Date: 2008-09-09
From: Maine 27, Stratton, ME

To: Stratton, ME
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: moderate rain

Ok ok, so my luck with dodging bad weather this year has mostly been miraculous. Woke up this morning to pouring rain. Funny, nobody else hiked out today either, that was planning on it. A few people did a slackpack though and came back here tonight.I woke up at 6:30 a.m. on the dot. I could have tried to go back to sleep, but wanted to catch up on journaling so I¢d have some time to just hang out with Karen today. I always feel like my decision to zero is extra vindicated when the weather is crappy like this. J Karen went down to the hostel to give Racoon a ride back to the trail and he decided to stay put for the day too. Who wants to hike into rain when you¢re dry in town right?So I got more pics uploaded, caught up on journaling and some emails. Then, we needed to go do laundry. You can do your own in Sue¢s nice machines for $5.00, so we threw our stuff in and decided to sit down with Sue and pick her brain about the upcoming roads that Karen will be traversing to slack me to Monson. Also, Sue knows about some shortcuts to cut tons of driving time off this one part. So I just have to say, Sue is just AWESOME!! She¢s a Virginia transplant, but she¢s just so damn laid back and never gives you the feeling that she¢s overwhelmed or stressed out about the demands being placed on her. She¢s running the show by herself here as far as I can tell, and is super funny and wonderful. Seriously, people who run successful hostels and hiker motels are a breed all their own. Not sure I could do it honestly. We sat outside with all our maps and road atlas and she helped Karen and I figure out a few options so I wouldn¢t have to pound a 16 and 18.5 mile day out on my aching knees. I was originally going to try to do both Bigelow Mountains in one day but Sue (and even V8¢¦the logistical genius that she is) suggested using a very nice side trail called Safford Brook Trail that allows me to split these last 2 mountains. By the way, I start on Map #5 tomorrow¢¦I¢ve finished maps # 6 & #7 as of yesterday!!! Oh my gosh..it¢s really happening, I¢m really going to finish this trail aren¢t I?Oh, Sue has this great large poodle named Knucklhead. Seriously..that¢s the dog¢s name. Sue said in a small town, it¢s always easy to get help when you need it, she just calls her dog¢s name and all the town¢s men come running! LOL I told you she was funny. Knucklehead is a more experienced hiker than I am! He¢s done all of the AT except 2 states, all of the Long Trail and several other trails. When Sue says, ¢Where¢s your pack?¢ his ears totally perk up. Great dog. So as we were sitting out there, 2 hikers, a guy and girl walked out of their room and I said hi and asked their names. It was Duck (VA) and Buttercup (TN), a couple that decided out here to get married and who are getting married on October 4!!! CONGRATS YOU TWO!!! Buttercup said she knew me and had been reading my journal since last year, but Duck admitted he didn¢t recognize me since I¢d lost so much weight. Pretty cool huh? I was talking to them a little later and Buttercup told me they got to some section this year that I had talked about getting lost at (I¢m thinking around the Lemon Squeezer?). Buttercup remembered I wrote something about it, and they got online via her phone, looked up my journal and knew where to go!! How HILARIOUS IS THAT!!? They are totally cool people and even invited us to their wedding, but I don¢t think I¢ll be home by then. Too bad. I really loved their energy. Karen and I tried the other caf© in town, the Stratton Diner. At first it looked limited, but wow did they have one great chicken Caesar salad. I had that, some breadsticks and shared a BLT with Karen. The place was pretty packed, which is always a good sign when the local people eat there. So to my surprise, this tiny tiny town offers some good eats. After lunch, we went to the market next door to explore. So for a small small grocery store, they sure had good stuff in there, a great place for hiker resupply too. We¢re heading around the corner to the small freezer section and Karen stops in her tracks and announces that I must come over there immediately and look at what was in the freezer. Ok, so by now, I know I¢ve mentioned at least a handful of times that my favorite pizza in the world (gross as it may seem to some of you) is frozen Tony¢s Pepperoni Original Crust pizza. Man I love this stuff. Well, as my incredible luck would have it, there was one (yes ONE) of these pizza¢s in the freezer. No other Tony¢s in there, but this one, and it had my name on it. The hostel at the motel has a full kitchen with oven and stove, so guess who gets to eat her favorite pizza tonight for dinner!!! And then it got better. We walked past the baked goods area and there was a (still warm from being baked in the store) strawberry rhubarb pie!!! I did mention that the last one we got from the little store in Oquossuc (near Rangeley) was rotten right? Yup, Karen unfortunately tried the first bite on that one and almost barfed. It had fermented or something¢¦ewwww!!! So, I had to wait 4 whole days for my next fix!We came back and I got my pack unpacked and resorted for slackpacking. I also sat down and re-wrote the rest of my schedule to Monson. I do not want to zero again until I get to Monson, and because I¢ve split the Bigelows, I was able to shift my mileage to much friendlier mileage, so it¢s totally feasible now. So here¢s the totally almost unbelievably exciting part to me. I figured out that I could possibly be summiting Mt. Katahdin on October 4th PEOPLE!!! Did you read that!!? I know Persistent summited on October 3, and I think it would be poetic irony if I summited exactly the same day of the year, only 1 year later huh? This is all assuming I don¢t zero between here and Monson, and when I get to Monson, I¢ll probably take 2 days off to make sure Karen and I are ready to go. We also need to figure out how to get our car to Millinocket and then get back down to Monson to head out, so there¢s a few things that can change, which is no biggie, but wow¢¦do you KNOW what it feels like for me to finally have a basic idea as to when I can go home? After all of that, I called Kathy Preble, the wonderful woman who is meeting us 30 miles into the wilderness with a food drop. I called to just let her know we mailed a box to her via UPS and that I¢d call her again before leaving Monson to verify date/time. She reminded me that I may need more denatured alcohol, and told me she met 3 guys just today that forget that and were going to run out of fuel. She¢s happy to bring some, but needs warning. I actually had already thought of it, so there¢s some fuel in the box I mailed to her (oops¢¦was that illegal to mail?). She¢ll also take your trash out for you too. Wow, what a great service. She¢s allowing Karen and I to really take our time and enjoy ourselves out in the wilderness. Basically, the rest of the evening was spent cooking/eating my yummy pizza and pie. It¢s really cooled off up here. Tomorrow is supposed to be perfect again though, sunny and highs in the 70¢s. I¢m sitting in our room at 9:11 p.m., and I can hear the pitter patter of the rain outside again. It doesn¢t bother me to hike in any weather if I¢m slackpacking (except t-storms of course), but there¢s no chance of storms for a long time. Oh, I also talked with another girl named The Animal. She seemed cool too. Oh man, I keep forgetting stuff, one last thing. While I was cooking my pizza, I was telling Duck and Buttercup about leaving Howie on the canoe. They go, ¢Oh..that was YOUR moose? We saw him and had already decided we wanted a moose for our wedding cake topper, so we went over and picked him up and were going to use him on our wedding cake, but when we saw he had weird orange eyes, we decided to pass and left him there.¢   Ok, I would have just DIED if they¢d picked him up to use on their wedding cake, and I would have totally let them do it too. But alas, my little Howie is still out in the wilds, hopefully to be picked up by Blue Meanie and Hiker Chic. In the meantime, Howard (a totally grown up version with full horns and well¢¦.all the correct anatomy of a male moose) is in my pack once again. We¢ll see if this works any better. Ok, Karen is dealing the cards. She obviously wants to get beaten¢¦.again. ~Certain