Author Archives: atsioneva

This was supposed to be a triumphant entry, detailing my triumphant return to the trail, but you know, I think Virginia hates me for being a northerner.

The day started out well, with waffles and good conversation at the hostel at 7 am. About 8:45, I slung on the pack and walked down to the ATC office to get my second official photo taken and compare the two; the difference was stunning! I spent a good chunk of time chatting with the employees, one of whom was short and had exactly the same problem on Katahdin as I did! Great people, I didn’t leave until 10am.

That was okay, I decided to do a 12 mile day and get to the Blackburn Center which has bunks and picnic tables. First I had to cross the Shenandoah River, then climb out of the river valley. After that, though, the trail was extremely level, save in a few spots of very mild elevation change. There were stony patches. Sometimes rocky patches. But there was also a lot of dirt, which was very pleasant. 

And there was a trail angel! Steve, or “Friday” was at a road crossing with cold Dasani! Very nice!

But it was my first day back on the trail in a week, with distractingly new scenery and new boots, to boot.  The Virginia woods were making me uneasy – they were decidely deciduous, instead of persistently pine, and there was a carpet of fallen leaves that unseen animals kept crunching. I kept jumping. Did see several deer. Anyway, late in the day, the inevitable happened and I tripped somehow.

When I tripped, this time I fell forward, so the whole weight of the pack was pushing me down. The edge of my rib cage caught the edge of a squarish rock. It kinda stunned me for a few minutes. I was half a mile from a shelter I had just passed and 3 miles from the Blackburn Center. I went on to the Center, because it has a caretaker (with a car and road access) just in case, but carrying the pack, particularly the last mile, really hurt. 
I ate a quick dinner of Spam slices and tortillas (thank you, Wannabes!), and laid down. I have taken ibuprofen, and talked with the caretaker – if I am still hurting in the morning, I can catch a ride back to HF, or stay here another day, or both. He is a very helpful man!

 I am just praying it is better in the morning; it feels like I bruised a rib, and that hurts like the devil, I know from experience. And forget about carrying a full pack! Maybe slackpacking from Front Royal is a possibility, if expensive.

I hike on! (I hope!)

Tom and Alexandra put the ‘everything you need’ in hospitality! My breakfast was happily eggy and cheesy, I enjoyed the rare luxury of using a laptop instead of my phone, and Alexandra would not let me leave until she could feed me some of her excellent cooking for lunch! Man, it was nice to meet her, and to see tmac again after like 20 years!

But eventually, I did have to go, in order to catch my train at Union Station at 4:05. Given yesterday’s events, I held my breath practically the whole way, but there were no glitches, aside from me turning blue. Really. Yeah.

So, Union Station, then an hour and ten minutes later, Harper’s Ferry. A brief visit to the outfitters did not yield the kind of tent stakes I wanted, but a brief visit to the ice cream shop did yield a mint chocolate chip cone, so I was happy. I climbed the steep hill to the Teahorse Hostel where this all began five months ago. Memory crash! There are a fair number of southbound hikers here, and two bicyclists doing the C&O canal trails. I will have company on the hike out tomorrow!

Pancake breakfast at 7 am, then I will visit the ATC headquarters when they open at 9. I am eager to have them take my picture again, so I can compare it with the one they took at the start. I suspect there will be considerable difference. Tomorrow will either be a 11.7 mile day, or a 17, depending on time and terrain.

I hike on!

Dawn broke, and made a loud smashing sound. I woke up. 

My sister and eldest niece had to leave by 7 am to get to a singing event my niece was chosen to attend… Actually, she was one of the few people selected to sing at the opening ceremonies of a new museum in DC. The President and First Lady attended. All politics aside, it is a considerable honor to sing before a President. I am quite proud of her!

But their absence meant I needed to get the other four off to their respective school buses on time. This I did. Then it was time for me to pack up the pack, and to go. Places to go and friends to see, old and new!

Mrs. Joy picked me up at Greenbelt Metro at 11, and it was off to a delicious place of gyros! Sooo tasty. That was planned – whiling a lot of the afternoon at her house was not planned. The best surprises often are not! Caught a nap on her porch, hydrated up, and spent a lot of time talking over past and future hikes. I hadn’t expected to find a trail angel out this way, and yet there she was!

