Date: 2007-08-20
To: Zealand Falls Hut
Miles today: 14.1

mi.14.1sleep hut/porchdest. Zealand Falls Hut day 39 Well all I have to say is I really can't sleep while someone is snoring. One of the northbounders was snoring so bad. He put my hiking partner Doctari to shame. I talked with Tootals and neither of us got a good nights sleep. After breakfest I did my role in the skit. I am going to have to post the pic, b/c it is halarious. I was wearing a blonde wig and a huge pink dress. I can honestly say a first. It was an Indiana Jones themed skit. I walked out said "Hah a blanket I'll never fold this. Trash let someone else carry it out. Ahh the golden coffee cake." The fell down and played dead. You had to be there. The pic is of me laying on the ground. Breakfest though was great. Bacon, eggs, gritts, peaches, and coffee. I think I might be th first thru hiker to put on weight in the whites.   I got the normal late start. But I had to make some miles. My goal was 14.1 miles away. If your keeping track that is what I did in the previous 3 days. Todays hike was pretty easy. Just one major down and up. Before that I hit up Webster Cliffs. A great view right on the trail. The crziest thing happened. I met a guy using the same pack that I use. That doesn't sound like much, until you realize the pack I'm using. Not many poeople use it. On the way down someone kind of funny, or at least to me at the time happened. I passed 2 women in their 30's section hiking. We talked for a minute. I told them my trail name was coffee. The one said that was great and she likes 3 strong cups a day. I told her that she was someone after my own heart. She said she was using instant. I cringed. I had some at a hut and it was aweful. She asked what I used and I said a coffee pess. She said oh you'll end up sending it home. I said not likely I use it 2 or 3 times a day for really good coffee. She said just wait and walked away. She didn't give me a chance to tell her it only adds like an oz to my pack. I should add her pack was bigger than mine anyways. Later on I came across a road and a trailhead. I got to thinking. In the 330 something miles I hiked so far this is only the 4th road I crossed that I didn't take into a town for a resupply. That's crazy. Not counting forest service or logging roads. 2 in the whole state of Maine. At the trailhead I met a former northbounder by the name of rockdancer. He was up doing trail magic. He said he didn't have anything for me. I told him no big deal. I have been getting tons from all the day hikers or people at the huts.   I also got the chance to talk to one of the caretakers at a tentsite that was leaving for his days off. He told me about the coolest thing that I am upset I missed. It has only been there for a few weeks so not a lot of people know about it. But on wildcat mountain there was the ski lift. There is a zip line on part of the ski lift that you can take. It is something like 1000 feet long. That would be an awesome ride. Probibly a few minute ride at that. I would have definitly hit that up if Oi had known about it. I also talked about how I liked to swim in everything. He told me about Therou Falls. I had seen that on the map but didn't know how far off trail it was. He said it was less than .1miles, and there was a pool you could swim in at the bottom. He also saiod how most thru hikers walk right by it. No way I was going to miss this. I got there and it was great. A long cascading waterfall over a solid rock bed. The whole thing had tp be a couple hundred feet. It probibly dropped about a hundred feet or so. Right next to it was also a solid slopeing rock face. It had large steps down. I walked most opf the way down with my pack. I left it towards the bottom at a big drop. I got down to the pool. It was over my head and about a 10 foot circle. I felt the water. Freezing of course. I stood there for a few minutes slowly getting wet. I finally out the courage and jumped in. My head didn't go under mind you. I didn't want the whole gag reflex to work against me. I was in this water for all of 5 seconds before I got out. Really cold. I did rinse out my hair. This was the first good rinse sinse Gorhem. I checked the time and I had plenty of time to make it to the hut. So I sat in the sun and played my tin whistle for awhile. I haven't done that in a while. I really need some practice. I also at some point bent one of the holes. It makes it a little hard to play, but still doable. The part of the trail before the hut was the easist I have hiked on to date. It is an ole railroad bed. Most of it was really flat. Some even had small rocks on it. Think more of a driveway than rocks to walk around. This hut has a really cool location. Rght next to a small waterfall. I walked in and talked with the hutmaster who I heard was really nice. She said it wasn't a problem. I sat around and talked with the people stying there for awhile. I asked one of the dads if he does any trips where they do not stay at the huts. He said yes. They hike up and around some of the peaks. Kind of not what I was looking for. I think most people that stay at the huts probibly don't hike in and camp anywhere where they have to setup a shelter and handle everything. I have an overall opinion of the hut system and the AMC working. I'll post it after I finish with all of them and get out of the hut system. Side bar. I'm laying in my hammock now at a stealth site, finishing up yesterdays journal. It's just before 9pm and dark. A bird of some type just flew into one side of my tarp and scared the crap out of me. A minute later the same thing happened on the other side. Things like that always seem to make me jump. When everyone at the hut was eating someone walked up to me and asked if I was coffee. I said yes. He introduced himself. He is Curt a southbounder who has been just behind me for awhile. I was wondering if anyone would catch me after I was moving this slow. He is also doing the work for stay here. We were talking and he also has a TJ. He only updates it when in town, but is probibly a good read. He was also saying that his mom is addicted to TJ and has been reading mine. Hi Karen, What's up?. I thought that was pretty cool. The hut crew gave us a ton of food. Chicken, rice, some chicken stir fry, peas, corn beard, chilli, and peanut butter and choclate bars. A lot of food that we couldn't finish. We were joking around that it was like double dare and we were "taking the physical challenge." But we couldn't finish. We both were stuffed.