McAfee Hikes

Date Written: 8/19/2024 | AT Mile 188.4 | Day Total: 1.9 miles | Gain: 269 ft

Lazy start to the morning. I sleep in till 7ish, an hour later than normal. I ate some oatmeal and made an ensure while looking outside my tent. Last night the squirrels keep sneaking under my vestibule I search of food. Luckily I hung my food so there’s nothing for them to get into, unless they like toothpaste?

I have a whole 1.9 miles with nearly no elevation to the Maine Roadhouse (a Hostel). I’ll take a Nero here today and resupply. When I walked up to ME27 a nobo was just dropped off coming from there so I called for a shuttle in hopes to save them some driving time. It worked indeed and Jenn was pulling up five minutes later! She was driving a super small manual car that they got from Florida to do the further single rider drives.

The Jenn’s, the owners of The Maine Roadhouse, purchased and renovated the place a few years ago while keeping the hiker hostel tradition. They are located only few miles from Stratton. Jenn was kind enough to stop by the gas station to let me grab some food before we arrive. I happily grabbed a sandwich, raspberry tea and sweetish fish. There’s currently roadwork happening on the road they live on so it’s a SuPeR bUmPy drive.

They gave me a tour and they have a very rustic wooden aesthetic through the place. Tour finished, I jumped into the shower and started a load of laundry. While waiting I laid out my stuff to dry, charged electronics, and had lunch #1. I went downstairs to do dishes and saw a bunch of 2024 hiker pictures on the wall. I asked where the 2023 hikers would be and they brought out a bag of July and sure enough after a little digging…

They have runs into town at 12 and 5 for meals and/or resupply food. There’s some leftover large tins of food in the fridge with salad, and 2 different pastas that were offered for anyone to eat. I decided to indulge after the 12 o’clock shuttle to the grocery store. There was enough of us to take the bus! It has the names of hikers all over the inside.

The small grocery store is jammed packed with food. Plenty of options and I definitely went a little heavy on the food.

Once we got back I microwaved some of the leftover pasta with red sauce. It was yummy. I talked with a group of nobos while I ate and drank my raspberry tea from earlier. One of the hikers 22nd birthday is today! I now understand why one of the hikers grabbed a box of cake mix from the grocery store earlier.

I relaxed and did nothing for the first time in a few days and scrolled through social media. It’s hard to keep up to date with everything going on outside the trail and it can be a bit overwhelming when I have hundreds of unread emails and messages to sort through.

The bunks are decked out with super comfortable mattresses, a privacy curtains your own outlet, night light and fan. There’s 16 bunks in this room all of which are full tonight. There are probably more than 25 hikers staying the night here tonight. Most of which are nobo. There’s one sobo that’s from London but I can’t recall his name at the moment.

I sorted through all my food and grabbed a few things from the resupply store they have at the hostel. My food bags loaded for the next few days. Probably too much food.

5 o’clock rolled around and we took the bus to a pub called Brickyard Hollow. The 9 of us sat together and talked a bit. The bus driver joined us and we talked about his sobo hike last year.

I ordered a burger with sweet potato fries. It hit the spot and was plenty filling. Most of the other hikers are part of a nobo tramily (trail family) and a few others of their tramily showed up mid-dinner to surprise the birthday girl, Birdy.

On the shuttle back to the hostel we signed the bus and listened to every last minute of American Pie at full volume. We all sang and looked out the windows at the trees flying by. This was a happy moment.

Once we got back I scheduled a few more journals and began writing today’s. Meanwhile the Jenn’s had a little surprise for Birdy. They were setting up cupcakes in the shape of the AT logo in the kitchen area.

At 8 o’clock I FaceTimed the family and caught up with them and the rest of the crew at Apple Valley. It was good to see everyone!

Going to bed here shortly after 9. Bed is definitely much more comfortable than the sleeping pad.