Date: 2009-06-20
From: Caratunk, ME

To: Rangeley, ME
Miles today: 79.9
Weather: overcast clouds

It's been an interesting hike since my last entry in Caratunk. We actually stopped in the next town of Stratton and I was going to do an update there but a 20 minute computer use limit did not allow sufficient time to make a good journal entry so I put it off until we arrived here in Rangeley.Since my last journal entry a lot has happened. I saw my first moose, and have enjoied the great sounds of the loons calling at night. The spring has sprung here in Maine and it's easy to see that the flower are blooming and the pollen is out in full force. One of the coolest things that's happend since leaving Caratunk was that Jukebox, Fiddler, Homeschool, Navajo and Happyfeet all decided to get up early (3am to be precise) to try and catch the sunrise on the top of Avery peak. Avery is a beautiful peak with scattered boulders and the remains of an old fire/weather tower. We didn't make it to the top of the mountain in time to catch all of the sunrise but we did make it halfway up or so and caught it through the trees with a beautiful red and orange light hitting the rocks as we climbed to the 4600' peak. When we made it to the top it was a beautiful clear day where you could see for miles! Amazing! On the same day we broke the 2000 mile barrier. As of this update we've finished 1/10 of the trail. It felt amazingly good to have lest than 2000 miles of trail left to do. Other things that have been amazing are the wonderful sunsets that we've gotten to experience more or less on a daily basis as the sun dips below the horizon while we're sitting on the shore of the lake enjoying a hot beverage and a snickers bar. It's been interesting because right before we were in Stratton we stayed at an AT lean-to that was right on the lake, the interesting part was that it was a Saturday night and the people were out on thier boats with stereos blaring music and you could tell they were partying it up. This was something that I didn't expect to find near an AT shelter, but if there is one thing that Maine has taught me, it's to expect the unexpected.While we stayed in Stratton we camped behind a bar that charged $5 for a primative campsite. It was nice to just be able to throw my tent up and enjoy the comforts of a really soft place to sleep (a different change of pace from the hard floors of the shelters. When we got into town we tried the glories of a giant Cheese pizza, a Woopie pie (it's a Maine thing, and I have no idea other than to explain it as a cake-like oreo as big as your hand with something like 900 calories in it) all to be washed down with a liter of Sunkist. Who would of thought that after that I'd still be losing weight...The hike from Stratton to Rangeley was not an easy one. We had two really long days and one day we hiked with a guy by the name of Ledge. He is a tenured professor at the university of Ohio, and his specialty is ecology. So he would tell us stories of the cool things he'd done in Alaska (like build his own house, eat lots of beans and make his own AM radio) His next project was to throw darts at earth and ask the question of human's impact on 4 randomly picked places. His goal is to travel there in via green transportation. Super nice guy but it took us a while because he'd stop in the trail to tell us the stories, so there would be times we'd stop for 5 or 10 minutes so it was slow hiking. Yesterday we woke up to rain but the plan was to hike 17 miles. little did we know but there were 3 mountain summits, with a temp of 50 degrees and wind in the 40mph range. So to say the least it looked like something out of a crazy adventure movie with rain pounding on the rainjackets and pants, the trail turning into a river and sliding through mud up and down all of the mountains. We finally made it to a sweet lean-to called Piazza Rock lean-to that had a really nice caretaker that gave us Oreos!! Anyhow I'm going to sign off until another town, so hopefully that will be Andover! Life is great, the guys I'm with are great and we're taking a nero today and a zero tomorrow and are splitting the cost of a really cool cabin along the lake! Awesome!!!!Take care and until next time take it a day at a time a step at a time!-Rojo