Date: 2010-08-30
From: Crocker Cirque Campsite

To: Cranberry Stream Campground
Miles today: 9.2

 30th August Monday ¢ 9.2 miles to Cranberry Stream CampgroundThe wind blew my tent around all night. It was so bright outside from the moon that I wore my hat over my eyes. We didn¢t have any Moose visitors last night. I did have a weird dream but it didn¢t involve any wild animals with giant horns.Last night I dreamt that I was in an art class. The art teacher wouldn¢t let me leave class until I had drawn something frightening. I had a creative block for a while and couldn¢t get out of the room. I decided to draw Cheeseburger in the place of Abe Lincoln at the memorial in Washington, DC. Cheeseburger had become a national hero by killing all the mosquitoes with a super soaker. It was reminiscent of the Planet of the Apes scene when I realized that I haven¢t been home in a long time and things have changed without me. Drastic changes had taken place like putting a German kid in the place of Abe Lincoln.Before heading out of the campsite for the morning I had breakfast with Wizard. He was up early and searching for a moose at the marsh near our camp. Neither of us has seen one yet. Wizard saw the legs of a giant cow just as she ran away. Wizard has poor vision and hearing so when someone told him to look; he shouted, ¢What?¢ and spooked the only moose he could have seen.Seeker was by the entrance to Crocker Cirque campsite as I was leaving. She managed to insult me before 7am, which is rare for anyone. She disagreed with our choice to camp further away than where she put her tent. Her tent was on the AT. Her tent was also closer to the spring. I didn¢t tell her but I chose my tent site based on the fact that I liked Wizard and I wanted to hang out with him instead!The hike up South Crocker Mountain wasn¢t as hard as I¢d imagined it would be. It wasn¢t even that remarkable. The views were basic and mundane, but I was still having a wonderful morning. The trail reminded me of those calm Virginia ridgelines. Things didn¢t get that exciting up there. Nothing today was dangerous or worrisome to deal with. I had plenty of time to start thinking about life after the trail. I could think about something besides not breaking a bone, for a change. I thought about a Sea Tow summer job and a ski patrol winter job. Seasonal jobs in North Carolina. I bet I could talk a ski patrol company into giving me a shot. They¢d have to respect the fact that I¢d hiked the AT.I passed a nice couple from Georgia on the way down to Stratton. I¢ve been hearing a lot of day hikers and section hikers tell me, ¢Congratulations!¢ This started after I¢d completed NH and has been a common occurrence ever since. I¢ve got to admit that today¢s accolades feel nice. It¢s nice to be complimented and congratulated by two people, but it¢s more special coming from Georgia residents. They drove here, but I walked here! The two Georgia residents started hiking in the Whites but decided to leave NH and come to Maine for a more pleasant vacation experience.Moss (thru-hiker) was by the road crossing when I arrived. She¢s feeling weird because of the hitch she¢d just received from Stratton. Someone picked her up on the back of a motorcycle. She could barely stand up because she was so nervous on the bike. She didn¢t even correct me when I tried hitching the wrong direction to town.A local Stratton resident picked me up. She doesn¢t know anything about Caratunk¢s resupply options either. No one knows anything about Caratunk. She tells me to ask the manager at the Stratton Motel. She gave me the local tour on the way into town.Nesta, Squash, and Phinous were piling into a truck to head back to the AT. They¢d spent the night at the motel. Nesta recognized me and complimented my fantastic beard. We tried to remember where we¢d seen each other last as their ride started to leave. We haven¢t seen each other since the ATOM breakfast that the church in Bland! Squash said he¢d passed me that day I fell asleep by the waterfall near Perham stream.I saw Conan and Backwards getting out of a truck by the general store. The decent from Sugarloaf Mountain had exhausted them yesterday. Conan, Backward, and Pony slept by the road the last night. They tented close to Crocker Cirque by the gravel road parallel to the river.The store is similar to grocery stores typically found in southern North Carolina. The people are similar to North Carolina mountain residents. There is a decent selection of food at the Stratton grocery. They actually carry produce! Lots people are into hunting as apparent by the animals on the walls. The prices resemble North Carolina also. The cost of living must be lower. The gasoline tax is heavily imposed. No one in Stratton knows anything at all about Caratunk. Except this guy! He¢s wearing a plaid shirt and torn blue jeans. This guy informs me that there¢s a convience store in Caratunk. He comes to my rescue and now I don¢t need to carry a lot of food.The local Hardware store is a strange place. There¢s a small black bear and two wolves in the store front window. This is what they use as advertisement in Maine? Taxidermy!? This is truly a strange world. My coffee and toothpaste were just below the snarling head of a black bear. The bears face looked like a circus freak. The poorly formaldehyde frozen face looks like it has fleas. Maybe it had mange or scabies I think to myself.