Day 18 Apr 19 NOC Day!

Day 18 Apr 19 Days miles 8.5 AT mile 139.4

Stayed at nice stealth site

The goal of the day was to get to the NOC and get our resupply and then find a site on the climb out for the night, which we did but was hard.

There was a big climb before dropping into the gap and some parts of it were a narrow cliff like ridge, like 5 feet wide!

Before I explain anymore I want to define some terms used on the trail down here.

Bald - This is the top of a mountain that is Bald and is or was a field used possibly to graze cattle.

Stamp - We past several stamps, Poplar Stamp, White Oak Stamp and so on. We are quite sure this is just a stand of trees of one type.

Lick - Have no idea yet but some are also a Gap which I discuss below.

Knob - Some mountains are named a knob like Kelly Knob. Have not figured this out yet but some are higher than some mountains!

Ridge - Just that it is a high piece of land that connect mountains together, the AT travels along the side of ridges alot keeping you high up in elevation which is nice.

Gap - This is the AT four letter word. Down here mountains are connected by ridges and you don't have go all the way down to ground level. A Gap is just that, a gap in a Ridgeline and if low enough there will be a road. The issue is these gaps can drop the trail several thousand feet and quick. Going down and back up out of a gap is brutally hard compared to most of the mountains and knobs!

Things are getting green finally.

This is the trail to the NOC and some of it.

Now going down and out of the gap where the NOC is was the worst one yet. We are glad to be past it! We managed to climb up and out of the NOC gap 2 miles to a camp site with water, had about 7 other hikers join us that night.  I'm glad Jen got me some ear plugs as some people's sleep pads make loud squeeking noises!

Allagash finally settled with her new camp friends.