Date: 2006-08-17
From: Caratunk, ME

To: Moxie Bald Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 18.8
Weather: 0

Cell none."Sleeper" and I got a late start out of Caratunk this morning. It always seems to be more difficult to get going when you have a real mattress under you and a roof over your head.Last night we used our Thru-hikers Handbook and tried to get a mile of trail done while heading to the Rivers & Trails facility. The book said we could use a side trail there, after hiking 1.5 miles away from the ferry. When we did this yesterday, we discovered it was very steep, and not too well maintained. We decided it would be easier to re-hike the 1.5 mile rather than climb the hill.We pushed on to here to set up our arrival into Monson, ME tomorrow. We'll have about 18 miles to do to arrive into our last trail town.Our hike today took us past a number of ponds. Sleeper took a dip in one - I took a nap at the same time.I'm hiking with Sleeper today as we met up while waiting for the ferry ride across the Kennebec. I've know him at least since the Shenandoah's in Virginia. We'll hike into Monson together, and he'll be leaving there Saturday, and I'm leaving Monday. The different dates are based on when we want to arrive at Katahdin, and how long we want to be in the 100 mile wilderness. I'm going to wait in Monson to set myself up to arrive at Baxter a week from Sunday. Hopefully, I'll hook up with Sue that day, and we'll set up our summiting of Katahdin the next day.Right now my tent is set up on the edge of a pond. They call them ponds, but they are the size of lakes elsewhere. I keep hearing a loon, and I'll assume I'll be treated to lots of noise in the morning. This reminds me of Sabattis where I also hear loons on the ponds.We climbed over Moxie Bald this evening, and were treated to a spectacular view of the mountains around us. I've mentioned the majority of the mountain climbing is over - this is true, but occasionally we have a little nugget of a hill to climb. Moxie was one of them.On our hike today Sleeper and I discussed our summit day, and what we had envisioned it would be like. We both mentioned that before we left home we thought it would be nice to summit on our birthday. We discovered then that we celebrate our birthday on the same date - Sept 17th. On that date Sleeper will be 50, and I'll be 58. As it turns out, we both reached here sooner than that, so we'll both be home by then.My throat feels a whole lot better tonight, and I believe the soreness is going away. Also, I think the sweating at night was from my sleeping bag being rated for 15 degrees, and the temperature was in the 40s. I don't believe the sore throat will be a factor in my summiting on the 28th. Also, I think the zero in Monson will help me build some strength, and be ready for the last 114 miles. Speaking of zero days, there seems to be a number of hikers starting to run out of time to summit and return home by a certain date. Some need to start graduate school, or return to jobs. Many of them took too long to get here. In some cases, they were enjoying the trail towns too much, and took too much time off. I've always treated the hiking as a job. I got up each morning and went to work hiking. I did take some zeros to regenerate strength, but not so many that I put myself in a hole. When I set out in March, I thought it would take at least 6 months to complete, I'll be done in 5 1/2 months - that is two weeks sooner than planned. I really don't have to be home this soon, and could have taken longer. However, before I started this hike, I couldn't wait for it to get going - now I can't wait for it to end. I know I'll miss the trail once I'm home, but right now I'm tired of it.This is sounding more negative than I've sounded before. I really not negative about this, just anxious to finish. Old Goat