Date: 2008-09-07
From: Stealthsite .1 north of Oberton Stream, ME

To: Stealth site @ the Carrabasset River, ME
Miles today: 10.3

Wow did it pour last nite...ALL nite long. It rained so hard (thanks to tropical storm Hanna) that it drowned out the sound of the huge waterfall that was about 150 feet down from me. It was a warm nite, 65 degrees when I woke. I love temps like that at nite. I don't have to work to stay warm at all. As nature (miraculously) works out here (at least most of the time), the rain stopped by daybreak....thank goodness, I didn't really feel like hiking in the rain today. I was up by 6:30 a.m., but did take a few minutes to enjoy the sound of the river rushing below. I took my time packing up and had to take a little extra time to try to dry some stuff off (like my tarp). I was hiking by 8:20 a.m. I knew today would be shorter than yesterday, and tomorrow will be shorter than today...I like that. First thing was a 3.5 mile climb up to Lone Mtn. For the first mile, the trail went right along that same waterfall. Really beautiful to watch. There was someone camping just up the trail from where I'd camped. They looked more like campers, not long distance hikers. I didn't see anyone though. About 2.5 miles up, I crossed Perham Stream and road, which is where I was supossed to slackpack from, but the shuttle never showed. Just as well, I've missed camping, and tonight might be my final nite of solo camping if the rest of my slacking plan works. Today was a big day in many ways actually. I knew it could be my final solo camping, I know I will not witness another full month pass while I'm a hiker, and, I hit 200 miles TO KATAHDIN!! Tonight, I'm at 196.2 miles left. Hard to believe really... So another mile of somewhat steep climbing had me on top of Lone Mtn. The first 2.5 miles looked steep on the topos, but weren't too bad really. It was friendly trail too, no major rocks. I stopped to have a snack and called Karen. Ok, so I think she's discovered the way to our total indepent wealth. She told me she cooked ramen noodles with a coffee maker!! LOL I told her she should write a meal book for the bachelor and travelling person. How hilarious is that? So instead of crock-pot cooking, it can be Coffemaker Cooking! So, it was windy and cool up on Lone Mtn., so I moved on. It was another few miles to Spaulding Mtn. lean-toso I decided to stop there for lunch. The Kennebec River Ferry schedule is posted. That's coming up soon. I remember learning about that from Lion King's video "Walking with Freedom." I'm finally almost there. I started eating lunch, and a guy named Bilge Rat (MO) showed up. He has a great attitude. He decided to call it a day @ 8 miles. See, at this point many nobo's have the luxury of being able to slow down, and I'm glad to see some of them do that. He told me Racoon (Lipstick's hubby) was @ the shelter last nite, so I left Racoon a note telling him I'd be in Stratton tomorrow. I'd love to meet him, especially considering Lipstick has been an avid reader of my journal. I so rarely get to meet all of you wonderful readers, so it's pretty exciting when I can. Oh..I keep forgetting. I've been asking every nobo I've met if they've seen the following 3 hikers: Sailor, Rockstar, or Seattle Sailor. Nobody has seen them and I've not seen anything in the (few) registers I've signed or thumbed thru. Has anyone out there seen these 3? Last I heard from my guestbook, Sailor and Rockstar were about 1 week behind me when I was in Vermont. I kept expecting to run into them as I took days off, but never have. Anyway, I ate lunch and then Bilge showed me amazing video and pics he got of a female moose feeding in a pond we both hiked past yesterday. He was about 3 hrs behind me. It was swimming around and diving. Moose are amazing, I had no idea they were such water-based animals. I was getting pretty cold even with my rain jacket on, so I got some water and moved on around 12:15 p.m. I had about 5.3 more miles to go. Next was climbing Spaulding Mtn., a little over .5 up then .5 right back down. It looked pretty steep, but actually could have been worse. The sun tried to peek out, but it was short lived. Very windy and white fog blowing around in patches. I got back down and stopped to mark the 200 miles left point! Wow, I remember hitting my 1000 mile mark way back before Harper's Ferry. I cn't believe I have (now) less than 200 miles to go!! Just a bit further up the trail was a sign in a big rock. It was marking the spot where the members of the Civilian Conservation Corps completed the final link of the entire AT on 8/14/1937. Prety cool to think about what THAT accomplishment must have felt like. I took some pics and headed on. There was a clearing with a view. I could see Caribou Valley Road, where I thought I'd be hiking to, and then slacking from originally, but it just ended up being easier logistically for me to hike 8 more miles to Maine 27, so I wouldn't