Date: 2004-09-25
From: Pierce Pond Lean-To 

To: Caratunk ME 
Miles today: 4.0

09/25/2004GatherWake up, man it¢s cold this morning. Up here in Maine as soon as the sun starts going down the temperature starts dropping fast!! During the day it has been nice, around 70 to 75 degrees, good hiking weather.Eat, pack up and hit the trail heading north towards Katahdin. Come to the Kennebec river. This is one river I¢m told you do not want to wade across!! Very dangerous they say.There¢s a free canoe ferry here. There¢s a red flag in a canister attached to a tree, you wave the flag, man on the other side is supposed to see you. Well he must be taking a break or sleeping one. I wave that flag for ten minutes, finally see a canoe pushing into the water.Man paddles over to me, he introduces himself as Steve Longley. I have heard and read about Steve. He is quite a legend up and down the trail. Famous guide and back woodsman, a modern day Daniel Boone they say.Steve is a very friendly fellow, we set and talk a long time. He tells me all about what they do. While we¢re talking a float plane comes up the river flying not more than 20 ft off the water. Steve gets mad and starts yelling and waving at the man, he came up with some words I¢ve never heard before. Steve said he probably had some city slickers on board and was trying to impress them, good way to kill them he says.Steve has me sign a disclaimer, remove my pack and put on a life jacket before we cross the river, just a formality he says. He tells me he has a store down the road, check it out he says. Steve Longely¢s place, http://www.riversandtrails.com/I¢m really in Caratunk, ME now. I go by his store and get some snacks. Then from there I make my way to Northern Outdoors Resort 2 12 miles away, catch a ride there from the store. People here in Maine are great, you know you¢re going to get a ride if you see a pickup truck coming, forget it if you see a Lexus.Get to the Northern Outdoors Resort, http://www.northernoutdoors.com/ this is a really nice place, they have everything.I call home, tell mom and dad I¢m not sure if I¢ll stay here tonight or push on north. Once you get into a town it¢s real hard to leave.Mom tells me there¢s another hurricane on the way, Jeanne is her name she says. I tell mom let her come, nothing will stop me from making Katahdin now.I talk to dad, he tells me Ed Wright from Jensen Beach FL e-mailed him and has put a check in the mail for the cheeseburger I bought in NY. I tell dad I want to meet this man when I get back home. Dad tells me Ed goes hiking in the Smokies once a month, I can go hike Mt. LeConte with him (http://www.mtleconte.com ). Dad also tells me he posted a picture of Ed in my photo journal.Dad asked me If I had hiked with a girl named Gorbachev ? I said yes, I had hiked with her some. She had been hiking with Rainbow & Katie, then she was hiking with the ¢Happy Brigade¢. Dad tells me she¢s from Albemarle NC not far from Denton, I say no way. She is back behind me somewhere.I tell dad I¢m going to check out this place, I might hit the trail again today,Pierce Pond Lean-To ¢ Caratunk ME ¢   4 miles (Nero day)09/25/2004SlimerStill here in Monson, decided to take a Zero day and rest up before I take on the 100 mile wilderness. Very good sleep last night.Went over to the general store last night to listen to the locals play bluegrass. This is something else. They clear out a place inside the store, the locals set up and play. I thought they would have it outside. Let me tell you, those boys were good!! If you don¢t get there early you won¢t be able to get in the store.One old coot on the harmonica was going wild, good he was. Alabama got up there in his kilt and played guitar with them, pretty good he was.I was setting beside a lady who grew up way out in the outback. She tells me her daddy was a logger. They would have these logging camps set up in the middle of nowhere. The men would take their family¢s along as they would sometimes be gone for a year. She said all their food and mail would come in by boat, float plane or sled dogs, depending on what time of year it was. Schools were non- existent out there in the boonies as she called it.She said lots of times they couldn¢t get food in, so the men would hunt for meat and fish., She said she had ate everything from possum to moose, said she preferred the moose but was glad to get anything. Very hard life she said. Only schooling they got was from each other if they were lucky enough to have someone in camp that had even been to school.There were no medical facilities, and no doctors. If someone got sick or hurt they treated them the best they could with herbs and homemade remedies. If they were real sick or hurt bad they usually died she said. There was no way to get them out for medical attention.She also said she cherished those memories of her childhood in the outback. She said the children today just don¢t realize how good they have it, children have no respect today at all for their elders or anything else. She said when she was a little girl her daddy made all their toys for them. The children used to hunt, trap, fish, gather berries and what not to help the family survive. Everyone pulled their own weight she said.They never got to see a town but about once a year. She said they made their own soap, then she started laughing and commented the home made soap was the reason no one took a bath. That stuff would melt the hide right off you, she says laughing.She got some topo maps off a rack beside us and showed me some of the places where she lived as a young girl, nothing there then, nothing there today. She says it¢s still just like it was when she was a little girl growing up. Her husband was one of the men playing music there last night. He works in logging camps for a living today. But she said it was very different today, they have huge helicopter cranes to fly the logs out and bring food in. The men usually stay out there 6 months at a time, their families stay home now.I got up early this morning ate breakfast and noticed some kayaks beside the Lodge. Lady says they are there for the guests to use at no charge. I get one and paddle out all over the lake. I paddle up to a float plane, nice plane but looks like it needs some attention mechanically. Guess they fly by the seat of their pants up here. Planes interest me as I hold an A & P (Airframe & Power plant) license to work on aircraft.I paddle all over the lake, people are out fishing, never saw anyone catch anything but I¢m sure there¢s fish here.A lot of people getting all their planes and boats ready for winter. Someone said when the first snow falls it will be white all winter, the lakes will freeze over. They tell me it gets 30 below here in the winter. Snow mobile¢s are the money makers here in the winter. People come from all over to ride them on the lake and trails.Everyone here has dogs, dogs everywhere, every pickup and car has a dog in it. All the dogs seem happy. Every body loves their dogs.I call home, all ok. Dad thought I had left for the 100 mile wilderness, told him I thought I would rest up a little and give Gather a day to catch up. Dad tells me Gather is in Caratunk, that¢s not but a little over thirty miles down the trail.I tell dad I will leave here in the morning heading into the wilderness, it will be at least 6 to 7 days before I can contact home again, that is if all goes well. ¢Zero Day in Monson ME¢Miles Behind Me: = 2,056.3Miles To Katahdin: = 117.8 left to go