With heavy packs and full bellies we made our way up highway 76 for a hitch back to the BMT. We only tried for a few minutes before being picked up by a nice guy named Justin Walker. He actually had travelled to Millinocket when he was in his late teens! Small world. We began our walk into the most secluded portion of the BMT by first doing approximately 6 miles of road/backyard walking through a new development of vacation cabins all over the side of the mountain. This is the reason you should celebrate national trail acts! Every trail might have turned out looking like this one.
Wait... AT community?! What about the BMT?
The downside to this, and that's a topic for another blog, is all the development completely wiped out our water sources for most of the day.
A farm with cows on the road walk.
After finally getting back into the woods, I saw a bear and two coyotes in the closet parts to the cabins. I guess they really do stay close to people. Scat covered the trail and trail signs had been chomped by sharp teeth! After walking a few more miles and finally finding some water, we found a perfect campsite at Hatley Gap and built a fire to scare away any critters that might stop by tonight. The weather is supposed to cool off the next few days so we are hoping to get in bigger miles now that humidity is finally on our side.
NoKey at our great camp with our fire.