Mahoosuc Traverse Recap- A Taker of Souls

Me+New England: A Relationship History 

Every single summer of my life I’ve travelled to Rhode Island for my annual family “picnic”. The picnic is a family reunion of sorts that my family on my moms’ side gets together for the last Sunday in July every year. We assemble at my grandmas house- otherwise known as the house “down rivah” and feast on stuffed quahogs, clam chowder, and a plethora of Polish foods plus whatever our family/friends bring with them (peanut butter squares most famously). 

My first time hiking in Maine came in 2017 when I drove to the Mahoosuc area while visiting friends in central Maine. Every year since then I’ve tried to tack on some type of New England Mountain objective in the days after my family reunion. These objectives took me to the mountains of New Hampshire, New York, and Maine. In many ways my taste for ultra endurance efforts were born in these mountains when I completed the Presidential Traverse in 2018 and the Pemi loop in 2019. I also attempted the Great Range Traverse one year but bailed because of crappy conditions from tons of rain the night before my attempt. At the time, I still didn’t identify as a runner when but was rapidly realizing that big days in epic places were what excited me the most. 

Fast forward to this year, I made time to stay an extra 6 days after my family reunion with the goal of completing another big effort somewhere in New England. I knew my mom would be with me so I wanted to make sure I also found some hikes that were suited for her and we could create some memories on.  I figured I’d research the weather the week of to see what regions were the driest and best suited for a big effort. Most of that plan got thrown out the window when my cousins offered us a free place to stay at their condo in Sunday River, Maine. When I googled it I learned that it was snuggled beneath the Mahoosuc Land Preserve in Maine and decided that the Mahoosuc Traverse would be my goal. We arrived in Maine on a Tuesday and I ran a section of the AT just north of the traverses’s start. I did and out and back to Baldpate mountain to check out the conditions (sloppy but not especially so, just about what you’d expect on the AT if not a bit better). My mom relaxed in the car and read her book until I returned. After my run I took her on a short and steep hike up table rock to enjoy some views. Then we drove back into Bethel and got some deeeeeelicious banh mi and noodles at a banging restaurant named Le Mu. Back home to pack the snacks and mix the drinks and then bed before 10. All together I packed around 800 calls of liquid nutrition (tailwind and skratch), 1100 cals in gels, and 1670 cals in real food (pringles, gold fish, Cheerios, peanut mms, and chips ahoy) for a total of around 3500 calories. I also brought around 18 saltstick electrolyte tabs and some chewable pepto tablets to avert stomach problems.

We woke up at 515 or so and I ate a muffin and almond butter biscuit bar for brekkie along with some water. I downloaded google maps and all trails on my mom’s phone the night before but she passed out before I could explain how they worked to her-this was a mistake on my part. My mom and I have a bit of history when it comes to technological explanations-lets just say I’m not the most patient with her and she’s not the best under stress. This lead to an hour or so of explaining the basics of alltrails/google maps and having her repeat my actions back to me to ensure she didn’t get lost and would be able to pick me up if there was no reception. 

The Run Itself 

We arrived around 6:45 AM, Mom snapped a less than enthusiastic picture of me at the trailhead. We should’ve gotten a picture together but I was quite impatient at that point. Departed at 6:54 and forgot to situate my pack before I started my watch so I had to stop for a minute and make sure everything was snug. The first climb up Old Speck wasted no time in gaining elevation. I managed to cover around 3 miles and 2300 feet of vert in the first hour. The temps were good to start-mid 50s or so with a high in the low 70s so I was hopeful things wouldn’t feel too hot throughout the effort. At the summit of Old Speck there is a neat lookout tower to enjoy the views from. I shimmied up it and snapped a few pictures of the bluebird day. After Old Speck came another peak or two and then I stopped to filter water at a pond around mile 5 (not the easiest spot to fill and had an easier one just ahead but I digress). Around mile 6  I ran into an Australian couple who recognized me from my run the day before. They were on the last hike for their triple crown (AT, PCT, CDT) and only had 200 or so miles to finish. They detoured around Vermont because of the crazy flooding and worked their way south from Mount Katahdin in Maine. We chatted about how crazy the terrain in Maine is and how it takes a special type of person to live there. I asked them to compare their experience on the trails and we chatted about the ins and outs of each. I can’t remember their trail names for their life of me which disappointed me. I want to say one was corky or sparky or something to that affect. We chatted while filtering water at a very refreshing and accessible stream.Our conversation took around 10 minutes and they mentioned that the Mahoosuc Notch was coming up which left me excited.

The Mahoosuc Notch is known as the “hardest mile” on the Appalachian Trail. I knew it would be slow going, but purposely did little research on its specifics other than knowing that it overlapped the traverse. This mile of the Traverse was by far my favorite of the entire day. Despite it taking around 35 minutes, I was moving efficiently and playfully while having a blast navigating through it. The mile makes you bob, weave, hop, and skip in, on, around, and through a mossy boulder field of sorts. There are multiple “notches” to shimmy between/under/through. At times you can attempt to climb over the boulders to avoid the tight spaces altogether. Despite the slow going nature of the mile, it was a blast to travel through it and I felt like a kid playing on the world’s oldest outdoor jungle gym for most of the time. The only setback came when I made a stupid move on a slick boulder and my right food slid down the rock, pushing my big toe towards my shin and leaving me with a bit of a niggle for the rest of the run. 