¢Its 70 years old¢ says the gum smacking cashier of the hardware store.She¢d noticed me staring at the head with confusion all over my face. I wondered if it was a joke. A joke creature like a jackalope, which resembles a rabbit with horns. I can hardly tell her how happy I am! I¢ve found toothpaste. It¢s been a while since I¢ve found the individual fun size Colgate. The cashier allows me to charge my malfunctioning cell phone battery. There aren¢t any pay phones in town. The post office is closed so I can¢t send a letter.Conan, Backward, Wizard, and I are waiting for the Wolf Lodge Restaurant to open. We¢re loitering by the Hardware store and I can¢t stop talking about taxidermy. No one else noticed the freakshow but me. The Wolf restaurant has a 1 pound burger but they don¢t open until 11am. I joke with Wizard for trying to give me sardines when I didn¢t think I was going to have enough food. Those things are disgusting. I wouldn¢t eat them unless I was starving. I felt bad because Wizard tells me he loves sardines. Then I felt guilty and apologized. I promised Wizard I would eat a can of sardines on Katahdin with him if we made it there.Its 11am and its lunch time for Conan, Wizard, Backwards and me! The wolf dinner bell was ringing. The $6.95 crunchy chicken bbq with chips on a stick caught my eye. Wizard is getting the 1 pound wolf burger. The Wolf Burger is 1/2lb hamburger and 1/2lb sausage. There¢s a Christmas themed decoration in the corner of the Wolf lodge restaurant. I had to sit there! I couldn¢t resist sitting where I could eat and face my fear. My fear of hornets and Christmas! The back of the diner has Christmas lights, garland, festive red bows and 13 dried out hornet nests. The nests look like peeling birch wood.There are meat locker plastic curtain obstructions on the way to the restroom. The cook admonishes me to watch my step as I approach the draping clear plastic wall. Accessing the back seating area involves the navigation of a 2ft drop. The reserved area is a new addition to the older structure of the building. They¢re expanding but they forgot to make the floor level. Now there¢s a huge stairway between their customers and the only bathroom. It appears dangerous. Hornets nests, cliffs, and taxidermy all make for a pleasurable experience at the Wolf Restaurant.My $6.95 chicken bbq is a rip off. My sandwich has two deep fried chicken tenders with bbq poured on top. Wizard is enjoying his beast of a meal. Conan and Backwards orders dessert. I¢m busy admiring the Native American d©cor artwork throughout the store. The diner has a crappy jukebox selection. There several photographs of wolves on every wall.Seeker arrives and orders the Wolf Burger also. She makes a scene when her burger arrives and her Wolf burger is still a little to wild for her. The burger was still bleeding as she ate the sandwich with large chomps. Seeker is tiny but she has a big¢¦appetite. The waitress didn¢t like us anymore after she loudly announced that her burger wasn¢t done.Everyone talks about how they¢ve got to stop eating so much. We can eat like animals out here. Things will change with our appetites when we get back home. I hope I start eating like a bird. This fancy food isn¢t all it¢s cracked up to be. The waitress was familiar with Bill Irwin, the blind hiker. He came through the restaurant when he was thru-hiking and he was skinny as a rail. The waitress told us that when he returned some years later, that he¢d gained about 100lbs!After dinner I walked back to the Hardware store to check on my cell phone. Eck! It¢s not charging at all. In fact, the battery has gone down even farther. There is a short in the phone charging system and I don¢t know what to do. I have to call Lish. We¢re trying to figure out the logistics of meeting at Katahdin. That¢s a good problem to have! We can¢t talk long on my phone I explained. The phone is officially dying. She¢s planning to take the shuttle to Baxter the day before. She¢s cleaning her apartment and moving out. We try figuring out the best way to coordinate my evacuation but we don¢t have enough information.There is a community bulletin board outside the Hardware store. There are various advertisements. Some examples are carwash service, house cleaning companies and a Butchering Service. The Butcher company is offering free skinning service for trophy animals. Bears, deer, antelope, and Moose are their specialty. The Butcher chose to include a graffic image in his advertisement photo. There in the background of the picture is a meat locker full of red beefy skinless animal corpses. Showing a little skin! *rimshot*That¢ll work!The Butchers ad also stated ¢We know we¢re