Date: 2008-07-03
To: Maine and Beyond
Miles today: 0.0

Well, I went to Maine. I spent a week with Melk. We lived it up. But we did not set foot on the Appalachian Trail. Around 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 22, while standing in line at Grimaldi's in Brooklyn, NY, I got a call from Melk. This was the day before I was supposed to meet her in Monson for our hike from Monson to Caratunk. She let me know that her toenail was about to fall off from her stint in the Hundred Mile Wilderness and she proposed that she meet me in Bangor and we head to Acadia National Park instead. After sixteen seconds of mild disappointment, I agreed that this seemed like a perfect plan. After all - hiking? We had done enough of that together. We needed to go camping! I am still inclined to write about my trip, though, because it was quite an AT extravaganza.So, I cancelled reservations in Monson and called Talker Man. When I first bought my plane tickets to Maine, I had emailed him to let him know I was going to be coming to his state. Upon learning this, he generously offered to pick me up at the airport and bring me to Monson. I wanted to let him know our plans had changed but that we should still plan to meet up at some point during the week. So, with everything set, I repacked a little to allow for a few luxuries that I'd never take hiking - deodorant and other toiletries mainly.The next day, I landed in Bangor (what a charming little airport). I stumbled upon Melk almost immediately after getting off the plane! I was surprised! From there, the shenanigans began. We walked over to the luggage carousel to pick up my bag with Katahdin looming in the distance. No, it was not in the back of our minds. It was literally painted on the wall behind the carousel. How fitting. I told Melk I could have just met her at the Bangor airport last year and saved us both a lot of trouble. We took some pictures with Kathadin and then proceeded to the rental car counters. Hertz was booked. Avis was booked. Budget was booked. Someone had a car available for $800 but that was just uncalled for. So I called Talker Man to see what he knew about buses. He had some great ideas but the best of all was to call Enterprise, who had a location five minutes from the airport. I called, they came. No purple PT Cruiser though. Meanwhile, we spoke with Ryan, a guy who shared my flight from JFK and who was in town for a bike trip. He was stuck in the airport in NYC overnight and was really looking for a way out but had to wait for his bike to arrive. He came with us to lunch, we took him back to the airport, and then we were on our way to Cherryfield, ME, the home of the one, the only....Talker Man! It was a very scenic ride to his home and we enjoyed the tunes of our new friend, Lucy, an XM 54 station, as we sped down the curvy back roads of Maine. That night we had dinner with Talker Man and Mrs. Talker Man and it was a real treat to see them both. They are such a neat couple with an even neater life story. I know it's not my story to tell but I don't think Talker Man would mind so I just have to say - the engagement ring Alice wears to this day was traded for an engine overhaul on a Volkswagen back when Talker Man was a hippie VW mechanic working out of a parking lot in the middle of nowhere! He's full of these hilarious and fantastic stories! Anyway, we looked at all of Talker Man's AT pictures that night too...he had some great ones of fellow hikers and it was fun to think about where we'd all met along the way....The next morning, Melk and I packed up and were on our way to Mount Desert Island, home of the bulk of Acadia National Park. The drive was beautiful again - Maine is such a sight to see. We set up camp and then headed to Bar Harbor. The next five days went a little something like this...we resisted the urge to purchase the entire stock of Cadillac Mountain Sports, visited two breweries and one winery, took one sailboat ride, climbed one mountain where Melk called me a pansy - rebar freaks me out, we walked around one lake, rubbed our car right up against a tree at our campsite, paid a mechanic in Ellsworth $20 to fix the car, and ate more clams, mussels, lobster, blueberry pie, and popovers than is acceptable for a lifetime (and dipped it all in butter). We also ran into two AT hikers at a brewery on the island - SOBOers named Dixie and I can't recall the other - who had hitched from Monson to Acadia. Melk and I tried to gauge whether we thought they'd return to the trail. It'd sure be tough to leave Acadia to slog through Maine at this time of year. We did take a day to go back to Talker Man's house and he showed us around downeast Maine. With Talker Man, we visited the most easterly point in the United States at Quoddy Head and saw the candy-cane striped lighthouse there, popped over to Canada to visit FDR's summer home, visited the offices of the Downeast Coastal Press and talked with a woman named Nancy there - great company and a most impressive setup that gave me a true glimpse into how "the way life should be" on a daily basis. Her commute was an approximately twelve foot walk to a small little building on her property where the newspaper is created. It all seemed very tranquil and inspiring. Along the rest of our day, we saw one bear crossing the road, one giant blueberry, and got a special private tour of Talker Man's antique store back in Cherryfield. He drove us by their Fish Point home in Milbridge where the AT Debriefing was held in October and we took a lap around the river near his house. It was a great day and a great reunion of three hikers! ...I had a blast with Melk for the rest of the time even though I wouldn't call what we did "camping". We more pitched out tents, went and played all day, and slept in them at night (after a wonderful time of reading for a bit). Sort of what we always wanted to do along the trail. It was fun to hang out with Melk in a non-hiking setting though we decided that, because of the way we met, we are doomed for life because all we do when we are not hiking is eat. I dropped Melk off at the bus station on Sunday and made my way over to the airport to fly back home. Maine really is the way life should be. I'm very glad I had the chance to go there after my trip to NYC because NYC is CRAZY so I needed a place to readjust! BUT - something very exciting happened in New York as well...I visited with Ronin and Young Eagle! Let me just repeat...I saw all three members of the A-Team and Talker Man all within two days! Few things are more exciting than that. Young Eagle, Ronin, Eric and I met outside of the World Financial Center and caught up, had some drinks and even did a small flip-flop hike of the Irish Hunger Memorial. It was really great to be in the same place and hear about Young Eagle's stories from jolly old England and Ronin's tales of saving trees. What struck me about seeing my trail friends again were all of the little things each of them used to do that made each day hilarious that I'd since forgotten. For instance, in town, Young Eagle would always pretend to run into a door and grab his nose like he smashed it...he didn't let us down this time either. In just a short time, the conversation quickly turned to movies and my eyes may have glazed over when Youngle was explaining October Sky to Eric. Melk still says "oh, good, this will be something new and exciting for us" in a sarcastic way, and we both still remembered to sing "keep on rocking en el mundo libre" when "Rockin' in the Free World" came on the radio. There seemed to be so many more of these quirks I noticed but, of course, they've escaped my memory even now. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it in my journal, but one of our big jokes on the trail was to come up with scenarios that would take us "off the trail with dignity". None of us could overcome our stubbornness to quit because we'd clearly regret it in about four minutes so you would often hear statements like "If I ran three miles through a forest fire, hurdled over six boulders and broke my leg while saving a kid from a rattlesnake - I'd be off the trail with dignity!" or "If I knock myself unconscious while hanging my bear bag and a bear ends up eating my foot - then I'd be off the trail with dignity!". Young Eagle made these comments about sixteen times as often as the rest of us. When he had to get off the trail, Ronin declared that it was one too many of these comments. But he went home with his dignity. Today we joke that he planned his fall in New Jersey, his home state, so that he could conveniently exit the trail and start operating the "AT Burrito", a hostel and burrito shop we all fantasized about opening together post-trail. So, it was a whirlwind adventure from NYC to Maine, meeting trail friends in both places. We didn't hike much (and not even a speck of the AT) but I still got my dose of trail with friends and lots of trail talk. Talker Man is giving some thought to writing a book about the AT and he mentioned possibly hosting a reunion in the fall. One can only hope for both. It would sure be great to see everyone again. It's odd how fondly I remember the folks I shared the journey of a lifetime with - even the ones I only knew briefly. That trail...it's ruined me!