Date: 2007-08-31
From: Caratunk ME

To: Moxie Bald Leanto
Miles today: 0.0

This morning I wake by way of my watch alarm in a bed in an enclosed room . I am going to take the 9am shuttle back to the trailhead. But first I go through all my gear, checking to make sure my batteries are charged for my Steripen, headlamp, camera, cell phone and IPOD. Then I go through my pack, inventorying the contents before cleaning and repacking the tent, poles, my big plastic bag for my sleeping bag, liner, clothes bag and chargers go in. I clean my platypus and gatorade bottle, pack my crocs, tent stakes, steripen and refelctive line. My hip pockets have my IPOD, camera, cell phone, sunglasses and headlamp, my side pockets have my guide book, journal, water bottle, fuel bottle and a large diameter straw for gathering water. On top of my clothes bag I put my thermarest, my cooking bag with stove, pot and spoon, my platypus and my personal item bag. On the outside pocket I put my crocs, tent stakes, line, steripen, rainjacket, raincover. My hiking clothes and dry boots I will wear to breakfast after a morning shower. There are many hikers here, Monkey, Cocoa, Sublime, Matterhorn, Sandwich, Gorilla, Hemlock, Rio and others that I don't know. Everyone seems to be on a similar schedule to summit. I will probably summit with some of them and others ahead and behind. There is still 151 more miles to hike, but all are excited to reach our goal. I have a plan to summit on September 10th. Lynne is coming up and picking up Taken at Manchester NH airport. Lady Green and Sir Wounded Knee, who I have been hoping to catch, are in the 100 mile wilderness. I hope to come upon them some day in the forest or on a mountain top. I will not catch Flick, he will summit soon. I have many thoughts about the summit and am hoping for a beautiful day and an emotional finish. But first I have much more work to do, many more days of hiking and many more wonderful experiences. Today it is cloudy and looks like rain. The forecast after this rain passes is good, so I will take advantage of it, but first I will return to muddy trail and wet forest. I will report later how it goes when I reach my new home in the forest. My Trail World days are numbered and I know it will be hard to finish but harder to leave an adventrue of my lifetime. I will be happy and sad at the same time. The hostle supplied a bus to shuttle the hikers back to the trail. We all walked most of the day together. There was Monkey, Cocoa, Caveman of Ohio, Hemlock and Rio. It looked like rain but none came. We hiked at a brisk pace, arriving at Pleasant Pond where we took our first break. We then summited Pleasant Pond Mountain, then descended into lower forest. We arrived at Bald Mountain Brook Leanto where we had planned to camp. It was early and Monson is calling so we went on up Moxie Bald Mountain, then steeply down to Moxie Bald Leanto where we ran into a big group from Colby College. We barely had space for our tents. Mine was on rocks on a camp trail. After setting up I had a dinner and went down to the brook for water. The stars are out tonight. The moon hasn't risen yet. I can see the Milky Way and the stars are reflected in the glassy surface of the beautiful pond as I stand on a large flat rock at the pond's edge. There's a breeze blowing the top layers of the trees and I can hear the breeze making the rounds through the forest. The food bags are bear bagged. A southbounder told us he saw a bear near here a few days ago. Tomorrow I will hike into Monson. We hiked hard today and I feel the burn and the soreness in my knees. I am supposed to meet DaBear this weekend but haven't been able to get cell phone coverage. We are planning to depart early tomorrow so I'm going to go to dream world now.