Date: 2010-09-05
From: Joe's Hole/Moxie Pond Campsite thingy

To: Monson
Miles today: 20.4
Weather: broken clouds

05 September Sunday ¢ 20.4 miles to MonsonEveryone slept in today despite going to bed early. The group of people we¢re staying with at the cabin picked on us for crashing last night at 8:30pm. The hikers don¢t have anything better to do after it gets dark, so we sleep. Going to bed between the hours of darkness just becomes a habit. Compass and Southern are asleep cowboy style in their sleeping bags by the dead campfire. I can¢t believe they¢re not soaking wet from the dew fall. I can¢t bring myself to sleep outside my tent.I sat out in front of the cabin and ate my pop-tarts for breakfast. I tried making tea but I turned my hot water over. My gas is running low so I couldn¢t make another pot of hot water. My stove wasn¢t level so I put a piece of plastic to even it out. The stove burnt into the plastic and I had a hard time getting it un-stuck. Through the ruckus that I was causing a few people woke up, but no one packs to leave. Conan and Backward leave to get a head start but everyone else waits for breakfast.I¢m going nuts waiting around for everyone to pack up to leave. The coffee sucks and I¢m ready to go. I hate loitering around and waiting on the kindness of someone else to help me. The group of law students didn¢t seem to keen on giving up their bacon. I sensed this and was ready to leave. The cornflakes and milk settled me down and I decided to wait for my friends. Compass went back to Moxie Pond to catch something with his fly rod. Tree and Hot Foot are talking about doing huge miles today and I¢m starting to doubt that. It¢s 9am and we¢re stalled out here waiting on the charity of strangers! I¢m surprised at their lack of motivation, especially with Monson so close.Rock¢n¢Roll and Cowgirl arrived and we had to wait for them to eat breakfast. Rock¢n¢Roll had camped within hearing distance of us last night. They were 0.1 miles right behind us. They could hear the noise and almost came over. It¢s a shame they missed the campfire with Reese¢s s¢mores! Boone and Stella also missed out on the trail magic here at Lynn¢s campsite. Boone was impatient and left for the Bald Mountain lean-to site.The Moxie Bald profile is frightening to look at. I¢m curious to see what it¢s going to be like. We really believe we¢ll be able to see Katahdin today for the first time. The first legitimate time seeing Katahdin! The weather is nice today so we really believe it will happen this time! Boone was still getting ready to leave when we arrived at his campsite. Boone is camped at the foot of Moxie Bald. Stella, the ice blue eyed husky is running around when we arrive. Stella took a dump right in the middle of the trail and I scrapped it up and threw it in the woods.Moxie Bald wasn¢t anything to worry about. Not that difficult at all. Gradual and nothing we couldn¢t handle after a night of munching on junkfood. At one point last night the tall bleach blonde girl dropped a bag of M&M¢s. The tall girl who looks just like Marilyn Manson wouldn¢t eat the candy after it had fallen in the dirt. She refused to eat them but we graciously offered to assist in the clean up.We passed a young couple on the way to Moxie¢s summit. They had an obese chocolate lab with hazy blue eyes. I suspected the dog had trouble seeing as I passed by the owners who were restraining the dog. We¢d see the dog again once we reached the summit.Of course the summit is windy enough to knock you down. We reach the top and stop right in the middle of the bald. Tree and Hot Foot are tired and don¢t respond to my pleas to take shelter from the wind over by the trees. We sit down and strain our eyes off into the distance. We¢re looking for our prize, Katahdin! Rock¢n¢Roll said that someone described Katahdin¢s profile as being a ¢plateau¢ land mass. I don¢t understand this description, but one mountain to the north looks promising. It¢s behind another set of mountains that could be Whitetop. That could be it! It seems possible enough.The younger couple with the chocolate lab arrives a little after us. The Labradors name is, Skipper! I knew I liked that dog. The fat brown dog is blind as a bat and has to have help locating its water bowl. The labs owner tells us he thinks we¢re right about that mountain. We might have seen Katahdin for the first time today! We believe it, but it just seems to close to be true. It¢s so beautiful up here on Moxie Bald. The sky line on Moxie just doesn¢t seem real. This place is gorgeous beyond description.Rock¢n¢Roll tells us about his wacky life on the way down from Moxie¢s summit. Rock¢n¢Roll has driven to Canada from Kentucky a few times. He¢s a kindergarten teacher but he¢s been to prison. He was busted for possession by a forest ranger who helped him build a campfire. Rock¢n¢Roll went to ¢Big Boy¢ camp where they shaved his head and tried to teach him how to be a better person in society. Someone at the ¢Big Boy¢ camp kept slipping him magazines under his ¢bunkroom¢. The mysterious person leaving magazines under his door eventually expected repayment for his generocity. Rock¢n¢Roll described the magazine loaner guy as being a weirdo.¢Let me so yo feet!