Date: 2003-10-06
From: Little Bigelow Lean-to

To: Caratunk, ME
Miles today: 21.3

I knew going into today that it would be a challenge. Not only as it going to be a big mileaged day (at least for me) but I also had to cross the Kennebec River. The Kennebec is a wide and fast moving river. Hikers need to be taken across by ferry (canoe) in order to reach the town of Caratunk and continue on the AT. This time of year those ferry shuttles only run in the morning   ...unless you make special arrangements. I had called the outfitter who runs the ferry when I was in Stratton and estimated my arrival to be between 3 and 4 PM on today'd date. Unfortunately I had fallen a little short of my mileage goal yesterday so I would have to make up those miles today.Needless to say, I got up very early and was hiking before sunrise. I hiked out alone, since my hiking partners (Firefeet, ChickFlick and Fickle) weren't in as much of a hurry as I was and had decided to take it easy and cross the Kennebec tomorrow morning. So   ...I bid them all farwell and set out on my own. I had to make pretty good time in order to reach the Kennebec by 4 PM so I hiked pretty much all day feeling a great deal of pressure. The terrain was reasonable level for most of the hike but the trail wrapped around several ponds. Those segments of the trail were pretty rocky and and slowed me down a bit.I rarely stopped and actually ate my lunch and snacks on the run. At around 2 PM I reached the last shelter before the Kennebec (Pierce Pond Lean-to). There was southbound hiker named Celt in the shelter. He said he had hiked in from Caratunk earlier today so I asked him how long it had taken him to get there from the river. He estimated that he had covered those 3 miles in 1 and 3/4 hours. I knew that would be cutting it pretty close for me but I had come this far and decided to GO FOR IT ! So, I had a snack and a drink and then made tracks for the Kennebec. The trail was mostly downhill but not what I would call easy grade. I hiked a lot faster than I normally would have on this type of trail. The clock was ticking down toward the 3:30 mark and I was starting to get pretty stressed. Just then a man came walking up towards me from the north. He stuck out his hand to shake mine. I returned the gesture and then told him that I was in a big hurry to get to the river. He then said   ...you must be Footslogger, right?? I said yes and he identified himself as Jeremey, the guy who was going to shuttle me across the river. He took a better look at me and saw the stress in my eyes and said      ...you can dial it back a bit dude   ...you've made it !!   Whew, I was safe   ...I had made it !!We walked together back to the river. He loaded me and my pack into the canoe and paddled me across to the other side. I needed that short period of inactivity to catch my breath and calm down. It was pretty cool. This was the first time I had ever crossed a river on a backpacking trip in a canoe. After seeing the depth and speed of the river I was very happy to have the ride.Once across the river I grabbed my pack and hiked the final mile or so into the town of Caratunk. Now Caratunk, for those of you who will never see it, is not what most of us think of when we hear the word "town". It was basically a single street with some houses on both sides, a Post Office and a Bed and Breakfast Inn. I went straight over to the Caratunk Inn and walked inside. There I met Paul, one of the owners and asked him if he had any room. Not only did he have room   ...but I was the only hiker there !! I got a nice hot shower and came back downstairs. Paul gave me the choice of a ride into the adjacent town for dinner or a couple of home made cheeseburgers. I had enough moving around for one day and opted for the cheeseburgers. I must have gone through those burgers in less than 10 minutes. Paul looked at me somewhat speechless and asked if I wanted anything else. He happened to mention that he made killer milkshakes and that was all I need to hear   ...one chocolate milkshake coming up !!After downing dinner I realized how truly exhausted I was. Paul didn't allow any calls to be made from the hostel so I decided to walk up to the Post Office and make some calls from the pay phone. I called my wife Leslie and told her where I was and that I was OK. I then called my friend "Shaman", who had earlier agreed to meet me in Monson. I wanted to update him on my whereabouts. With those calls having been made, I wandered back to the hostel. The temperature had really dropped after sundown and I was happy to get back inside. Paul had my boots and gloves drying next to the wood burning stove when I got back to the hostel. I wished him a good night and crawled (literally) back upstairs to my room and hit the sack.