Appalachian Trail 2022

Rangeley in the Rattle River outside Gorham, NH

Roaming Rangeley Summer 2022

AT Day 1 & 2   Aug. 22 & 23, 2022

Elizabeth:

We stopped at The Public House in Gorham for a late afternoon meal. They let Rangeley go inside! The staff and owner love dogs. They offered him water and a dog bed! Very fun! Good food.

Gary went shopping for Trail Magic food at Walmart after checking into our hotel. Trail Magic is when you offer food and/or services to thru hikers on the Appalachian Trail (AT). It can be rides to town or to hostels; leaving food and drinks where the hikers can take it as they pass by on the trail or in our case, setting up food and drinks on a picnic table and hanging out for hours as the hikers come through and stay a while enjoying the offerings. Thru hikers are doing the over 2,100 miles, usually from Georgia to Maine, without stopping or getting off trail for more than a day or two. If you do the AT in sections, over a long period of time, over years, let’s say, then you are called a Section Hiker.

In the morning we drove the roughly 35 miles into Maine, from our hotel in Gorham, NH, to the AT’s Grafton Notch parking lot. There are other places to stay between the trailhead and our Hotel, The Town and Country Inn, but Gorham is bigger (grocery store, café’s and restaurants) and they allow Rangeley. Best of all, there’s an ATV path behind the hotel that we can walk to in the evening so he can let let off some steam before bed.

Gary set up a small camping propane stove and made scrambled eggs with red peppers, cheese and ham for whomever wished to enjoy a hot breakfast. Every one of the 10 hikers that joined us today took him up on it. We had a cooler of lemonade, Cokes and milk. And there were plenty of odds and ends from my conference in Asheville recently like Jerky, candy, sunglasses, socks, lip balm, Band-Aids and more for the taking.

Coming from Phoenix “You know you are in rural New England when…”

• You see large wood piles for wood stove heating beside all the homes

• You pass $5 bundles of wood for sale for campers

• Fresh fruit and veggie stands on the side of the road with a single cash box to pay. No sales person

• Homemade Whoopie Pies are available everywhere!

• 1800’s cemeteries are common with local granite headstones

• Maple, pine, spruce and birch trees thick abound along the roadside and covering the rolling mountains at every view

• Semi-tractor trailer logging trucks full of 40 ft long fresh cut trees

• Antique stores in what used to be an 1800 homestead or barn. With half their stuff permanently on the porches outside!

• Christmas tree farms

• Corn fields – the old saying in Vermont, when I was growing up, was the fields were in good shape if they were, “knee high by the 4th of July“.

• Snow blowers for sale at the end of a driveway

• Moose Crossing signs

• Doing Trail Magic for 10 thru hikers that have walked 1900 miles on a mostly wooded foot path called the AT… they still have over 250 miles to go and they are smilin’!

• A guy pulls up to join us doing trail magic. Inviting us to dinner at his house moments after meeting us.

• Road sign: Bethel, Maine, incorporated 1786

• 4-point buck standing on the side of the road! (I couldn’t get my phone out fast enough, sorry!)

• 1876 wooden covered bridge.

AT Day 3    8/24/22

Elizabeth:

We went back to Grafton Notch AT parking lot again today to scramble eggs, give out muffins, croissants and cookies to the AT thru hikers again.

