Date: 2015-09-02
From: Little Swift River Pond

To: ME 4
Miles today: 4.8
Weather: scattered clouds

I was full of good intentions, really I was. I would hike to the road, shuttle or hitch into Rangeley, do my chores and go back on the trail and hike some more. Doing this would either let me catch up completely and get back on schedule, or very close to it. Last night when I got to camp, there were four men camped together, two of which I had actually met before. They were Power Slide and Jolly, a father and son team who are doing a somewhat complicated flip flop but are currently northbound. With them were Stretch and Low Profile (Low Pro for short), who has a trail journal also. A little separate from them was another guy who didn't really say anything. This was probably because he doesn't speak English. He is German, I still haven't quite figured out his trail name and I think he might be from former East Germany so he never would have learned English. This morning when I got up and was packing up, they yelled at me to come look at the sunrise over the pond. I haven't seen many sunrises this trip but this was quite a spectacular one. Very red (sailor take warning!) as it rose above the trees. All six of us stood there taking pictures for a quite some time, but I did make it out of camp before 7 am. It was a very nice site and would have been a nice place for a leisurely camp, but what can you do.I was soon passed by Stretch and Jolly, who told me Power Slide had gotten a call out to the hostel they were all going to stay at and the shuttle would be at the road at 9. It was 4.8 miles to the road and I didn't think I'd have a chance to make that, but I sped up just in case. A while later I got caught by Low Pro, Power Slide and the German and I managed to stay with them all the way to the road. We made it! Like I said, my plan was to cherry pick hostel services and be on my way, but the hostel was so nice as were the people that run it, that I really didn't stand a chance. And the guys were going to have steak and apple crumble for dinner, so...This really is a nice place. There is a pack room for the stinky packs, shoes and poles, they do laundry there as well, there are loaner clothes (I am currently wearing a maternity top. Just so I could eat a lot today...) and a hiker kitchen as well as lounge with movies. I am in what I call the fancy room, with two queen beds and nice furniture. This room really is more like a B&B. When I saw that, I was sold!After showers and laundry we were shuttled into town for lunch, outfitter and resupply. I finally had my long awaited lobster roll, yay! At IGA I bought food for six plus days and once back at the hostel I put half in a flat rate box to be shipped to Caratunk, as there basically is nothing there. And if I didn't resupply there, I'd have to carry six plus days of food, no thanks!With that taken care of, I talked to Gary to see if we needed to make adjustments to his schedule for coming up here, since I'm still a day behind. In the end we decided against it. And, he later told me he'll be staying at a place near Caratunk that is very hiker friendly, so that's where I shipped my resupply box. I had a steak for dinner which Stretch put on the grill for me along with all their pork chops, and I peeled apples for the crumble. Dinner was a very nice home cooked meal with mixed veggies (squash, zucchini, tomato, onion, asparagus), mashed potato, avocado and the aforementioned apple crumble for dessert. I chatted with Power Slide a bit after dinner, and he and his son are doing this hike in part to raise money for awareness and research for Rett syndrome. You can check out their adventures and learn more about the charity portion at Hike For Julie. Tomorrow I will be going back on the trail and I'm still hoping to make up the zero from Sunday in the schedule. It all depends on the terrain! Tomorrow has several climbs in the profile which could mean agony and slow, slow going, or it could just be climbs that are no big deal. In Maine, I feel you just never know, but I'll report back either way!Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?