Date: 2004-09-16
From: Speck Pond Campsite ME

To: Andover ME
Miles today: 14.9
Weather: scattered clouds

09/16/2004GatherSlept in my tarp last night, early this morning just before daylight I felt something moving around under the tarp beside me. I was very still, I felt it walk over my legs and away it went. Never did see what it was, sure as hell wasn¢t a chipmunk either!! I think it was a porcupine!! Whatever it was must have slept with me!! That¢s the problem with a tarp when both ends are open.Get up, cook, eat and pack up. We all hit the trail, pretty day today. But I¢m told that won¢t last long, Mr. Ivan¢s rain is headed for us, maybe tomorrow.Maine is a very beautiful state. Lots of bogs, marshes and wetlands, ponds everywhere. Around the ponds the trail consists of boards and logs, kind of like back in NJ. But these suckers are slick, and if you step off one into the mud it will take a crane to get you out, minus your shoes of course.Head up the Old Speck trail 3,985 ft, cross several brooks. Come to Grafton Notch, ME Hwy 16, 1,495 ft. Keep pushing. Pass by Baldpate Lean-to, 2,660 ft. Climb Baldpate Mountain (west peak) 3,662 ft. Climb up Grafton Loop trail 3,810 ft, keep pushing.Pass by Frye Notch Lean-to 2,280 ft, easy going. Go by Dunn Notch. Hitch a ride into Andover ME, 8 miles to town. We get into Andover, can¢t find a place to stay. Met a man who told us if we would work on a house he was fixing up we could all stay there tonight. So we go to work, cleaning out the place. We do good work, didn¢t take us long to get it done.There¢s a little diner here, ¢Snow Valley Friendly Diner¢, good place to eat. We find out they have a PANCAKE challenge every morning!! They serve three pancakes, if you eat all three, they are FREE!! I going to do the pancake challenge in the morning. Being on this trail has made me think fast and wise (except for Mount Washington). I see the lady cook back in the kitchen cooking.So I sneak around back and tell her I¢m going to take the pancake challenge in the morning. She tells me they are HUGE!! I ask her if it¢s possible if she could go easy on the size of my order when I come in to do the challenge in the morning. She said not a problem, she will fix me right up!! She¢s such a nice lady. Makes me feel good to have an edge on things for a change. I call home and tell mom and dad about the pancake challenge in the morning.We go back to the vacant house and turn in, I go off to sleep with pancakes on my mind.Speck Pond Campsite ¢ to ¢ Andover Maine ¢ 14.9 miles1,917 miles behind me256 ¢ miles to go before the big ¢K¢ - Yahoooooo!!TO BE CONTINUED ¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦¢¦..09/16/2004SlimerWake up to a splashing sound? Get up real quite, peep through the hunting blind, there are two moose in the pond eating something off the bottom of the pond. They seem to be having a grand ole time. I sat there and watch them a while. Finally I get up and eat a bagel with peanut butter. Pack up and head out.Come to trail head, flagged down a truck, I ride in the back. Man drops me off at the IGA grocery store in Rangeley Maine. I go in and re-supply, get something to eat.As I¢m coming out of the store a truck pulls up, man asks if I need a ride back to the trail head. These people in Maine are something else, great people, always trying to help you.I hop in. The man asks if I mind if he takes a little detour. He has some property he is looking after.His name is Allen Wicken. We go by some beautiful lakes, Lake Rangeley. He says there¢s world class lake trout fishing there, people come from all over the world to fish the lake. Guide service is a big business here he says. He has a web site he says, www.downeastupcountry.com. Says his nick name is Bert, he took me to a lodge he was care taking. Beautiful lodge. It¢s on the market he says for 2 million dollars! He takes me through every room, grand place it is. This is truly a sportsman¢s paradise. I tell him what a nice place Rangeley is, he said come back next month and I might change my mind! This place will be snowed in solid until spring. If you live here you