Date: 2019-08-22
From: Bemis Mountain Lean-To (ME)

To: South Arm Road, Andover, ME
Miles today: 8.7

It rained most of the night. I remember 2 dreams I had. In the first one, I was recovering from a stroke and was prescribed marijuana. It was supposed to keep my brain more open to healing or something like that. Anyway, people could smell me coming. In the next one, I was working at a private practice where I had worked prior to coming out on the trail. I only had one client, and we were meeting in a some sort of storage facility because the office was being remodeled. I went over to the office to see how the remodel was coming. It looked like nearly no progress had been made. I woke up at 4:45 and one of the nobos is up getting ready. He didn¢t have a headlamp on and was doing everything by touch! I got up at 5, went to the bathroom, and then started breakfast. The one guy left at 5:30, and the others started getting up around 6. While it had stopped raining about 3am, it was overcast and wet. I started the day with my packcover on because it seemed like it might rain at any point and because the trees were wet. The lack of sunshine made it hard to get going.  Plus, we only had to go 8.7 miles to get to the road into town. While we went over 2 of the Bemis peaks yesterday, we still had the main peak to summit today. However, we had stayed just below the summit last night, so we didn¢t have much further to go. The main peak didn¢t have the views yesterday¢s peaks had. I was hoping to have service on top to figure out where we were staying in town, but didn¢t have anything on Bemis. We went down a little and then back up again to Old Blue Mountain. Here I had service! I agreed to call a hostel, but had SC decide which one I was calling. She decided that we should call the one closer to town. I called and they were expecting a trail celebrity to come this afternoon and were not sure how many would be in his entourage, so they didn¢t know if they¢d have room. I called the other hostel and they just said, ¢Be at the road by 4pm.¢We only had 2.8 miles and they would be downhill, but it¢s hard telling how long those miles would take. I left at 1pm hoping it wouldn¢t be rock climbing like it was down the Saddlebacks. I got to the road at 3pm, not too far behind SC. I took off my wet shoes and socks and laid them out to dry in the sun which was now shining. A nobo slack packer came out of the woods from the other direction and said she was also staying at the same hostel. A few minutes later, the shuttle for the hostel drives up. ¢I figured you guys would be here,¢ he says, and we leave for the hostel 30 minutes early. This hostel is outside of town, so the driver stops in town so that we can pick up anything we need. We go into a convenience store and I¢m tired and can¢t figure out what to get. I end up with a bag of chips and some cheese. The hostel serves dinner, and tonight it¢s pizza, which I can¢t have. They also do all you can eat pancakes for breakfast. I don¢t know if they¢ll have anything I¢ll be able to eat.We get to the hostel and get a tour. SC and I are on separate futons in the loft. She liked her pizza and I had a couple of Klondike bars in addition to my chips and cheese. We¢re slack packing tomorrow and I only have a few snacks to get me through the day. Hopefully I will be better able to navigate the convenience store tomorrow.