Date: 2008-07-09
From: Maine Route 4, Rangely

To: Maine Route 17 
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: scattered clouds

If there is ever a day to be hiking the Appalachian Trail, this would be it. Without question, this is the kind of day that just makes you say to yourself ¢This is why I am here.¢ Everything was perfectly aligned for me today, and even the things that were not as I had expected them to be.I started out the day by getting a ride to the trailhead, which is about 10 miles from town, enjoying a nice conversation with Bob O¢Brien, who is the owner of the Gull Pond Lodge. He is a very interesting man, and I will tell you more about him later. When we arrived at the trailhead I realized I had forgotten my poles, so we turned around and went back through town to his place, found my poles in the back of the other vehicle where I left them last night, and returned to the trail about one hour later than I had planned. Even so, this proved to be a godsend for me later on in the day, as you will see. The hike was absolutely beautiful. The terrain was smooth and easy. The trail was in good shape, and I was in as good a spot emotionally. Physically, I felt ¢strong like bull,¢ and mentally and spiritually I felt fit. Most all of the day, I spent in the present and not rewriting history or scripting the future, which are places that I normally go and miss out on where my feet happen to be. This was not the case today, however. I thoroughly enjoyed the walking and the sights and was treated to some very special ones, indeed. I was tracking a moose, following its footprints it had left in the mud puddles. It had rained so much in the last few days,that the mud hadn¢t let the Trail dry and one could see how the Moose had used the trail along with us hikers. When I finally caught up with her, she heard me coming, and bolted into the brush. I got a good glimpse of her, before she darted off. It wasn¢t an hour later that I came across another Moose who was this time, walking straight for me. He wasn¢t afraid, either was another one, who came out of the brush beside the Trail. The moose on the trail gave me an evil eye, as to say, ¢What are you doing on our Moose Trail.¢ I felt a little like a semi-driver who had gotten onto the Hutchinson River Parkway, going in the wrong direction. Lucky for me, the Moose gave in and ran back off the Trail. Confrontation averted. I arrived at Sabbath Day Pond Shelter about 12:30 pm. Along the way, I heard thunder, and thought that I should stop and eat, and rest, and get out of the impending rain. It was clearly getting darker, the leaves were turning up, and the wind had increased. It was really only a matter of time before it hit me. Upon arriving at the shelter, it wasn¢t more than 10 seconds before the skies opened up. The storm raged while I sat and enjoyed a delicious lunch. As soon as I was ready to pack up and leave, the sun came out and the rain stopped completely. I never got hit with a drop. If I had not forgotten my poles, however, I would have had completed my lunch and would have been on my way toward the afternoon section of the hike and would have been caught right in the middle of that torrential thunderstorm. I have been enjoying the ¢ponds¢ (here in Maine, what we would normally call a lake is referred to as a pond, I have learned), which are beautiful and plentiful in this section of the Trail. There are also bogs. A bog is not a swamp, as I have learned. It is really a depression created by a glacier that has no outlet. Mosses and other aquatic plants build up on the top of the pond and begin to create a basis for other plants to live on them. Eventually, the whole floating mass covers the entire water surface. It is a great habitat for moose and other birds and a variety of plant life. Because they are built in depressions, I named each of the bogs that I passed today, ¢Effexor,¢ ¢Paxil,¢ and ¢Celexa.¢ After all, what bog would not appreciate a little anti-depression medicine? The other interesting aspect of the day besides the natural bogs (which I found fascinating) was my encounter hiking group from Quebec (all young girls). I came upon the first group of girls who were sitting by the side of the trail. Their English was very limited, and my French (was of some help), but we were able to communicate a little, reverting to English when we got into the problem that one of the girls was having. She was quite ill, had been sick to her stomach, and had a headache. She looked quite pale. There really was not anything I could do for her, but I promised the other girls that I would tell the others in the group when I caught up with them about the girls illness (they told me that they were supposed to meet up at the Sabbath Day HutAs I walked on further I came upon five more members of the hiking group. . I said, ¢Bonjour.¢ And they all perked up and in mass replied, ¢Bonjour.¢ Once we got passed the cordialities, I attempted to explain that I had seen their friends approximately 2 miles back on the Trail. They all started to talk at once. I attempted to ask them, in my limited French, to please slow down and talk slowly so that I could understand them. Invariably, that was greeted with all of them talking at t even faster pace to each other and then to myself. I could hardly understand their French, and asked ¢Who speaks English best?¢ I thought that if I did this, I could get the message across better and faster. In English, I attempted to tell them about their friend whom I had passed. They told me they had been .sitting, and waiting, for her and the others she was with, wondering what had happened to them.The Montreal French-Canadians are known for their ability to speak quite rapidly, but I did not know that lips and tongues could form words as fast as these young ladies were able to do it. It was overwhelming the barrage of words that came flying at me in mass each time I tried to tell them to speak slowly as if they were determined to overwhelm me with their ability to process their language (which I understood none of, quite frankly), and their English wasn¢t much slower or clearer either. I noticed during this communication that one of the young girls whom I met in the second group that I came upon was an orthodontists dream. She had a very lovely smile and a very wide mouth in which he would obviously more metal than required to build a battleship. She was very pleasant, but like the others, she spoke so fast that sparks flew, and she looked a lot like a welder putting together a sky-scraper. But I digress. Finally, I ended up relaying the message about her ill friend to another of her cohorts, who was able to understand a little bit of English. And so it went until I finally found the leader of the group, the 18-year-old counselor, two miles ahead of the closest group, sunning in the rendezvous spot under the power lines near the Shelter. Once I had relayed all of my messages to all those involved, I was very happy to pick up my pace and enjoy the rest of the day en route back to the comfort of the Gull Pond Lodge. As I exited the woods, Bob was sitting there waiting for me at Route 17. I sat down in the car, having put my pack in the trunk, and had not been there for more than 30 seconds before it started to rain. And it continued to rain heavily throughout the rest of the evening and much of the night. I cannot tell you how glad I was to have returned to the Red Onion for the second evening in a row (for another BBQ chicken salad and a cheeseburger to replace the pizza) instead of being in the woods trying to cook a meal and stay dry at the same time (a basic impossibility!). I had Bob join me for dinner as my guest at the restaurant, and we had a very pleasant time chatting with one another before he picked up another hiker, Chef, who was staying at the lodge with us. Before going to bed and finishing this journal entry, I got on the phone with ¢Bear¢ at the cabin and made arrangements for him to deliver the car to the South Arm Road, which is 13 miles from where Bob will drop me off tomorrow to slack pack again. This time, it will be over Beamus Mountain, which is much more rugged terrain than what I enjoyed today, but the ability to carry 10 lbs or less is undeniably refreshing. Now to sleep.