¢ demanded the magazine dealer from outside his roomRock¢n¢Roll doesn¢t seem to be the type for teaching kindergarten. What a strange occupation for such a funny and outgoing person. Rock¢n¢Roll is easy going. He seems patient. I find it hard to believe him. I¢m not sure if he¢s telling the truth or not. Rock¢n¢Roll could be bullshitting us but I listen anyways.The school where Rock¢n¢Roll taught had a ¢Safety City¢. The ¢City¢ is a place where the kids play safely around a fake town with buildings and roads. The kids practiced crossing roads, following directions and obeying stop lights. They have a whole building dedicated to teaching kids to navigate towns without getting injured. The kids use go-karts to get around the town. There are fake store fronts, fire departments and police stations in ¢Safety City¢. They have a drug prevention course called ¢GREAT¢ instead of ¢DARE¢.Rock¢n¢Rolls class is divided into two different sides. Day and Night are separate sections of his kindergarten classroom. The Day side is used to teach the kids about sunlight and plants. The class has a giant black pet bunny named, ¢Egor.¢ Rock¢n¢Roll brings his dog to class if the kids are good. When he releases his dog, he plays the song ¢Who let the dogs out!?¢ Rock¢n¢Roll is funny, compassionate, and I can tell he¢s a kid at heart. I¢ve no doubt he would make an excellent teacher. If Rock¢n¢Roll was ever a real teacher. Now he wants less responsibility, which I can understand. Having those little brains in the palm of your hand must be a daunting task.I¢ve been thinking about becoming a teacher. I started thinking about my classroom. My class would be based around Native American history. The classroom could have a tee-pee. The children could learn about Native American philosophies concerning environmental conservation at a young age. I would teach them about being self-sustained but I would avoid the Native American religious beliefs.We ran into ¢Country Gold¢ at Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to. I could hardly believe my eyes when he walked around the corner of the shelter. He looks the same, but everything he¢s carrying seemed brand new. I haven¢t seen ¢Country Gold¢ since before Standing Indian shelter. That¢s a long, long time ago. He¢s still toothless, deaf and happy. Great seeing him again! He flipped south and he¢s got to return to DWG to complete his hike. Country is still as patriotic as ever with his USA bandana. This encounter makes me wonder how Fun Dip is doing. Fun Dip was also at DWG when I last heard. Country Gold was the last person I expected to see on the trail today. I didn¢t think he¢d make it past Tennessee.It¢s late as we leave the last shelter. The days are getting shorter and the darkness settles around us quickly. My headlamp is on the fritz with a short circuit. I¢m anxious about my lack of light. This is a problem that I should fix, but I¢m to frugal to purchase another light. My choice instead is to remain the presence of others who have functional headlamps. It¢s reckless, and not very Boy Scout minded, but a thru-hiker¢s got to do what a thru-hiker¢s got to do.Hot Foot walks behind me and Rock¢n¢Roll is leading the way through the darkness. Hot Foot¢s headlamp puts mine to shame. His light is as bright as a spot light. We pass Kentucky who¢s been desperately searching for Rock¢n¢Roll. Kentucky wants to ride back home with Rock¢n¢Roll. Kentucky lives, well, you can guess that. Kentucky plans to keep up with us so he can get a ride back home after Katahdin.I¢ve been joking with everyone about a trampoline being on the trail. There¢s a strange blip on the profile map that looks impossible to climb. The blip on the elevation chart makes the trail appear to climb straight up. I¢ve been telling everyone that I¢m not blue-blazing into Monson because of that blip. I told everyone that there is a trampoline located at the foot of a mountain and you have to bounce on it to get over the mountain. No one believes me enough to come along. Everyone is blue-blazing and taking the shortcut into Monson. I guess I¢ll give up and cheat like everyone else. This is my last official opportunity to cheat anyways. There aren¢t anymore blue-blazes listed in my guidebook.We set up camp in the dark on a snow mobile trail near the AT. It is pitch black outside so the stars above us are deep and endless. I eat Ramen noodles and Stove Top Stuffing (Pork Flavored) tonight. How do you make ¢Pork Flavored¢ bread anyways?We forded our first two rivers today. Not fake fording, but the real thing. My shorts really got wet this time. I took my socks off before getting in the river. I found the shallowest part of the stream to cross in and then everyone followed me. I took a video of both stream crossings. Rock¢n¢Roll and Hot Foot led the way through the second river crossing. They went on the deep side of the beaver dam and got wet all the way to their waists. I observed their error and went on the shallow side of the dam instead. I only got wet up to my ankles. We kept count of who was driest through the whole ordeal. I think I won.We¢re pretty excited about tomorrow¢s breakfast at Shaw¢s! Despite my lack of planning, I have made it to Monson! I left Caratunk with nothing but two packs of ramen, a pack of stuffing, and pop-tarts! Real food for tomorrow¢s breakfast is looking better by the minute. The Loon¢s are howling by our campsite tonight. There must be a pond nearby. Cowgirl calls it, ¢The Call of the Wild¢ and we all make fun of her. We¢re giggling at her corny comment from inside of our tents like school boys. Someone sets an alarm for 6:15am. My phone is officially busted and non-functional now. I can¢t even set my alarm anymore. I¢m falling apart at the very end. This isn¢t going to make the last 100 miles any easier. The plan is to make it to Shaw¢s when they open at 7am. The $7.99 AYCE breakfast sounds like the best deal on the AT!We fall asleep discussing several possible ¢Call¢s of the Wild¢ alarms for in the morning. Someone has to wake everyone up with the most unique noise they can think of. The question is what ¢Call¢ will it be?!?!?!