6th day on the trail!

I'm in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick currently. I've gone something like 150 miles so far. So far the IAT (International Appalachian Trail) has been a little disappointing. I've been on roads 80% of the time and ATV tracks the rest. The land scape is nice but not beautiful. I guess I'm jaded by the AT. Also it has been about or above 90 degrees every day since Wednesday. I'm now drinking 5-6 liters of water a day compared to my normal 2 liters a day. It doesn't help that I'm exposed on the roads and tracks, there is no more "green tunnel" like on the AT.

This is Simon, he's from Quebec. He is probably the first and last thru-hiker on the IAT I will see. He is planning on going all the way to Mt. Springer in Georgia. I met him in Houlton, ME.

This is Mars Hill in Maine. It is by far the tallest thing around and it is only 1580 ft. It has a 27 wind generator farm on it. Apparently the community is filing a class action law suite against the farm for not being sufficiently notified about the farm and the excessive noise it causes. Also they claim the farm has caused their real estate value to drop.

This area of Maine produces 20% of the potatoes produced in the USA.

This is my brand new tarp tent. It is SO nice and light. It is much larger than our old tent and less than half the weight.

The next morning after that last picture I woke up to find this guy in the camp ground. Luckily he was more interested in rooting out grubs then spraying me.

I had to walk about 12 miles along the U.S. Canadian border. They had these markers every 1/4 mile. I illegally entered Canada to take the picture of the Canadian side.

I found this paw print by my tent in the morning...Just kidding. This was in some dried mud along the border. He was a pretty small bear, probably a yearling.

There are two banes of my existence along the IAT, mosquitoes and beavers. Along the border I came across this beautiful beaver swamp. They had dammed a small stream and flooded the border. I started to cross and quickly found I was waist deep in mud and water. I had to scramble across the ill constructed beaver dam to get past it.

Just when I thought I was past the beaver dam I fell into knee deep mud that I could not get out of. I kept sinking slowly. I finally grabbed a stick and used it to pull my right foot free. Then I stood on it with my right foot while I pulled my left foot out. It took a lot of effort to free myself. Then I still had to cross more bog and mud. This picture shows the entire beaver calamity. I think it was about 1/4 mile long. It took me 30 minutes to get past it.

After the beaver incident I was totally wet and muddy. Thank the IAT angels, there was a BRAND NEW shelter only 1 mile further up. I stayed here that night and it was like coming home. This was exactly like the AT shelters, only nicer.

It even had a covered picnic table and privy.

Me looking cool. I smudged the lens so all the pics from here on out have this cool cloudy effect.

The Andover crossing into Canada! Apparently Canada doesn't really care about us coming in. The guard mostly chit chatted with me. He didn't even want to search my bag and didn't run my passport or want to stamp it. So I guess I only need a passport to get back into the U.S. they are the ones that care.

I'm all the way in Canada, as far as I could possibly be from the South, and here is a Confederate flag. Weird!

This is the Tobique (pronounced Toe-Bic) River. I walked along it for about 30 miles. It was very scenic. The only problem is it's a breeding ground for mosquitoes. They were HORRIBLE!

This is an eagle on the river. I'd like to think it's an osprey but I really couldn't tell at this distance.

I thought this sign was funny. I guess it's their "children at play" sign. It just looks too cartoonie for me. Also did you know that "cul-du-sac" means dead end street in French? I didn't.