Date: 2012-09-05
From: Spaulding Mountain Lean To

To: South fork of Carrabassett River
Miles today: 5.1

A stressful day that turned out fine...rain in the night caused a big problem for SOS and Nice Lady. I was to pick them up on Caribou Road so I went with Sue, the hostel owner, who was shuttling 2 SOBO's to the same spot. When they had hiked a little way down the trail, they came back to say that the river was not passable. I immediately tried to call SOS before he hiked down the mountain to this spot and couldn't get him. There was nothing to do but go back to the motel with Sue and wait and wait and wait. SOS finally texted me to ask what to do. I texted back what I knew from Sue which was that they had to climb BACK up the mountain they just came down and then go to Sugarloaf Mountain and hike down one of the many ski trails. So a planned short hiking day turned into a very long hiking day for SOS and Nice Lady. Meanwhile I was stressing out so I called Pitchit. (I knew he would stay calm and probably be able to calm me down also...and he would pray and get the hiking buddies from home to pray also...and he did!) I couldn't sit still in my room so decided to go for a drive to get my mind on something else. I found an antique shop with expensive things and then stopped at an art gallery where Hugh makes beautiful paper birds (see in photos) from special heavy paper from Japan. We talked for over an hour...very interesting man. On the drive back, I noticed some signs in a park by the road. Imagine my surprise when there were information signs but the surprise was a plaque recognizing Benedict Arnold for his journey through Maine. I had just read a book about him and his wife. ( the author credits his wife with encouraging him to turn traitor) After finding out from Sue where to go to pick up my hikers, I headed to Sugarloaf Ski Resort to wait and wait and wait...something I have had a lot of practice doing since meeting SOS 36 years ago! I finally got out of the car and started walking up the ski trails and there they were coming down at last. They were dirty, wet, exhausted and bedraggled looking...sorry I didn't take a picture...I was too excited to see them! Back to the hotel,off to do laundry with Nice Lady, showers for them and dinner at the bar. We talked to lots of hiker friends who were there also and then back to the room where they watched football and I wrote the journal. God is good..all the time and it means so much to have friends to call when I am stressed...knowing they will pray and reassure me that things will be okay...and they were! Thanks, guys, you are the best!SOS here:What an incredible three days. On Monday Nice Lady and I hiked up Saddleback Mountain. It had four false tops. Everyone provided an incredible view of the valleys below with mountains as far as you could see and lakes everywhere. It was my favorite mountain top view on the AT. Maine is absolutely unmatchable in its wilderness beauty above tree line. Monday was an incredible weather hiking day - blue sky, mild temperatures and very little breeze on top of the mountain. We ate lunch on top of Saddleback Mountain and looked down on a ski resort and Rangeley, Maine below. We would have three steep ups and three steep down - Saddleback Mountain, Horn Mountain and Saddleback Junior Mountain. We stopped at a lean to for the night. Five of my hiking friends were there already - Sleeping Beauty, Loophole, Mission, Tickle Monster (has hiked the last 700+ miles of the trails in his blue with orange straps Crocs) and ?; they made room for me in the shelter. Nice Lady, who would rather sleep in her tent, setup her tent. It was a cool night for sleeping and the nights are getting much longer. The daylight hours to hike are shrinking fast.Tuesday would be uneventful and tiring. It would be like what I have been facing since a week ago Saturday starting with Wildcat Mountain, a quick succession of very steep ups and downs. Headnout, who completed a thru hike in 2006 with Tagnalong, told me, he believes that the southern part of Maine is the toughest part of the AT. Having hiked most of it - I would agree with him. Not only is it very steep ups and steep downs but has no switchbacks so it is either straight up or down the mountain you go. So on Tuesday after an exhausting hike, just before we called it a day, I managed to lose my balance and fall against a broken off rotting trunk of a tree that had been dead for years. It gave way and I managed to bury a splinter more like a plank into my right hand. Nice Lady, who was a volunteer EMT for years, immediately put antispetic cream on it and bandaged it. The bandage started to come off - so we used the "Red Green" show solution and wrapped duct tape around the bandage and the palm of the hand. It worked. Because it was getting late, we stopped at the Spalding Mountain Lean To and called it a day.We were expecting a heavy rain and I was chilling from my sweat drenched clothes. and a heavy rain was in the forecast and we were not going to be able to make it so we decided to call it a day since we would not make it down to the river crossing and the tent site on the north bank of the river. We would stay at the lean-to. We would be the only ones there and it would pour down rain all night long so neither of got much sleep.Today we would wake up to rain and it would continue to rain all morning long. When it rains hard the trail becomes a river. Trying to keep your feet dry you attempt to straddle the ruts in the trail or jump from one rock to another in the trail. Eventually, it becomes useless and your boots become so water logged that socks become drenched and your shoes slosh with each step. As Trail Mama related above it ended up a very long day. It was great to reach the bottom of Sugarloaf Mountain, which is a ski mountain and be back in the safety of a trail town, Stratton ME. From the top of the ski slope of Sugarloaf Mountain which was shrouded in Mist where you could see nothing for 2 and 1/2 miles down the slope and and hour and half later the sun came out to review another spectacular view of the mountains of Maine and a crystal clear view of the top of Sugarloaf Mountain.Today we went under less than 200 miles to hike. Tomorrow, I will zero and Nice Lady and I will map out the remaining days to hike the rest of ME and summit Katahdin. Headnout will join us for the hundred mile wilderness hike and will summit Katahdin with us. Tagnlong will drive back out to Maine and also hike the Summit. Our youngest son Courtney is planning on summiting with us. It will be an incredible day but will be bittersweet because Trail Mama's lingering injuries from our accident in June of 1999 will prevent her from joining us. Hopefully our son Josh will be able to superimpose her image on my Katadhin summit photo. Everyone who knows Trail Mama realizes how tough a day it will be for her - as Headnout verbalized to me tonight about it. Out friends on the trail know how much she has been a part of the hike.The next milestone will be reached on Saturday when we top the 2,000 mile mark - WOW.This hike has been for HIM and when it is over we, Trail Mama and I, will focus our reason for the hike on HIM and the youth of Indiana. Trail Mama and I want the youth of Indiana to have the Indiana United Methodist Churches Camps be second to none where they can learn about Jesus Christ and become leaders for Christ in their communities, their state, their country and to the ends of the earth. We've almost done the hike... NOW pledge. Thank You!