Date: 2011-08-04
From: (119) Bemis Mountain Lean-to

To: (120) Piazza Rock Lean-to
Miles today: 19.5

I finally woke up at a reasonable time today (5:30am) and started what promised to be a great day.It rained again today, and I slid everywhere as I walked through pits of mud, over slimy rocks, and across slick bark-less logs. I fell often. In addition to being wet and muddy, Maine is also getting very cold, and with the weather, I am becoming sick. It was tough hiking with only one pole (Felt like I was missing a limb), which increased my determination to reach the lake town of Rangeley and get a replacement part. But my hiking poles were not the only problem. As a matter of fact, everything I own is falling apart! My pack and many of its components are full of holes, my shoes are barely keeping together and my toes stick out, my foam sleeping pad ripped while I was pulling it out, my camera lens is scratched and taking awful pictures, and everything is wet. It has rained every day that I have been in Maine, and my gear is literally rotting. Thank goodness I will soon be done!Around lunch time I reached the road into Rangeley and tried hitching, but it was still raining so I did not have any luck. Maybe half an hour later the rain stopped, and a guy in a truck picked me up and took me into town.Rangeley is the first town in Maine that I have been to, and I liked it a lot. The people were all very friendly and talked with an accent. Many of them took the time to stop and talk to me, and one woman I ran into was so overwhelmed by my journey that she tried to give me money to help me out, but of course I did not accept.I found and entered one of the town¢s outfitters, and a woman working there gave me a replacement end for my hiking pole for free, saying that Leki would reimburse them. I was very happy to have my pole fixed, especially at no cost! Before leaving the store I saw that it was selling small American flags, and remembering what Hazard had said about hitching into towns while waving the flag, I decided to buy one. I stuck it on the side of my pack, and while I doubted I would ever actually use it, I had to admit that it looked really cool, and that if there was ever anything worth carrying to the top of Mt Katahdin, this was it.For a meal I found a roadside vendor near the town Lake and bought a 1 pound burrito, which I nearly inhaled I was so hungry. After eating, I walked a mile or two to the local IGA grocery store where I did a big resupply in case I should randomly decided to do another 50 miler (for fun) and miss the other towns. I rested outside with three other hikers named Peter, English, and Mehab, who were the first Nobo¢s I had met in quite some time. Unlike the happy go-lucky Sobo¢s who were so obviously just getting started, the three of them sat like dead weight in the parking lot, being grimy, and rude, and complaining¢¦ They were my people.While I was shoving all of the food I had purchase into my bag, Mehab found a pack of lunch meat that had been left in a shopping cart. It had been sitting out in the sun, probably spoiling, but he took it anyway to eat. He has been out here for WAY too long.I tried to hitch from the grocery store but got bored with waiting, so I started walking down the street towards the trail. About a mile into it a car pulled over to pick me up, and in it already were Peter, Mehab, and English, who poked fun at me for having not waited. I guess I should have known better. Back on trail, I hiked with the others to the next shelter, happy to have both poles again, as well as the company. At the shelter was a group of summer camp hikers. Maine is full of these groups, and they often crowd the trail (Every day I pass several groups. Maine offers a lot of camps for youths). I had always thought that Maine would be nearly empty; a wilderness with few other humans, but it has proven to be just the opposite! (There are also still a lot of south bounders getting started, even though they should have begun in June or July to beat winter). Mehab came to where I was sitting in the shelter and offered me some of the meat that he had found in the grocery store parking lot. I figured that I was already going to get giardia, malnutrition, dehydration, lyme disease, worms, lice, infection, gingivitis, scurvy, trench foot, aids, cancer, and attacked by the flying spaghetti monster, so why the hell not? After a brief indecision, I ate several slices of the free but potentially rancid delicacy known as ¢Sandwich baloney¢.I have been out here for WAY too long.