a little bit out there so we¢re offering free skinning services¢. I guess they say that to let you know they¢re serious? They¢re not joking. This is weird but they still charge by the pound. I can¢t imagine working at that company. Stratton is a weird town and I have got to get out of here.Before Backward and Conan could get there bags packed I already had a ride out of town. I¢ve got to get out of this place. I apologize to Conan about not giving them the courtesy of waiting until they were prepared to leave. I¢m leaving right now though and they¢re welcome to wait. This town scares me. We hope in the back of the truck and are off to grand adventures.I love hitchhiking! I love the feeling of the wind in my hair and friends in the back of a truck. I feel so free when I get to see the forest zooming by. It feels like flying when you look up and there¢s no ceiling. The top down and the blue sky! We scored some wine in the hiker box. Backward has s¢mores and we¢re going to have a great night. We¢re feeling pretty excited about the chocolate and marshmallows tonight.We take a break by the highway before hiking to prepare our newly resupplied food bags for travel. I¢m tempted to hike on to the shelter tonight to meet Caribou and Yolo. Caribou is an old friend who is deaf. Yolo, is his service dog. Caribou has been going to schools and talking with children about his hiking experiences. Today or tomorrow Caribou will pass us as he heads south on the AT to complete his hike. I¢m tempted to see Caribou, Nesta, Squash, and Yolo but I think I¢ll stay with the marshmallows.The hiking is surprisingly uphill and difficult after eating town food. The campsite was secluded and nice but there¢s a sign telling us we can¢t have a fire here. This causes an initial bummed attitude but we reinterpreted the no fire sign. Kindle, no fires here is what it stated. We surmised that it was referring to an individual whom name is Kindle. He shouldn¢t start fires here, not us. We¢re professionals. So we start a fire and get it roaring hot before a group of Tuffs University students arrived. The Tuffs kids are on an orientation group outing. After the awkwardness of sharing a campsite with them wore off I decided to go be friendly to them. We¢re neighbors tonight. The Tuffs kids seemed to be the friendliest and nicest of all the orientation groups so far.Pony and Seeker arrive later and set up camp. Pony is a 35 year old bartender from Ohio. Pony has a social studies degree and he¢s not a fan of the educational system of our country. Teaching is the only job he can get with a social studies degree. Pony tells me stories that lead me to believe I may have to cut my beard when I return home. Jobs that require sanitation may also require a hairless employee. Pony and I easily become friends when I realize he¢s completely honest about everything he says. Pony doesn¢t cut corners, he gets to the point. He¢s blunt and tells you exactly what he¢s thinking. I like people like that!Backwards starts a sing-a-long with the Tuffs kids. We sung ¢Stand by Me¢. I kept time by doing the bass guitar part with my voice. The rest of the group wanted to sing ¢Wagon Wheel¢ and I lead that song. We tried singing ¢Take a load off Fanny¢ and a few others but we really couldn¢t remember the words. We ended the night with a long question and answer session. The a group of 17-18 year old college freshmen quizzed us on our lives and reasoning behind such an adventure as the Appalachian Trail. The questions were poignant and snarky but very friendly. We joked with them and they joked back.The night ended with a description of the Tuffs University mascot. I¢d asked who or what is the Tuffs University mascot. They told me it was an elephant. Their mascot is an elephant named, Jumbo. The school was built with donations from Barnum and Bailey circus. Apparently, the circus sent an elephant with the money.Personally, this is where I stopped believing in the Jumbo story.Jumbo the elephant, rescued a human from being struck by a freight train. I would assume the elephant was being used in the construction of the school facilities. The school funded by circus money that is. Anyways, the elephant knocked a person off the rail road tracks and was hit by the moving train.Jumbo was now a hero to the working class and the university of Tuffs. The University honored the heroic act by announcing that Jumbo would represent their school as their mascot. The body of Jumbo was mounted by a taxidermist and placed inside the halls of the university library. Years went by and the elephant stood proudly in the heart of the campus. That was until the library caught on fire and burned to the ground. The ashes of Jumbo were all that remained of his heroic memory.The school rescued the cremated remains of all that was left of Jumbo. The ashes of Jumbo the honorable circus elephant were placed in an empty glass jar.The ashes of Jumbo now rest forever in the halls of Tuffs University in a beautiful glass urn of Skippy¢s brand peanut butter.Believe it or not!