I’m still gazing back in bemused “whattheheckwasthat” mode at what happened next. I was scheduled to meet a very old friend, Tom McManus, out at Reston at 4:30, roughly an hour away by Metro, so Mrs. Joy dropped me off at the New Carrollton metro stop about 3:15. So far so good.

First, there was the broken down subway train at the station ahead of us, 2 or 3 stations in. Time draaaagged while waiting for them to get it off the tracks so ours could move. I was anxious because of dinner reservations at 6pm. Finally, our train got moving again. 

And then there was the fire at Metro Center subway station. This station is THE major hub station, where five or six different lines converge. Having this station shut down completely threw everything into chaos. Our train made it as far as Federal Triangle, the stop just before, and everyone had to get off.

So what is a hiker to do? Along with a group of four others who formed a little clique with me, I bravely blueblazed through the canyons of Washington DC, hiking from one metro stop to the one just past Metro Center, bypassing it completely. At some point my crankiness gave way to their good humor, and we did a lot of joking and laughing through the whole thing, until we had to go our separate ways.

Getting back into a train was not easy either; until some of the bottleneck cleared, sardine cans. Finally I made it to Tyson’s Corner stop at 7 pm; since the reservations at a busy seafood place were long gone, Tom, his wife Alexandra, and I went to an incredible Brazilian steakhouse instead.

Mojito. Shrimp kebob. Steak kabob. Second mojito. Flan. My stomach sang and my head got fuzzy. 🙂 incredible food! More please!

It’d been a long day, so I pretty much crashed and burned in the guest room shortly after we got there. Maybe the mojitos helped that. It was so good to see tmac again rhough, and meet his wife – a very kind, beautiful woman, inside and out.

I travel on.

I’ve done a fair share of trudging city sidewalks and roads in my crocs over the past two days – I have to say, it just doesn’t measure up! Also TV watching, but I will leave that behind as well without a problem. 

Yesterday was supposed to be a trip to REI, and some unfinished dental business, but you know that commercial about American Express? “Don’t leave home without it?” Well, I don’t have AMEX, but I did leave all my credit cards behind by accident, and had to postpone the REI trip until today. Yesterday, I did about 4 or 5 miles, today the same.

Made it out to REI today – a sunny, warm day. I picked up new boots (Keens again), a new stuff sack for my cooking gear (accidentally set the last one on fire), a new fuel canister, and batteries for the headlamp. And a cheeseburger! The walk from College Park back into Beltsville was not hard, just long and humid. Sunburned! The heat and humidity in MD is such a total change from Maine, it is very hard to get used to. Fortunately, I don’t have to.

Tomorrow, lunch with a new friend, I hope, and dinner with an old one. Base of ops shifts briefly to Reston, VA, Friday night to Saturday morning, then the train out to Harper’s Ferry leaves Union Station at 4:05, and I resume the trek on Sunday. Yay!!!

I transition. 

The days after treelining blur together now…  Certainly there was a lot of relief, and a lot of celebration. Oddly enough, my departure from Harper’s Ferry was during the Flip Flop Festival, and my trip up Katahdin was the day before the Trails End Festival in Millinocket, so the days I spent there were much livelier than usual in that town. There were a lot of vendors, food trucks, and excellent music. 

I ended up staying a day longer than I originally planned; logistics worked out so that taking a plane from Boston to DC on Monday was cheaper than taking a train on Sunday. So this I did. Shuttle to Medway to catch a bus to Bangor to catch another bus to Boston. Then subways to the airport, then a plane to BWI, then my sister’s car to get to her house in Laurel at midnight. I was going to say that getting out of Maine is not easy, but in a single day, I covered the distance it took me 5 months to hike.

And it felt all wrong.

And I wanted to enjoy my few hours in Boston, a city I love, but I was edgy and nervous; it was a relief to leave, honestly. Still has excellent seafood though!

I do need a few days off; somehow I twisted my ankle at the hostel, and have an ankle brace on now to let it heal up. Friday, I head back out to Harper’s Ferry, and begin heading south, probably on Saturday.