After coming out of the Notch around mile 8, I ran off route and accidentally joined the Mahoosuc Notch loop trail rather than splitting left to stay on the Mahoosuc Traverse route (which for most of the trail was also the AT). The route was flowy and I was running smoothly for the first time in miles. I was having too much fun rediscovering my legs and it took me a whole half mile of running before I realized my mistake by spotting a blue blaze (the AT is always a white blaze). My best guess is that I passed an AT thru hiker right by the signage and was paying more attention to her response than the trail markers. From the beginning of the day I had decided to make a point of asking the AT thru hikers their trail names. Later I started to ask about the stories behind their trail names as well. I figured this would be a fun way to interact with thru hikers, hear some funny stories, and keep my mind distracted from the difficulty of the task. Names ranged from mimic to bookmark to lil fruity to captain ahab to corky to moon to Willie Nelson (looked just like him) to tinker to meta to racehorse and my two favorites-cat in the hat and Tofts (an acronym for “too old for this shit”). It was a fun game to play and I definitely want to do something similar for future long efforts, I found the conversation and smiles helped my mindset heaps. 

From basically mile 9 onwards (about three hours in) I felt like I was just moseying along and moving without any conviction. Between my left ankle that I came into the effort with at only 90% and the right foot that I tweaked on the run, it felt like I was hopping back and fourth between two less than ideal options. I felt I couldn’t ever find a lasting rhythm because of the technical nature of the trail. Despite this, I was determined to minimize my stops and to be perpetually moving forward throughout the day, figuring it would be good practice for my upcoming 100 mile race. Around Mile 17 and 7700ish feet of climbing, I caught up to two other trail runners that I heard the Aussie couple say something about earlier. It was on one of the many climbs of the day that I caught them. This perked me up a bit and convinced me that maybe I wasn’t moving like hammered dog shit after all. I mingled with them for a bit before pulling ahead. They caught back up to me a mile or so later when I was (unsuccessfully) looking for more electrolytes/liquid calories in my pack. 

This proved to be an important a lesson from the day-bring more liquid calories and just more calories in general. I only brought around 3500 for my 10.5 hour outing (350 per hour ish). This sounds nice but I typicaly run and train on 400 calories an hour for races and just needed more salty snacks/electrolytes in general. By the end of the day I ended up popping around 18 s cap salt caps because of my lack of liquid calories in the second half of the run. I had 400 cals in tailwind to start between two 600 ml flasks and then brought  200 extra cals of tailwind and maybe 150 cals of skratch with me. I should’ve loaded at least another 500 cals of tailwind in my bag for both the calories and (probably more importantly) for my electrolyte levels. The lack of calories were most notable in the negativity of my thoughts and lack of enjoyment throughout lot of the run. Obviously taking on big efforts is hard, can hurt, and is not something a lot of people think of as fun. Despite these things, I can genuinely say that I’ve had the most fun times of my year in racing and trying big days and that I genuinely do find enjoyment in them. This day felt different.

From about hour 6 on I was just out there suffering despite my best efforts to stay positive and upbeat. Slight boosts in mood came from passing the other runners and from putting on music (which I did on and off for the final 5 hours) but nothing worked for long. The traverse was by far my longest negative stretch of thought since my 100k at Zion in spring of 2022 if not ever. 

The last 10 miles felt like an eternity. All I could picture in my mind was the look on John Fegyveresi’s face as he stumbled in on his fifth and final Barkley loop with 18 minutes to spare. The moment occurred in 2012 and was captured in the first Barkley Marathons documentary (at least the first I’m aware of)-The Barkley Marathons: The Race that Eats Its Young. Fegyveresi or “Fegy” as he’s referred to, is stumbling forward into camp after 59 hours and 42 minutes of racing. He’s carrying a stick that he found on course and has used as a trekking pole for close to 24 hours. It looks more like Gandalf’s staff than anything you’d want to use for hiking. He hasn’t slept a single minute in over 60 hours. He has been out there alone for most of the last two laps (over 24 hours) and is at a considerable disadvantage being a Barkley Virgin (first time racer) and alone. The look on his face as he swivels his hips and wiggles his way forward is something that gets me emotional every time I watch the damn movie. The look he has as he slumps back into a lawn chair after touching the famous yellow gate and finishing the race is priceless. He knows he gave every single ounce of effort out there over those days and that it granted him his dream of becoming a Barkley finisher. 

I’m definitely not as tough as him and this definitely wasn’t the Barkley marathons (or anything close for that matter), but for many hours that image was my North Star. The image kept my feet moving forward as I willed myself to pass the miles by one after the other. I expected to finish in 28 miles, it ended up being 31. The final two were on a dirt road. I took every bit of effort I had just to get back to the trailhead. Eventually, 10 hours and 27 minutes later, I arrived.  I chugged some Powerade and ate a cliff bar before I could engage with my mom and tell her about the day. It was epic, I loved it, and despite the negative internal difficulties for most of it, I’m grateful in turned out just the way it did. I learned some lessons, had some fun, and checked a longtime goal of mine off of the list. The Mahoosuc Traverse humbled me and I’m already anticipating my trip to New England next year. If you’ve made it this far through my ramblings-kudos to you and thank you. I promise to make the next one shorter!