Date: 2003-08-16
From: Bemis Mtn. Lean-to 2,790

To: Rangeley, ME hostel 1,600
Miles today: 17.7
Weather: light rain

You know the drill. Woke up at 6:00, on the trail by 7:00. This morning it was about 65 degrees, partly cloudy skies, and a beautiful day. The third in a row. I planned to hike the 17 miles to ME4 and hitch into Rangeley for groceries. I had one dinner and a packet of hot chocolate and some beef jerky when I got to the store and I was hungry!Today's hike was the easiest since before New Hampshire. I made good time to the first shelter - 8.3 miles in under four hours. That is the kind of time I am used to making. The Gatorade Widgeon gave me last night helped my energy level I think. I felt a lot better today. There were no really remarkable climbs today and I didn't spend the day pulling myself up the rocks using small trees!At the shelter I saw Patience. I met her back in Manchester Center, VT I think. She is from Isreal, is Jewish, and doesn't hike on Saturdays because of her religion, so she was zeroing in the shelter. She is a very interesting person and I was glad to have a few minutes to talk to her without being interrupted. She said she was inspired to hike the trail seven years ago when she read an article in a nature magazine about a Hebrew woman who had thru hiked. She also hopes to finish on Aug. 31st, but has two more Saturdays to zero if she does that. She hikes longer days than I do though and is faster. I hope to run into her again before Katahdin.After I left the shelter, the 9.2 miles to the road was pretty easy. I did it in four hours and 15 minutes. I got to the road and there was not much traffic. A car was pulling out of the parking lot and I stuck my thumb out and they gave me a ride. They were a realy nice couple who have a summer home in Rangeley. After being alone on the trail for two days, I talked their ears off! They dropped me off at the IGA for groceries, I bought way too much food because I was planning to stay at a hostel I read about in the last shelter, and I met Homerun in line at the store. He is also a northbounder and is taking it really slow because he loves it out here. Good for him! He is pretty interesting as well. When he finishes, he hopes to find someone on the coast of Maine who needs their sailboat driven to the Carribean for the winter for insurance purposes. I had never heard of such a thing. While we were standing outside the store, a couple came up to us and said we could use their cell phone to call the hostel. No answer. So they offered to drive us back to the trailhead and stop at the hostel along the way. Awesome! They were visiting her parents who also have a summer home here. We stopped at the hostel which is full because the crew who is building the new, HUGE hostel is staying there. So the owner, Grumpy, says I can tent in the yard of their house if I want, so I said okay since I bought a bunch of food to eat tonight and didn't want to hike with it. The problem with this is that I forgot about my tent pole being broken from the last time I used it. My ride had left already. I set it up, duct taped it, and it works okay. It's not quite the bang-up job Tom Hanks did on Apollo 13, but it'll do. Some pretty serious clouds just rolled through. Hope they don't come back.So I am now sitting on the porch of Grumpy and Snow White typing my journal and it is only 6:30. I am eating Doritoes and cheese dip and cookies Snow White gave me. They are truly outstanding. In the store I drank an apple juice and a yogurt smoothie before I got to the checkout. In front of the store while I repacked my food, I had a cookie and a banana, Powerade, and some grapes. Homerun ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's. All I thought about yesterday and today was what I was going to buy at the store. I have never known hunger or cravings like this before. I have been like this for about a week.   There are thru hikers who are like this after only a few weeks on the trail. I am glad I have not been like this for long. Tonight I plan to finish this dip and take the chips with me, eat a nectarine, grapes, and maybe an apple, and finish my Sunkist. Snow White said she would take any grapes I didn't finish. Oh yeah, almost forgot. They let me rinse off using the spigot at the back of their house. Nice to wash my face, hands and feet with Dr. Bonner's peppermint soap.I had a really good day today. The guys are really moving I hear and are now hoping to reach Baxter State Park on the 26th or 27th. My body and feet cannot do that. I think they are making a mistake and will experience none of what Maine has to offer. I miss them, but I have still managed to laugh every day since we've been apart. I wish them well and can't wait to see the Christmas cards with them on the summit of Katahdin!Goodnight Oscar.