It still feels all wrong. Looking forward to being back in the trail!

I transition.

Sleep did not come easily to me, or stay very long at a time this night! I didn’t expect it to. I was roused, by previous request, by Baltimore Bob as he and G-man left at 4:45 am. It was still very dark out, but I packed up, by headlight, then went to try to find my bear bag in the dark. Failed at that – I think I need to replace the batteries in my headlamp! Fortunately Slow and Steady and her hiking partner were also up, and his light was bright enough! 

I left at 5:40, before sunrise, while the sky was still a deep, dark indigo. I knew by the time I dropped off my pack at the ranger station (I was slackpacking and only took a day pack), and crossed the park, it would be light enough to hike. It was very cold out though – Maine is definitely signaling a season change.

And so it came to pass. The first 1.3 miles were pretty easy hiking, even wearing gloves (less grip on the poles). The last privy on the trail was at this point, Katahdin Stream Falls; I took advantage, then filled the water bottles and ate breakfast. Thus fortified, I headed on. 

Gradually the trail filled with small, then larger boulders, and finally, rock scrambles over huge chunks of rock. Also gradually, and I don’t know why, my perception of the trail changed from eager wanting to do, to something I had to do, but wasn’t enjoying much at all. Even the rock scrambles which I would normally have enjoyed, I had no enthusiasm for. 

Maybe the lack of sleep was starting to tell. I don’t know. I do know that the return trip was weighing heavily on my mind. Always before, in situations where my fear of heights kicked in, I was able to psych myself up and keep going because I had to, to continue the hike north, but also because once done, it was past me; I would not be returning that way. On Katahdin, neither of those reasons applied anymore.

Perhaps that was why, when I reached the treeline 3.1 miles up, I simply stopped and spent about twenty minutes alternately sitting and staring up above me. A small, curved piece  of rebar was embedded in the rock about my head height; above that, a rebar ‘ladder’ stretched up a bare, extremely high-reaching spire of rock. The head high curved piece of rebar was supposed to serve as a foothold. 

Maybe if I hadn’t been on my own, I could have brought myself to go on. I could not rid myself of the probability of getting stuck up there and not being able to get back down. (This actually did happen to two others summitting that day.)

So, I declared that I had treelined Katahdin, got a picture, and turned back. And on the way down? A pure, complete feeling of utter relief and no regret at all. I climbed Katahdin for 3.5 hours and 3.1 miles. Good enough for me!

I caught a ride into Millinocket 38th thruhiker Dragonhead and his parents (with a happy detour for ice cream), and spent the rest of the day hanging around the hostel – they were almost full, but I got a cot. So very tired, but triumphant. Finito!

I transition. 

Up at 5 am! I left all my gear and tent behind, and strolled over to the kiosk to sign up for my spot at the special, reservation-only shelter for just 12 hikers in Baxter S.P., to find Baltimore Bob and G-man had already been through – we would be summitting the same day! Very cool!

Alas, the rules were that I could not sign up unless I was ready, at that very moment, to hike into the park. Rebelliously, I signed up anyway, but less than a half mile down the trail, my conscience was bothering me enough that I went back to scratch my name out again. Then I went back to Abol Campground, packed up my gear, ate breakfast at 7, then returned to the kiosk, all ready to hike.

No one else had signed on since, so I reused the #3 slot for my info, and walked on – into Baxter. Finally!!!

An easy 10 mile amble. I took my time to enjoy the park and the Maine woods. Some of the early trees are starting to change color. There were two fords on the way, crossing the same river twice; there was also a high water bypass trail that didn’t cross the river at all. I took the latter, and it proved to be one of the fairyland trails, all green-lit by moss and by sunlight through the leaves. It was so beautiful.

Arriving at Katahdin Stream Campground, I first went to check in with the ranger and pay the fee, but he was out, so I walked down to the Birches and set up camp – there were two small shelters, a tent platform that G-man and BB were using, and a handful of tent sites. I opted to shelter, and for a long while, was looking to be the only one in that shelter. (Peter Pan arrived after dark.) Some tented, there was one hammock. There were also bear cables to hang bear bags from, first I had seen since NJ or NY.

