Date: 2012-06-16
From: Monson, ME

To: Stealth Site
Miles today: 8.8

Last night at Shaw¢s, I watched The Little House on the Priaire ¢ the episode when Mary is first blind and goes to school for it. I had an okay night¢s sleep, but not as good as the previous night in a shelter. Weird. It was nice to rest on a soft bed anyway.This morning we watched some silly Sci-Fi movie about guys from the 1950s jumping forward in time to the 2500s. Beautiful women and scrawny, pale men lived underground and mutated humans (from radiation) lived above ground. The women were attracted to the 1950s men, of course, because they had muscles. It was great. And horrible. I have found out that it is called "World Without End."We ate the all-you-can-eat breakfast this morning, after which I had to diarrhea again. It looked like both bathrooms were being used, so I was waiting as best I could, but I was getting desperate. I lay down on the floor in front of the bathrooms and saw no light coming from one of them. I knocked and when no one answered I went in. I was so relieved, yet so annoyed that someone had shut the door.Steven wanted to leave because he didn¢t want to pay for another night (even in a tent) and I understood. It was quite a bit of money. So, we had Dawn drop us off at the trail head, skipping 3 miles of trail, and we hiked on. I guess that makes us yellowblazers, but 3 miles is not as bad as 20 or 100 like some people. I still have the lovely curse of diarrhea. My favorite. We have pills I can take, but if it is some bug, I¢d rather just flush it out of my system. We stopped at Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to for lunch. I had my Chobani (I didn¢t eat dinner last night) and an apple and a few Applejacks. Oh, speaking of ¢ we have decided on trail names. I am Applejack and Steven is The Count. Hahaha! He was going to be Count Chocula, but we agreed that would have been a better name if he were black. Plus he¢d never even eaten that cereal.We had two fords today ¢ east and west branches of the Piscataquis River. Neither was scary. We stopped just after the west branch for the day, making it an 8.8 mile day. But if you count the 3 skipped miles, it was an 11.8 mile day. My dogs are barkin¢! My feet are still not conditioned for hiking all day, apparently. My arches ache.Matt and Sharon passed us sometime and are now 2 days ahead of us. I feel sad about that, but I know we¢ll make other friends. Straw Hat stayed another night at Shaw¢s and I think Charlotte did too. Oh well. Ducky, Roach, Sad Fish, and Stealth all passed us today. We forded together and they went on to the next shelter, six miles from here. I am glad we are where we are. A little close to the trail, but not too big of a deal.The sun is still fairly high, but it is after six. I should make dinner. I¢m sure The Count is hungry. He had 2nds and 3rds at breakfast!! Plus I have him most of my home fries. The Count calculates that we are about 5.7% complete with hiking the trail. Woo! Time out here seems so different. We sleep and wake with the sun (well, sleep at least). It is 7:40 and the sun is getting lower and I believe we are in the tent for the night. The tree tops are still lit and birds are still singing, but I am tired. I know because I¢m on the verge of tears when The Count reads out loud. I think I will read some of our Sci-Fi book which is hysterically awful before we sleep.I showered yesterday, but I think I smell worse now than the day before. Strange.