Date: 2004-10-10
From: Pierce Pond Lean-to

To: Campsite near US201
Miles today: 4.0

We didn¢t do many miles today¢some would even call this a nero. I might, too, but even though our mileage has been low lately, we needed it. Calorically, if not rest-wise. We hiked the three very easy miles to the Kennebec River, missing the hiker breakfast at Harrison Camps that the other¢s enjoyed. We got the ferry well within the necessary time, before 11am. Considering we don¢t usually get up until eleven, we did well. The ferry only runs through tomorrow, so I suppose we¢re very lucky, and among the last hikers to come through. Flyin¢ Brian, Silver Girl, the sectioner, and Underhill all came through today. The ferryman told us that the hostel in Caratunk, run by a former thru-hiker, had been shut down due to health code violations (as if hikers care about such things) and so our hopes for his famous burger and milkshake were shot down. He told us, though, that Northern Outdoors, an outdoor center, lodge, and restaurant, was only a mile or two down the road, and they might even have a Sunday breakfast buffet that ended at noon. We didn¢t have any money, but we ran the half-mile to the road, and started hitching immediately. Knuckles and Underhill, with Flyin¢ Brian and Silver Girl in the car, stopped going the other direction. They were going to the grocery store in the next big town¢Caratunk had no place to resupply.They said they¢d give us a ride on the way back if we needed one¢otherwise, we¢d see them at Northern Outdoors. We got a hitch very easily, though, with a wonderful older couple who let us ride in the back of their pickup. The people who give you rides are never those you expect. We walked into the lodge and were overwhelmed. The place was beautiful, with exposed wooden beams, deep couches, hunting trophies on the wall, pretty much every part of civilization one could want. There was even a game room. And, most importantly, a dining room. The only money we had was the kind we didn¢t really have¢plastic. But we were starving. So we succumbed to the lure of VISA and ordered two big huge massive ¢Northern¢ burgers, covered in cheese and a huge slab of Canadian bacon nearly as thick as the burger. Plus fries. And wolfed them down in maybe three seconds. The buffet had been a myth (it was only available during snowmobiling season), but the burgers were among the best we had on the trail. Probably second, to me, only to the Port Clinton burger and the burger at the diner in Erwin. That could have also been the hunger talking. But we spent all day there, did our laundry, watched football, and ate dinner, too.Knuckles and Underhill showed up and we hung out with them, discovering that the center also had a FREE hot tub and free showers. We probably spent an hour in the hot tub, in our grungy hiker clothes¢they must have had some serious pool cleaner in that thing to let hikers use it for free. Knuckles and I had a great talk¢it turns out that we had a really similar background, she comes from a really conservative religious family in the south, too, and we discussed the struggles we¢ve had with God and the church as well as the rampant racism in the southern church. She had had very similar experiences to mine since then, too, moving to the big city¢in her case, New York¢and then abandoning that to come out to the wilderness. County and I kept debating hiking on¢we really could have, but it felt too good to be warm and fed. We ended up camping past the road with Knuckles and Underhill again, sleeping out in the continued nice weather.