When I did go back to register, it was getting close to the time the shuttle from the Millinocket hostel was due, and hikers who had summited Katahdin that day were gathering. I knew many of them, including Spidey, Mercury, and Minion – many others who’s faces I recognized but names I forgot. Congratulations were given, and in some cases, contact info exchanged.

When I went back to the campsite, I had a double serving of carbs in the form of Alfredo pasta sides for dinner – tomorrow was going to be a big day after all! Most of us planned to head out very early – me, I planned to wake up at 4:45 and be on the trail as soon as it was light enough to see the path, but before sunrise. BB and G-man were heading out even earlier. I heard later that some hikers had started at 2 am, so they could see the sunrise up top. I believe it!

We all turned in early, as hiker midnight fell. Big, big day tomorrow!

I hike on!

You are lucky to be getting this post – and so am I! I dropped the phone in the bathroom and it flew into pieces. Amazingly, still works after reassembly.

From the shelter in the morning to Abol Bridge was a span of 15 miles, but, at least at the beginning, there was no reason to hurry, and so I did not – at first anyway.  There were three points during the day I was racing though.

During the day, I kept crossing paths with expert Katahdin-climbing sisters Robin and Patty, who were section-hiking part of the 100MW. I could not remember their names for the life of me, which was embarrassing, so I trail-named them Bird and Hamburger, which I could remember, and which they liked! Truly nice and generous people, I enjoyed hiking and chatting with them. Twice I raced ahead for different reasons, and left them behind, but waited for them to catch up, and once I raced to catch up to THEM. And they turned out to be trail angels, too!

It was not a hard day – 11 miles or so to Hurd Shelter, which was another one with a baseball bat floor. This was one of the points I was hiking quickly – I was very hungry and I very much needed a privy. It was threatening to storm, so I stayed a bit at the shelter while they hiked on, but by racing again, I caught up to them about a mile from the road.

The road. A paved road. Golden Road. Incorporating Abol Bridge, the official end of the 100 Mile Wilderness. THAT road. 3.something miles from the shelter.

As we got closer, my pace got quicker and quicker, and I left them behind again. I could not help it. The road was like a magnet for the feet! When I burst out onto it, I got so emotional.

Sadly, the Abol Bridge Campground, .2 miles down,  was a total ripoff; it cost $27 to stay in a stoney site that bent several of my tent stakes, and they gave me major attitude when I was disappointed they did not sell stakes. Still, the campsite was near a river, and I tossed and turned fitfully (hard ground and chilly night) to the sounds of water. For supper, I had a grilled cheese and ham panini, good, but overpriced. I also enjoyed a beer and a rum & Coke – well, Pepsi. 

And tomorrow? I set an alarm for 5 am and will walk less than a mile to reserve a camping spot at the Birches shelter in Baxter State Park, then walk back here to get the breakfast I paid for. Then I have 10 miles to cover. So close… 

I hike on! 

In my middle is my beginning…

I should be back at the Teahorse Hostel in Harper’s Ferry on Friday. Address is 

General Delivery, c/o Elisabeth Hagen

Teahorse Hostel

1312 W. Washington St., 

Harpers Ferry, WV  25425

Still getting caught up on the blog!

Closer and closer and closer… Even with the late start (9 am) and tougher terrain, I covered 15.8 miles in 9 hours for a personal record! I could feel myself closing in on the goal, and it was energizing my feet and legs! 

Terrain was pretty average for Maine; up on top of Nesuntabunt Mt., there was a scenic overlook with an awesome view across a lake to Katahdin, 16 miles away as the crow flies, about 35 trail miles away. I kept crossing paths with G-man and Baltimore Bob during the day and they took a pic of me with Katahdin in the background.

When I reached the Rainbow Spring Shelter, I opted for tenting; the shelter has a ‘baseball bat’ floor, bumpy round logs laid next to each other. No, thank you. There are a lot of hikers here tonight, most of them tenting as well – fortunately there are a lot of good sites! Getting in at 6 pm, it was dark under the trees by the time I set up camp and made dinner; I needed help finding the privy, even with a headlamp. I think it needs new batteries!

Hopefully rain will not fall tomorrow until after I have packed up the tent, we will see!

I hike on!