had better like to ski or you will go crazy in the winter.I notice most all the roofs were metal and had a very sharp pitch to them to handle the weight of the snow and ice.He takes me back to the trail head and drops me off, I get out and another guy pulls up with a cooler full of food, asks me if I need anything! I take a few things from the cooler. Before I can get in the woods another car stops and asks if I need a ride into town! Can you believe these nice people up here!!Head into the green, push hard. Go by Sandy River, come to Piazza Rock Lean-to. Meet a lady here, very pleasant person. We talk awhile, I ask her if she would sign my guest book when she gets home so mom and dad will know I¢m ok. Her name is Sue Cates.I keep digging north. Climb Saddleback Mountain 4,120 ft, go across Saddleback Junior 3,655 ft. I hear a grunt, it¢s getting late, almost dusk. I look and standing in the trail 20 ft in front of me is one huge bull moose!! He stares at me, I stare at him, he wins!! I step off to the side of the trail, get my camera out and take a couple of pictures of him. One majestic animal he is! He walks right by me, looks at me as he walks by and grunts at me. Then he just walks on down the trail slowly, taking his time.I keep pushing, make it to Poplar Ridge Lean-to, call it a day here. Eat some snacks I bought and settled in for the night. The lady I met on the trail said Frances is supposed to hit here tomorrow night. Really looking forward to that.South Pond ¢ to ¢ Poplar Ridge Lean-to ¢ 12.8 miles.09/17/2004SlimerWake up, getting colder as the days go on, hard to get out of the warm bag and get moving. Eat, pack up and hit the trail.Cross Orbeton Stream Ford 1,550 ft, climb Lone Mountain 3,260 ft. Go by the Spalding Mountain Lean-to 3,140 ft. Meet Short Stick SOBO (south bounder) from Ohio.Meet up with Alabama, he¢s slack packing, the term slack packing means, a hiker hooks up with someone with transportation, he leaves his big pack with them and carry¢s a small light weight pack. The person with the vehicle meets him at a trail head and takes him back to the section where he left off, they rack up some big miles this way. I haven¢t done any slack packing the entire trip.Alabama says a big party is going on in Caratunk ME, One Leg and Baltimore Jack is there he says. Everyone is heading there, not me I¢m pushing north, don¢t need any distractions now.Met up with a guy, said he had served in Viet Nam. H e said he and a group of veterans went back to Viet Nam a few years ago and rode across the country on bicycles for a fund raiser. He said it was televised and had run on TV several times.Allen Wicken was his nameBeautiful little red squirrels all over the place, smaller than a gray squirrel, with stripes down their sides. Friendly fellows, will walk right up to me, I feed them peanuts.Met up with a very strange character, heard him before I saw him, I could hear what sounded like hallelujah, amen, praise the lord brother? I see this man bouncing down the trail chanting these words. I stop and talk to him, he gives me a nasty dirty do-nut, don¢t feel good around him at all, very strange he is. I ask when I get to the high way, do I go right or left to Stratton ME? He thinks a bit, looks up and said, Brother, just stick out your thumb, and go far north brother, hallelujah, amen, praise the lord brother, and on down the trail he goes chanting this over and over. I¢m thinking he¢s been in the woods too long!! I throw the do-nut away. I keep digging, I want some distance between me and this character!! That man looked just like Charles Manson, I¢m hoping he¢s still in prison!!Come to the trail head , Hwy 27, road to Stratton ME, Frances is supposed to hit with her rains tonight. Hitch a ride into town. Stay at the White Wolf Inn, only $25.00 a night, they mostly cater to hunters and fisherman. Turn in and get some sleep.Poplar Ridge - to ¢ Stratton Maine ¢ 21.5 miles09/18/2004SlimerI¢m at the White Wolf Inn, in Stratton Maine, poured rain all night long, roaring sound it was raining so hard. I do hope Gather was in a shelter last night, its cold, wet and