From the bridge at 2183 to Monson at mile 2080 is 103 miles. That stretch is known as the 100 Mile Wilderness.
Originally people walked the lumber roads and got to the state park that houses Katahdin. The trail was built up over time and now there are no road walks.
The northern half is fairly flat. Guys like Tyrannosaurus (named for his short arms) just blaze through it. It has nice shelters and great trail.
Except for the water crossings. You will ford between three and seven streams (depending on rain). You may or may not also have to survive swarms of mosquitoes and interesting bog bridges four foot over deep and mucky water.
We had rain going in which disrupted the mosquitoes so we had none. Lady Di, Ninja Mouse and others who we met as they left the wilderness had really suffered.
On the other hand we had the full water crossing experience. I even lost a pole that floated off downstream when I fell.
The forest service removes the nylon cables that people string because they do wear out with time and start to fail. I got lucky with the ones I found that they hadn’t gotten rid of yet.
After my fall I started just crossing in my shoes instead of bare feet or camp shoes. My trail runners got wet but would dry out as I hiked. The trail runners also gave me surer footing.
I did forget a pair of socks I had hung to dry in a shelter. Somewhere that pair of darn toughs made someone happy (you can trade them in on the lifetime guarantee).
We used the shelters through the wilderness though we camped as well depending on mileage.
At the northern end our cluster included two army guys (one a ranger) an LL Bean employee hiking with her mom, and John Monk an all natural powerlifting competitor.
The one army guy was geared too light. He had a gatewood cape to serve as his rain layer, warmth layer and tent. He also had only four days of food. He took six days to cross the wilderness. He was lucky the rest of us fed him (though he never asked for food and did not yogi).
The other guy was too heavy. For example. He carried a seven pound emplacement tool instead of a trowel. He eventually realized a little less weight wouldn’t hurt.
The mother carried margaritas for the trail.
When I lost a pole John “Chip” Monk let me borrow his so I would have two and hiked with one. With his permission I modeled a Paladin off of him for a module.
The south half of the wilderness is rougher. It routes over the chairbacks, mountain terrain without views.
We spent one night at a shelter with a group that had basically stalled. One had bad sleep apnea. Every time he quit breathing I woke up. Then he would start again right before I would start CPR. I had a lousy night’s sleep.
At the end we were going to stop at the Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to. There was a really “off” guy there and so we hiked almost six more miles to Monson, finishing in seven days.
“Off” ax in I asked directions to the water (he already had gotten some) and he sent me over a cliff instead of pointing out the trail. The trail was obvious on the way back, just hidden from the shelter.
Monson had a great hostel, a camp store with hiking poles (I returned Chip’s poles) and food.
From Monson we headed south.
I lost entries from this stretch to some sort of server glitch.
There was very little internet though there was one hilltop that had a five foot circle with great reception.