Date: 2012-06-22
From: Stratton, ME

To: Cirque Campsite
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Well, here I sit in Stratton, ME. Wishing Booterman would hurry the heck up. We're waiting for her to hike outta here with us. She left for the post office 2 hours ago. It's a quarter of a mile away. Initially she informed me that her first given trail name was Wrong Way cuz she tends to get turned around alot on the trail. I'm starting to get slightly concerned that she possibly got lost in this teeny tiny hamlet of a village. Which would be absurd. But I suppose I digress. Maybe she fell into a pothole or something.*Swag Man interjects here, Aliens, she was abducted by Aliens, or Bigfoot*Moving on.The Sherpa and Starfish <--- Yay we has trail names!!!! Check out our name descriptions!I repeat, the Sherpa and Starfish stayed at the following lean-tos/campsites:Horseshoe Canyon Lean ToHorseshoe Canyon was a nice place. Other than the very large clear plastic bag full of trash hanging on a nearby tree. Kinda made me scratch my head a bit on that one. Also, two sleeping bags randomly hanging in the lean to. According to the register there, hikers found all this stuff left there at the end of May. You think somehow all that would've been gone or disposed of by the ridge runners who are paid by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to keep their areas of responsibility clean. Hmm. Funny limerick left in the register by Applejack about it said something along the lines of "When you happen upon a lean to with a bag full of junk, left by some punk, it's tempting to add all the junk that you had, but wilderness ed. you'd flunk". Now that I've got that out of my head, I can make room for more useless information. We met Booterman for the first time here. She's from Rochester, NY and very sunshiny . She also likes to use the term foreplay in reference to, well everything actually. For example, going from a long flat stretch to 2,000 feet of elevation half a mile from camp: "That flat stretch was foreplay for what I thought was the end of a nice day. Not so fast" You get the idea.Oh, and we slack packed for the first time 3.3 miles on the way here. A very nice treat!Moxie Bald Lean ToIt was mostly flat to here, if I recall correctly with 2 river fords. I suppose nothing much eventful happened. I do remember my hiking speed is improving. I wasn't far behind Sherpa at all. He only had to wait ten minutes for me at the end of a 4 mile stretch we hiked separately. Oh, now it's all coming back to me. We met the Germinator (yep, German) and Carpenter, and Straw Hat camped there with us that night. Found an interesting book at the Lean To "Behind Enemy Lines"...not what you would think though. Kinda hilarious. Slept alright. Was on the edge of a 'pond'. Very pretty. Oh and Booterman showed up at dinner time (she slept in till 11:30 she told us) and then said she was going to night-hike the mountain. Which she did. Almost to the 'Woods Road' near Caratunk, ME Hello 19 mile day! Over Moxie Bald, not too shabby! And then off to Pleasant Mountain *GROAN* that mountain SUCKED. If I had had a sharpie on me I would've crossed out "Pleasant Mountain" on the sign and written Douchebag Mountain. It was seriously a stupid hike 5 miles up. BLEH. But the views were nice. I think I remember eating half a jar of peanut butter at the summit. So, so hungry. We met a NOBO halfway up, and he said there was a girl all spread out, laying near the trail (he sounded slightly concerned). It was Booterman. She got up and hiked the rest of the day with us. Yay! We passed AppleJack, The Count and Julia stealth camping on the trail. We decided (just before dark) to press on to the "woods road" so to be nearer the ferry. Cuz the ferry only runs 9-11 am and you'll be stuck there for another day if you miss it. We almost made it to the woods road, but at 9:40pm, I decided I was done. So we set up the tent and crashed HARD.**For the readers who are concerned, Booterman just showed up. She said she went to the Post office, got a cheeseburger, bought groceries, and ran into AppleJack and the Count. Makes sense, time-wise I suppose **West Carrie (y?) Pond Lean ToSafford Notch CampsiteCranberry Stream SiteThe Stratton Motel