Between the Flip & the Flop: Acadia, ER Visits, and Washington DC

This post can originally be found on The Trek, here.

Emergency Room visits!

I am lucky enough to know someone in Maine who was able to pick me up from Baxter State Park. Remember how I mentioned that I noticed a swelling, hot, and painful feeling in my cheek in one of my last posts?

Well by this point, I was convinced it was an infection. So instead of heading home, I was taken straight to the ER from Katahdin.

The doctor in the ER diagnosed it as an abscess which needed to be cut opened and drained. 

The now hole-in-my-cheek was then stuffed with a packing and bandaged

Two days later I returned for the packing to be removed, and given the instructions to keep the would clean and dry and covered.

Post-Katahdin Adventures

I then proceeded to hang out in Maine for 4 days letting my face heal. My family friend took me down to her sisters house in Bay Harbor, from where we could explore Acadia (I had been told it was an absolutely beautiful National Park). We spent some time hiking and biking and we drove around a scenic road, but unfortunately the weather while we were there was less than ideal (a storm was coming in), so I didi not get the views I was hoping for. I still had a great time though (evenings were spent playing cribbage, having ping-pong tournaments, trying my very first lobster rolls, and eating ice cream). 

Eventually the time came for me to begin my journey back to Harpers Ferry, where I would begin the second half of my hike.

How to get from Maine to Harper Ferry

The easiest way I found was to catch a bus out of Bangor, ME (you can get a shuttle from Millinocket to Bangor) to Boston, then take a train from Boston to Washington DC, then a train from Washington DC to Harper’s Ferry.

Washington DC

Instead of going straight to Harpers Ferry, I stayed a few extra days in Washington DC, visiting friends and letting my cheek heal some more (trying to lessen the odds of reinfection upon return to the trail).

Comically, even though I stayed in DC to try and stay healthy, while I was there I was stung by a bee on my finger (I am allergic so I had to immediately run to the store for antihistamines)

…and then the friends whom I was staying with tested positive for Strep, so I had to go to the doctors again to get tested (luckily, I tested negative).