Date: 2013-09-15
From: Frye Notch Lean-to

To: Andover, ME
Miles today: 14.6
Weather: overcast clouds

After three and a half days of almost continuous rain, we woke up to sunshine. Yay! It was supposed to be a beautiful day. Maybe now the mud would start to dry up? I slipped on the mud three times in the first four miles. It didn't help that nearly all the tread on my shoes was gone. They "only" had about 600 miles on them, but the miles had been rocky. My destination that evening was the tiny town of Andover, where my fourth and final pair of trailrunners was waiting for me. There wasn't any point in keeping my shoes out of the mud now, so I just walked through it all. That was kinda fun. When I got to Dunn Falls, I saw Tedlie and Limpin' Eagle, who was helping Fat Man Walking slackpack the ten mile section of trail between the two roads that go into Andover. He agreed to do the same for me, Zeus and Ahvoh. So, free of our packs, we continued on. It only took a few hours to hike those ten miles, but we did have a steep climb out of Sawyer Notch: 1200 feet in .8 mile (ufda!). The trail crews had even put in some re-bar to help us. Not to complain, at least we didn't have to climb it in the rain! And we were rewarded with a nice view at the top.Limpin' Eagle and Fat Man Walking were waiting for us, alcohol in hand, on the other side of a river we had to cross before we could get to the road. The trail maintainers had placed large rocks across the river, but these were submerged because of all the rain we'd had. FMW filmed us as we forded, hoping we'd do something stupid or memorable, but no such luck. He greeted me, as usual, with a hug and offered me some coffee-flavored brandy, which he had been hiking with for the past week or so. Gross. The five of us went to the deli in town to eat. I don't remember what I got, but I do remember that Zeus and Ahvoh each got the "special": two 10" pizzas and a 2-liter of pop. By the time dinner was over, my feet were so cold I was starting to get really irritable. So Limpin' Eagle drove me to the hostel, which was in a couple's home. It was fun to run into my hiker friends Gma and Ridgerunner there. I was looking forward to sleep, as it had been a very, very long week. But first I had some housekeeping to do. I did my laundry, took a shower and, though I was exhausted and it was after 10, went out onto the porch and returned a phone call. It was to a guy I had met and gone out a few times with before the trail. We had kept in touch the whole time I was on the trail, but I hadn't heard from him in about two weeks and was starting to wonder what was going on. He had left a message asking me to call him. When I did, I found out he no longer wanted to keep in touch. I was surprised, so I asked what (if anything) I had done, but he didn't really give a reason. I hung up, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me. I couldn't believe he would end this NOW, just a few weeks from the end. But as I reflected, I realized I had this coming: I had been wondering for a while how interested he was in me, so I had prayed a few weeks before that if he didn't like me he would just tell me (and vice versa). I got my answer, just not the one I wanted. Sleep did not come quickly that night.