Date: 2009-08-21
From: Baldpate Lean-to

To: East B Hill Rd (Andover, ME)
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: light rain

The three girls were all headed to Andover, which was 8 miles of hiking away, and then another 8 on the road. I headed out first and started the 1000 foot climb to the west peak of Baldpate Mountain. By the time I reached the top, white clouds had rolled in and snuggled into the mountains, and the atmosphere around me had turned grey. Today was not going to be a day for nice views. Much of the trail ahead was on exposed rock and I could see exactly what I would be climbing. The wind picked up and the fog grew thicker as I made my way up and over sheer rock face. Once I made it to the other side of the east peak, I sat down on a rock for a food and water break and then started the nearly 1600 foot descent to the shelter. I was happy to reach the shelter and happy that I stopped short of it the night before (even though it meant sacrificing the nice views on Baldpate), as it was an old, uninviting one in the middle of the woods. Canteloupe and Skeeter joined me for a break there and Canteloupe told her story of slipping down a rung of a rebar ladder, getting her foot caught behind it and hanging upside down as she called for Skeeter. She didn¢t hear an answer, so she calmly undid her pack buckles and righted herself. This is why I go so slowly on the downhills! It is so easy to slip and fall!    We left one by one to work our way to the road, four and a half miles away, where we would have the hostel owners pick us up. We knew there was little car traffic on that road and that hitching was all but impossible there.    Skeeter eventually came bouncing along, full of energy, and passed me, but a little while later, I found her sitting down, talking on the phone. She had fallen down and asked me if there was any dirt on her face. She told me that she had called the hostel and told them to pick us up in two hours.    As I walked away, I thought that sounded like a long time from now, and then, I heard the sound of water... I had nearly reached Dunn Notch and Falls, which meant I only had 0.8 miles to go, and that we would be waiting an hour and a half for our ride! After I crossed the stream, I called the hostel to change the pick-up time, but only got the answering machine. I left a message, called Erik, and then called the hostel back, but still no one picked up. As I went on, I passed a man coming south, who told me that the hostel owner had just dropped him off about 15 minutes ago! Too bad!      We ended up waiting about 30-40 minutes, but sure enough, the van came to pick us up. Canteloupe told us it was 87 degrees out. David got out of the van and offered us a glass of lemonade. I already knew about this from one of the southbounders who stayed at Baldpate, but it was a pleasant surprise for the other two girls.    When we reached the hostel, we found Ducky, who had decided to stay after all (she had planned to press on to the next road crossing). We chose our rooms and walked down the road into town for a meal. I dropped Skeeter¢s postcards off at the post office when I went to pick up my mail drop, and as I walked home, it began raining. We took our showers and heard that a group of 10 hikers wanted to spend the night here. We knew exactly who they were. One of them was Mississippi! Skeeter said, ¢There goes our peaceful night!¢ We quickly got our laundry loaded into the machine, but within a few minutes, the power went out! There was nothing to do but try to take a nap. However, my room was too stifling to sleep. Meanwhile, our clothes were sitting in a pool of dirty, stagnant water! We couldn¢t even get something to eat, as the power was out in the general store and restaurant.      When the power finally resumed, I went downstairs to find a roomful of people dressed in scrubs! We all went out to find something to eat and it looked like a parade of doctors was marching down the street. I opened the door to the store, only to have a woman tell me they were closed for the night due to the power outage. What were we going to do? There was only one other place to try- the other store. We walked down the aisles to find the occasional can of green beans, jar of applesauce, or bag of chips. Ewok was beside himself. Someone asked if they could have something from the deli. We could have ham or (I forget ¢ something with even more fat) and we could have American or Swiss cheese. I got 1/3 pound of ham and a couple of slices of cheese, a pack of crackers, a pint of Ben and Jerry¢s and a ginger ale. We went back to the hostel to eat. The bugs attacked me as I ate on the porch. Minnesota IPA was talking to someone on the phone from back home and telling them that ¢he didn¢t know if this was the longest or shortest five months of his life.¢ I felt the same way! It was hard to get a sense of perspective on what we had done and were doing. We were just exhausted and confused. I went up to my room to escape the bugs and drank the little bottle of Gogi berry juice that Erik had mailed me (again looking after my health). I find that stuff hard to drink, but chased it with the ginger ale. There was talk of more heavy rain in the next day or two, and I didn't know what to do. Erik thought I should stay and zero, but I wanted to keep moving. Everyone else was going to slackpack and return to the hostel the next night (that was definitely out of the question for me!). I went back downstairs to brush my teeth and realized that I was supposed to sign up for a ride by 8 pm and that the hostel owner had made arrangements for everyone else. Luckily, there was still an open spot on the second shuttle.