Appalachian Trail (day 59) - Cascade Brook to William Brien Memorial Shelter / mile 1398

A low energy day, mosquitoes were in full attack mode.

It was perhaps that I haven't slept very well or some virus or cold was bothering me but my stamina throughout the day was not great. The terrain was also quite demanding with a lot of manoeuvring around boulders and scrambling up and down the hills. The views were very decent tough and weather sunny. There was few water caches along the way which helped a lot.

At about 2 PM I came across a trail magic ran by Fred, a retired military veteran from New York. Apparently he used to go to school with Donald Trump, the age and place were matching so I had no reason to disbelief him. Fred offered me a drink and very tasty homemade banana bread, he also gave me some trail mix for the way, great guy!

Not long after I was going through a well known section called "Lemon Squeezer" a narrow corridor carved into the rock, which some were able to squeeze through but sadly I wasn't, the backpack was too wide and I had to take it off in order to finish. It was a fun and different section, I enjoyed how every now and then Appalachian Trail would throw something like this into the mix.

Trail from here on was wider, grassier and well maintained. I've hiked another 8 miles until the campsite. I managed to claim last decent spot here, all the hikers after me were either moving on to find a place somewhere else or were staying in the shelter. Place was infested with mosquitoes, they wouldn't leave me alone even after spraying myself with deet, so I had dinner as quickly as I could and took a refuge inside the tent where they couldn't bother me anymore.

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