Date: 2003-10-16
From: guilford, me

To: trailhead @ us201
Miles today: 0.0

true north's parents drove down from canada yesterday so that they could pick kim up this morning. she has to get back up to new brunswick for a meeting or something. we bid kim a farewell at just after six o'clock this morning. now, true north and raven shorts (is that what i call her? or do i call her little red? or red raven? i'm not too sure. she doesn't have a whole lot to say. kim said that it has gotten to the point where she hates this thru-hike and just wants it to be over with) are going to use the hearse to continue slackpacking for the rest of their hike. i'm not exactly sure how they're going to do it, but they are. true north tried to explain it to me, but it just sounded complicated.true north and i sat in the dining room and ate muffins and pastries for breakfast while talking trail, guitar, and photography. he is the type of person that i would like to hike with if i were doing a hike when most people hike, i.e. spring and summer. after breakfast he and i went to the local laundry mat so that i could finally wash my clothes and he could wash some of theirs as well. i, of course, wore my scrubs to the laundry mat. i'm telling you- they're a winner. a great topic of conversation. everyone wants to know about the scrubs. while at the laundry mat i decided that i was, in fact, going to forego the section with the rivers. true north got the road map out of the hearse and we figured out how i could get around this section. with a little hitching and a little luck i would be able to pick up the trail near joe's hole at moxie pond this afternoon and be in the town of caratunk tomorrow.we checked out of the trebor mansion inn, robert wished all of us the best of luck, and true north, raven, and i went about town collecting provisions for our further travels. we left the town of guilford -heading for monson- and parted ways at a crossroads. true north and little red raven shorts were heading back up to where they left off last night. we shook hands and the hearse pulled away, leaving me standing at the crossroads- just me and my pack and the open road in front of me. it doesn't get much better than this.i started walking down route 16 towards the town of bingham. now what was the name of that little gravel road that will take me to joe's hole? i guess it would really help if i could remember. of course, i have no idea what it is called. it is okay. i'll just walk along and stick out my thumb whenever a car drives by and eventually one will stop and pick me up and when i say joe's hole, they will know exactly where i am talking about. two things about hitchhiking: 1) why is it that when a car drives by and you stick out your thumb, the person behind the wheel always tries so hard not to make eye contact with you? it is like, if they don't make eye contact, then maybe you won't actually see them. 2) why is it that when a car drives by and you stick out your thumb, the person behind the wheel always swerves way over into the other lane so as to get as far away from you as possible? do they think that you are going to try to jump out and grab onto their car or something? just curious.i walked almost four miles before someone finally pulled over to pick me up. i'd seen him drive by earlier heading the other way. when i opened the door he told me that he was going down to his house to put his dog out (which was in the back of the van and didn't want to have anything to do with me) and that he'd be waiting for me. i got to chuck's house and he was sitting there waiting just like he said he would be. i climbed in the van and off we went. i asked chuck if h knew how to get to joe's hole and he said he didn't know how to get there by road. he could get there through the woods, but he'd never been there on the road. he said that he'd forgotten his road map at the house so we decided that we'd just head into bingham and try to figure out something there. i had a very nice ride with chuck. he told me all kinds of stories about coming up to maine. he and his wife had bought some land up here over twenty years ago and were just now building a house on it.we finally got to the town of bingham- which, meant that we'd driven right by the gravel road that i wanted, we just didn't know which one it was. chuck pulled up to a gas station and i told chuck that he could just let me out so that he could get back to his house. he asked if i was sure and i told him to go on. we shook hands, i thanked him for the ride, and he wished me luck. i asked in the gas station if they knew how to get to joe's hole. nobody knew which road it was off of route 16. then, i asked how far it was to the town of caratunk. the woman said that it was sixteen miles up US201, about twenty minutes. and, if you're walking. a little longer.i started walking up US201 towards caratunk. i ducked into some woods at one point to wait for a rain shower to pass. after walking three miles or so, a fellow by the name of nate finally pulled over to give me a lift. i told him that as soon as i saw the kayak on top of his jeep, i knew he was the one. he and his friend, adam, laughed at that. they said that they were heading up to nate's cabin for the weekend and were driving right by where the AT crosses 201. it wasn't long before i arrived at my destination. i thanked nate for the ride and he said anytime, honking the horn as he and adam pulled away.i walked up a small hill to the trailhead parking lot and decided that this would be the perfect place to set up my rocket-made tent for the night. i stashed my pack in the woods and walked down into caratunk- the booming city that it is. apparently, it is a good little town, but the end of town that i saw didn't have a whole lot going on. there were a few houses and the post office and that was pretty much the extent of it. the post office was already closed for the day, but had a payphone outside, so i made a few phone calls. the sun set and it started to rain while i was talking on the phone. that's just great. now i get to walk back to the trailhead and set up my tent in the rain.i got back to the trailhead and started looking for my pack. i hid it real good. almost too good. it was almost ten minutes before i found it. the rain did stop just as i started to set up the tent and the clouds have even gone away. tonight i will fall asleep to the diesel drone of the logging trucks speeding by on US201. tomorrow i will take the ferry across the mighty kennebec river and then i will hike south.