miserable out there.Everything flooded this morning, lucky me, warm and cozy here at the Inn!!Stratton is a wonderful little town. Hardware store across the street, the other half is a grocery store. Tavern near it, bunch of hikers are over there whooping it up, can hear them from here.Must be 40, ATV- 4 wheelers in town, they ride them around all the time, police don¢t bother them, probably not a police dept here anyway. Denton is much bigger than Stratton. If someone from Stratton came to Denton they would think they were in the big city for sure.Go over to the hardware store, set and talk to the locals, real nice people. They ask me questions about where I¢m from and what Denton is like. I pull out the copy of the Denton Orator and they read it, they liked it. One man said why can¢t we have a paper like this. I told them I would speak to Toni Ayers, maybe she will move up here and start up the Stratton Orator.They ask how big the population in Denton is, I tell them around a 1,000 people, I tell them as long as I can remember the population has been around 1,000. One man asks how come it stays around a 1,000?? I tell them the only thing I can think of is ¢That every time a baby is born, a man leaves town¢ They get a hoot out of that. I leave the copy with them to read as I hated to take it away from them.Many thru-hikers in town, ¢Pegasus¢ ¢Pop-Up¢ ¢T-Bot¢ ¢Sunshine¢ ¢Boo-Boo¢ ¢Podini¢ ¢Sabatini¢ ¢Bramble¢ ¢Gordy¢ ¢Ghia, and many others. Wonder where Free Bird is?Wipe-Out is about a week ahead of me. I almost broke my neck trying to keep up with her, finally said to hell with it and let her go. She is one hard charging gal. Maybe that¢s what¢s wrong with Gathers Knees, he hiked with her about a month. Wipe-Out is from Calif, she is a surfer and snow boarder, bet she¢s good at it too!Been meeting lots of hikers with health problems. Some kind of illness going up and down the trail, some say it¢s bad water. Putting a lot of good hikers off the trail.Met one hiker down the trail setting on a rock with his head in his hands, said he had seen a doctor and was diagnosed with Lyme disease , said he felt awful, he¢s getting off the trail. Man that¢s a heart breaker, come all this way and a tiny tick puts you off the trail!!I¢m sad for him, I can imagine how he feels.I call home, dad tells me Paparazzi is holed up in a hotel down the trail sick too!! Man I hope Gather and I don¢t get this mess, we both sent our water filters home, still got my water purifying tablets though. Mom and dad brings me up to speed on the world news, tells me Gather is about 2 12 days behind me. I tell dad he better start picking it up, dad says let him walk his own hike, he¢ll make it. I ask dad again if I should wait on him, dad says no, keep pushing north. Dad did say when I got within striking distance of Katahdin to call him at the last stop before Katahdin and he will advise me where Gather is at. Dad said he will be here to meet me, then we can make the decision whether or not to wait on Gather. Dad does want us to summit together, but also he does not want to hold me up. Bad weather could hit anytime now he says, keep digging north at my own pace.Carp is about a day ahead of me. I¢m taking a Zero day today, just goofing off. Next stop will be Caratunk or Monson ME, haven¢t made up my mind yet. Monson is the beginning of the 100 mile wilderness, then it¢s Katahdin baby!!Dad tells me Will Ward, Gathers friend called and asked about him, said he was concerned about Gather with all the flooding up this way, I¢m a little concerned too since he sent he tent home. I haven¢t had a tent since Damascus VA, but I have got used to scheduling myself, I got caught a couple of times in the rain at night.The link to the Denton Orator is below if anyone wants to take a peek at it, Toni Ayers and the Orator staff do a great job following Gather and I as we make our way north.Thank you Toni Ayers, all the Orator staff and all the people who are following Gather and I in the Denton Orator and on trail journals.Stratton Maine ¢ Zero day1,986.3 miles behind me187.8 miles to go before the big ¢K¢ - Yipee Ki Yahhh!!