McAfee Hikes

Date Written: 8/11/2024 | AT Mile 88.5 | Day Total: 11.7 miles | Gain: 2289 ft

Took our time this morning, didn’t get hiking till nearly 9. Camp spot was indeed flat and I sleep much better than the previous night.

Had a little climb out of the gate but went downhill after a while after. The downhill started steep but came to a more gradual decline. We took a pit stop at Carl Newhall Lean-to, I chowed down some trail mix. Lots of squirrels here, a FarOut comment made me chuckle “What the fudge stripe cookie is going on with the squirrels in this state?? So feisty”

The gradual down after the shelter was super fast. There were a few wet boggy spots but wasn’t too bad. We sang some odd ball songs, including the “I’ve been working on the railroad…” with a twist.

In the valley we passed a decent amount of day hikers. There’s an old growth section leading to the brook we’ve been following that seems to be popular.

Just after the old growth is a large river crossing. Luckily it’s shallow and walkable with bear feet so we were able to keep our shoes dry. Lots of day hikers and dogs in this section.

We took our lunch break on the other side of the river to dry feet. Cole accidentally dropped his shoe in the water, no joke 3 feet from the other side. Tons of butterflies around this area. They were landing on all of us and for some odd reason they really loved Nathan’s sock.

The hike up after lunch to Chairback mountain was challenging. A steep ascent up followed by lots of little ups and downs.

Right before the top there’s a rockslide that we climb up. It was the first time since Katahdin that we’ve had to stow away our trekking poles to scramble up. The pictures don’t give the steepness justice.

The view from Chairback was nice, we could see White Cap in the distance. It’s cool to see past peaks/mountains and gauge how far you’ve come.

Our shelter tonight’s just .5 miles from Chairback’s peak. It’s nested in a valley between Chairback and Columbus Mountain, which we’ll climb tomorrow morning. There’s a spring in the middle of the trail that’s hardly flowing but the water is cool and clear. It takes some patience to collect.

Shelters a bit slanted and tent spots are limited. I found a spot nested in some pines that’s pretty good. Nathan and Cole are both on quite the incline and have saggy tent walls. Noah and Maddy are pitched right next to the shelter tucked up against a rock. I on the other hand found a nice spot down a side trail.

We haven’t seen many nobo hikers for try past two days and we’ve assumed that most took shelter from the storm that Hurricane Debby brought through. But it sounds like there was a river crossing that was holding most up. It was chest high, maybe higher, and impassable until this morning. It should be low when we go through 2 days from now.

There’s a new privy being assembled here. They got all the supplies scattered about and cleared some trees for space. For unexplainable reasons they already dismantled the old privy, and by dismantle I mean took a chainsaw to the top and turned it into a convertible

I think everyone’s got a trail names at this point except for me. Noah being Bearbait, Nathan being Juicebox, Cole being Meat Hands, and Maddy being Sleepy. Cole and Nathan are pretty persistent with “blond bandit” for me but it’s got no story other than they both start with the letter “B”. There was some mentioning of “Squirrly” but it hasn’t stuck quite yet.

Everyone’s super tired, including the two older guys that hiked four miles today from the road where they shuttled in. They are characters to say the least. At one point they asked “Hey Sleepy! these your sneakers?!?!?” with a thick Massachusetts accent.