Originally written February 26, 2016
Well, I’m home, a little sore but that’s about it. Originally, I was going to hike 10.4 miles, but I added an additional segment at the last minute of 1.7 miles, so I actually hiked 12 miles. Trouble was, that was the most difficult part of the hike, the Devil’s Staircase. It is very steep and very narrow – comfortable for a mountain goat under normal circumstances. Add ice to all the declines and inclines, and it was downright scary. I was extremely glad I brought along my walking sticks and my yak-trax(thank you for them, Mary Lycan). Without them I would have been in big trouble. At any rate, it added additional time to the walk, and Jane and I couldn’t communicate because we were both in cell phone hell. The only thing that kept Jane from calling 911 was that she googled “average pace for hiking” and learned it was 3 mph. She did the math. As it was, I came in at 4 hours, 20 minutes.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 