We are doing a key swap hike today. We are the southbound group and there is another group going northbound on the AT. We have swapped cars back at Colby College before the hour and half drive to the trailheads. Our group of 8 is led by Maniac David, a low key guy. His counterpart, leading 9 going north, is a bit confused on the key swap concept and a couple of us roll our eyes as he tries to figure it out. We get that part right and we are off. Things go well on the drive until we get off blacktop. I am driving a Toyota Corolla with 150,000 miles on it. It is underpowered for this car of 4. When we leave the blacktop, we, once again, have a sheet with cryptic instructions. Look for this landmark and turn. We stop at almost every junction to talk it through. Along the way, we pass many ponds and see 3 moose and many ducks. We manage to find the AT right where it should be.
Now we are on the trail. Somehow, my vision of this trail is much different than what I am seeing. We are climbing much more than I thought we would. We have a 12 mile hike lined up and somewhere about half way we will meet the other group and switch keys. I have a spare set of mine but they wouldn't do much good if my car isn't parked where it should be. How could that happen?
Just a couple hours into the hike, I am shocked to see we are meeting the other group. They must be incredibly fast hikers. No, their leader has led them to the wrong trailhead and cut the mileage by 5 miles. So now we are doing only 7 miles for the day. My eye rolling buddy and I glance at each other for the obligatory eye roll once again.
We swap keys and are on our way. It is close to noon so we are looking for a lunch stop. We decide it best to hike to the top of this mountain and get the climb over with before we eat. We reach what we think is the top and David points through the trees at the real summit, far above and away. Another 30 minutes and we settle down on the bare rock and look out over northern Maine. What a great spot to leisurely eat lunch. We have 5 less miles to hike so might as well linger.
The after lunch hike down is a steep one. It ends at a a pond where we take a break. Several of us get in the water to cool down. David wants to see some AT skinny dipping. That is not forthcoming.
After cooling off and getting geared back up, we are on the trail again. However, due to the snafu with the wrong trailhead, we are at the parking area in minutes. The drive back was uneventful and we arrived back on campus about 4:30, the earliest time yet.
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