Date: 2007-09-01
From: Arnold Point 

To: Bangor ME
Miles today: 1.0

8/31 West Cary Pond to Bangor ME1 mileJeez, how do I start, how do you go to sleep next to a a lovely back woods pond and end up in a hospital in Bangor.Well around midnight Pi began getting up every few minutes to pee, except not much was coming out and it was becoming painful, VERY painful. So around 3:30 am he said he needed to start hiking out to try to get to the next town Carratunk and get some help.So with Radar, we packed up camped and by the light of our headlamps and that of the moon thank goodness we made our way slowly up the trail. Pi was really hurting and by 5 am he stopped and said he could go no farther and asked for his pad and sleeping bag. He gave Radar the map and we looked for the nearest road for him to hike to and get help.I wasn't going anywhere as Pi was in agony and I was really afraid something bad might happen. There was little that I could do to comfort him but I was staying anyway.It was decided that Radar should hike back 3 miles to the last lean-to we passed yesterday that was filled with a hiking group. Maybe someone would have a cell phone. So off he went into the dark while I stayed and Pi yelled in pain.The minutes crawled by as Pi tried to relieve his pain by peeing, stretching, walking and finally doing the only thing the pain would allow, curl up and yell. I stood by helplessly, wanting to try and hike the other way to a dirt road to maybe flag down any car that might be out here but was seriously afraid to leave as Pi worsened. He was pretty sure the problem was kidney stones.I have to admit I have never been more frightened of losing Pi as today. I tried not to think negatively but I was worried that this might turn into a dire situation. I haven't prayed to anyone in a long time but today I prayed to a lot of entities to keep my Pi safe and with me.Finally around 7:30 a hiker, Naturally High, came cruising by asking if this was Greg. Wonderful help was on the way...or eventually. The hiker had met Radar who had to hike 3 more miles past the shelter to a paved road as there was no cell service.Apparently this Naturally High's wife drove Radar to the nearest town to call 911..Naturally High was here to take a note up to the logging road so that the Search and Rescue folks from the area would know where to find us.I don't remember when the first S&R guy arrived, but I was glad to see him and at that point started to cry alittle. Pi did too when he found out this guy was only here for triage and didn't have any pain medication with him. Shortly after another medic arrived as did Radar. Then a group of college students out for a hike came through and one of the medics asked if they could assist in a rescue. And they agreed and all headed on to the logging road to await for instructions.After what seemed like an eternity, we heard someone, but it wasn't anyone with pain medication it was one of the students with a bottle of oxygen. Pi was pretty bad.Finally the bag with the pain medication arrived and a few shots later Pi was doing better but still writhing through waves.Now how to move him. Since he couldn't walk, he would have to be carried out on a large plastic litter by the medics and students. Everyone had to change places every few feet to let others rest or at least rest their arms and shoulders on one side. They had a lot of boulders and two pretty mushy swamps to navigate. There, the litter and Pi would stay on the walkway and be passed or pushed along by everyone standing in the swamp. And off they went.Pi was wrapped up like a tortilla on his thermarest pad and in his sleeping bag with the plastic stretcher wrapped all around that and all these volunteers grabbing a strap and inching him along. I discovered that he would be flown via helicopter to either Lewiston or Bangor neither of which I knew exactly where they were or how far away in relation to us.When we got to the road Pi was loaded into an ambulance that would take him up the road aways where the copter had landed. He was going to Bangor. I also rode in the ambulance but was told by the driver Deb that I couldn't go."So do you have someone picking you up from the trail, someone you can call to get you home," she asked. "Home? I said "we're probably not going home, we are going to get on the trail as soon as Pi passes this thing." So Deb said she would talk to the pilot and see if they could get me on. After evaluating our combined weights, he agreed. Deb said she could store my pack at their base which I assumed was nearby.The helicoptor was tiny and seemed to be made entirely of glass. I sat in the cockpit. Pi was now feeling better after a bump of medication in the ambulance and finally some morphine in the copter. Two medics attended to him in the back.The copter took off and the pilot veered sharply. I lost my stomach for a second but as I looked at the beautiful Maine woods below me I was enjoying it.The ride took only 30 minutes and more meds and a CT scan later revealed a 4.5 mm kidney stone on the verge of going into his bladder which when it did would pass easily. So they gave Pi several prescriptions and set us off to the hotel next door.So now all Pi had to do was pass this thing and we could work on getting back up to Carratunk. We knew we could probably get a shuttle from the ferry man there, but there was one problem Pi's pack came with him but because of weight limitations mine was, I found out, about 70 miles out of the way from the Bangor to Carratunk route. But we would have to worry about that later...Post ScriptA great big thanks goes out to all the people who took care of and got Pi out todayRadarNaturally High and his wifeThe North Star Medical Team including Jeremy, Justin, Deb, Greg, Mike, Steve, Barry, Ed, Judi The two folks from Franklin County SARThe students from Colby College including Amy, Ali, Heather, Nate, tamer, Mady, Dan, Lisa, Fazal, and SethThe LifeFlight of Maine team including Rob,Dave and Charlieand the great nurses and doctors at Eastern Maine Medical Center.