Being Trail Angels…people giving out Trail Magic…is so fun. The thru hikers are so appreciative. A simple hair band, Band-Aid, orange, banana, hot eggs and sausage or a cold soda makes their day. Fresh, cold, or hot food is not packable so it’s often not enjoyed for days or weeks at a stretch for some hikers. We only had about 8 hikers today. They usually stay an hour or more. Several day hikers came over to us to chat as well.  One mom brought her 5 yr. old son over after he saw the Trail Magic sign I had placed in the woods to direct the hikers to the picnic tables where we were.  He wanted to know what we were doing (honestly I think he was disappointed that there was no traditional “magic”) The thru hikers explained and we showed him the food and drinks we were giving the hikers. Then a woman from California, in a camper van pulled in and asked if she could join us to give out food and drinks she had brought as well. She thru hiked last year and the current thru hikers were thrilled to learn more about the upcoming terrain and possible resupply towns ahead from yet another experienced hiker in addition to Gary. Gary also learns what has changed over the years and how others have done their own thru hikes. This newcomer also had PBR! (Pabst Blue Ribbon beer) to give out which is always welcomed by thru hikers…cold, free alcohol…when asked, the answer is always a resounding…hummm, ummm…yes please! We’re always amazed how the beer we drank in our younger years is a favorite of the now 30 somethings yet again, 40 years later! 

I love the stories a group of, once total strangers, tell each other. It’s like we’re all family. The common link is the trail but each person’s experiences or reason for walking over 2,100 miles varies to a large degree. Some are age 19 and others are mid 60’s. Male and female; walking alone or preferring to form a trail group by collecting 5 or more of their newest friends along the way.  Some take 4 months to complete and others walk for 7 – 12 months taking their time. All successful thru hikers have one thing in common. They know it’s not just a physical adventure, it’s a mental challenge. Almost anyone can hike the 2,100 miles, but the ones that continue, the ones that actually finish, they want to take the journey and have a lot of internal motivation to complete it.

A trail name, the nickname you give yourself or more often the one you are given while on the AT, is always a fun topic. “Sergeant Pepper” got her name due to accidently being bear sprayed by a 4 yr old child in a packed car of hikers being shuttled into town. “Stardust” got her name from the 2007 movie Stardust, and “Amazon” got his name due to the shirt he wore for a long time at the beginning of the hike resembling an Amazon driver’s uniform. Gary’s trail name is “AZ” for Arizona.

We offered rides to three thru hikers going to Bethel, ME which is on our way back to our hotel. They had not pre-scheduled a shuttle. AT shuttles are provided by people that publicly (on a bulletin board in a hostel or at a grocery store for eg.) advertise they will transport hikers from a hostel or hotel to/from the trail or they are residents of a nearby town that will bring hikers to a grocery store, laundry mat, restaurant, etc. Some charge and do the shuttling as a job, like an Uber driver, some volunteer their time.  One can almost always get a ride (possibly free or for a charge) via the well known hiker App. Guthook. In our case, it was a last-minute decision to pile three hikers and three large back packs of roughly 30 lbs each into our car with Rangeley, Gary and I, two large coolers and all the trail magic supplies. I might mention that we only have four seats total so it was a Tetris game fitting us all in! : ) We took them to a grocery store, waited a half hour and then on to the hotel they had booked. It was a really fun and rewarding day for all. I admire their stick-to-itiveness on this grand adventure!

Yesterday and today I stopped at two different antique shops. I bought a Pewter tea pot that I will use as a flower vase and I bought some flatware that I use for serving when family or friends have a meal with us. I love late 1800’s to early 1900’s furniture, dishes and silverware. At home, I have a small collection of antique crocks, jugs & potty pickle barrels and a few Pewter pieces. My mom was born and raised in Norwich, Vermont. She and her side of the family all loved New England county styles. Braided rugs, Amish style, simple country furniture etc. I followed suit. I have lived and loved Farmhouse Chic, decades before it became a fad! : )

The Gorham House of Pizza is where we had our main meal today. It’s been closed the last two days and is open today. The picnic tables out front made for a great dog friendly spot to enjoy pizza and Greek salad.

Tonight, Gary will take the car to get it washed and I will do laundry, clean all the bins, plates, fry pan, etc. from Trail Magic and get us packed up after three days of being in the same hotel. 

Tomorrow we are off to Holmes County, Millersburg, Ohio to visit our Amish friends who are Rangeley’s breeders.

Thanks for reading along.

Once the travel bug bites, there is no known antidote….unknown