fans in there and after a while we got two seats right in front of the TV and got us some cheap wings.  The day was good as the Steelers beat the 49ers with ease and we happily continued our drive to the borders of NY/NJ.

We arrived at a Days Inn after I had a little fun trying to make a reservation using my phone and accidentally booked the wrong night.  It got all fixed up after a phone call to travelocity and we arrived at the Motel in the dark after the GPS took us the most remote way possible down a country road.  

We settled in for the night and sorted our gear for the morning.
  
Tomorrow the adventure would continue.  We were meeting Lisa's sister, Adrianne and her friend, Cathie and hiking some more, this time in NJ.