Miles: 17.0
We didn't have food for another day, so we had no option but to walk 17 miles into town today. We're getting our hiking appetites and ate through the food buffer that we built into our planning. Oops.
We had a brief celebration at the Maine - New Hampshire border, topped off with packed-in wine and rain. We are out of Maine!!! Bye, bye, scheize state (as one German NOBO called it). We're done with Maine!! It's still sinking in :)
We did a little dance, posed by the sign for pictures and then trudged on in the rain. We did more ridiculous bouldering and pondered where the money that we're giving to AMC is going. We were charged $8 per person to stay in an overcrowded shelter at Speck Pond and they have less items on the Trail to aid hikers (like those handy ladders and rebar!). The theory is that thye're competing in the ruggedness game with Maine. "We're New Hampshire! We're hard, too!" They're also expensive. We're about to hit the huts in the White Mountains, where they charge over $60 per night to stay! Most thru-hikers do work for stay, but that would be the last thing I'd want to do after a long day's hike.
After lots of MUDs, walking in soaked boots and falling several times, we FINALLY made it to the road. At that point, we all hurt and the only thing we could do is take off our boots, sit down and start begging passing cars for a hitch to town. No one slowed down, so we finally called a shuttle to bring us into town.
We crashed into a hotel room with the Texas Trio and ate our hiker's dinner. $15 worth of Burger King food, plus 2 cheeseburgers at McDonalds. (Grease bomb!) We walked into town with no food (having eaten the last Pop-tart 2 miles before the road) and now we're stuffed full. Oh, yes. I do love my towns.
- French-fried Bobo