have to get a shuttle, because this road wasn't passable with a low clearance car according to those who drive it. So I just did in 2 days what I planned to do in 3, so I'm sort of proud about that. The view was nice with some blue sky and lots of mountains in te distance. Maine is the best folks. It was more lovely flat winding trail. Most of today had nice trail with some sections of bog, boardwalks, some flooded parts from the rain last nite, and mud, but overall it was hikeable. I started the descent down to Carrabasset River, and now it got nasty again. It was like a mini version of the Whites, with huge rocks, slow going and straight down. This was only about .5 of steep dtuff, but it seemed to take forever. You're on the side of the mountain and can see the other 2 mountains next to you as well as all the way down to the valley with the river running through it. A sort of teaser to know you're headed to that river, but taking so long. I heard the clicking of poles behind me, and stopped to let them pass. It was those 4 hikers I'd described as standoffish a few days back..Banjo and Half Elvis' friends. They were a bit more amiable today. I slowly made my way down. I came upon this bright orange shirt with a picture of some man's face on the front. I always wonder if it was someone's prized posession. I finally got down to river level, but the trail parallels it a bit. I was getting impatient, because where ever the trail crossed the river was where I was going to look for a stealsite. The Carrabasset river is a strong and wide river. Finally, I got to the crossing.   Someone has layed a board over 2 rocks in the middle of the river. There was a smal clearing right next to the trail, but I preferred to be a little more stealthy, so I dropped my pack and headed down a vague path along the river. You can pretty much always count on some stealth site existing by a body of water out here. I kept cutting through the woods and then I found my perfect spot. My gut told me to keep coming this direction, and man did it pay off. It's a small cleared area, maybe .15 from the trail, but totally hidden and about 150 ft from the river. PERFECT! I went back for my pack and set up camp. I hung my bear rope up like a clothsline so it could dry and so I could hang some other items to dry a bit (pack towel, hiking clothes). It was 4:00 p.m., my favorite kind of hiking day, an early end with all the miles completed that I wanted. I filled my waters and changed into my camp clothes. I sat down to make my dinner and was just really enjoying this perfect spot on probably my final nite alone out here. These woods have kept me safe, and I will never ever look at the acres and acres of untouched forest as a scary or unsafe place again. It is my home, a place of peace and security for me. A place I will undoubtedly return to many times in the coming years of my life. It is invaluable to me that I now feel 110% comfortable out here by myself. I love it, and it is so empowering. I know there are more people than not that would ever camp alone out here, and I do understand that feeling. I had to deal with it after Damascus last year, but I'm here to tell you folks...if you think you can overcome the initial freakiness of it, try it. It's amazing. I cooked dinner, but had something happen for the first time. My fuel burned down and I (as usual) put too much water in, so I went to add more fuel to cook the water down. I do this almost every nite by the way. I poured a bit more alcohol in, and even though the previous batch was all burned, this stuff ignited without me lighting it. It startled me, I jerked my hand up and fuel got on my fingers. I noticed blue flames on my hand and my little 1 oz Nalgene bottle, so I dropped the bottle and put the flames out on my hand. Absolutely zero burns, it was just the alcohol burning, but I did feel heat. Now my bottle is still burning, so I picked it up. I didn't want to catch the leaves on fire, and the quickest way to burn thru a tiny bit of alcohol is to blow on the flames to add oxygen. I did this, it burned out and now the top of my bottle, were the threads are for the screw cap, was partially melted. Before it totally cooled, I screwed the cap on and off to try to! mold some threads on so it would hold. It worked. Weird, I've never had that happen before. I think it ignited because obviously the stove is still piping hot, but just as I poured it in, a light gust of wind blew. Just me trying to create a pyrotechnics show for myself this evening. I ate dinner, hung my food and it's cooling off quickly. I'm all snugged in and it's only 6:30 p.m. Awww yeah!! The sound of the rushing river is fantastic. I couldn't be in a better spot. Tomorrow it's about 8 tough miles over the Crockers (2 summits) and into Stratton. Karen is meeting me @ Maine 27 around 2:30. Looking forward to a hot shower already. It's 57 degrees and a bit breezy. Less than 200 to Katahdin. ~Certain