Date: 2016-07-10
From: Stratton

To: Caribou Valley Road
Miles today: 8.3
Weather: broken clouds

On the agenda for today is a slack pack of Crocker Mtn, which has a profile similar to Mt Si in Washington, 3500' of elevation gain and close to that in elevation loss over a span of 8 miles. I was up around 5:30 and started to pull my gear together since I spread it all over the room the previous day to dry everything out. The plan is to carry my gear over to the Stratton Motel and leave it with Ben and his crew while I use a day pack to hike Crocker Mtn. A room would be available by the time I get back from the hike. My tent and other equipment dried out nicely and when packing everything up I realized that my camera was missing. I tore my pack apart, no camera. I tore the room apart, no camera. I moved the beds, it wasn't there. I was pannicked and getting sick to my stomach. I stepped outside the room and realized that I didn't operate the lock on my room properly, bumped into the cleaning woman and asked her if anything ever disappears from the rooms. She said that she has worked there for years and nothing has ever disappeared. My images of the start of my thruhike were gone. In an act of desperation, I found Ben from the Stratton Motel and asked him if I happened to drop my camera when I put my pack down in his office when I registered for the slack pack yesterday. He said no, but he did go back to pick up Alex and Clara at the trailhead yesterday and they found a camera at the trailhead and think it's Wilson Wilson's. They looked thru some of the images and Clara recognized Mt Rainier in the first few and told Alex, I think this is Wilson Wilson's camera. At that point Alex came out of his room, went back in to get the camera and gave it to me. I was elated thanked him a dozen times and gave him a hug. Clara was in the common room in the hostel, I found her and gave her a hug too. I told them that we should have dinner together that night, packed up what I needed for the day hike and was off to the trailhead with Ben. The day was dripping rain, but with a light pack, the climb seemed easy to the first of the double peaked Crocker Mtn. About half the way up the first climb, I was thinking about an unfortunate situation with my family, and the fact that my brother would not be going to my Aunt's 95th party. I was thinking about my Aunt, my cousins and my brother and was overcome with grief. My chest tightened, I stopped walking, my breathing got difficult, and the I could not breath. Not a wheeze, nothing. I thought, relax, started to see dots, leaned forward on my poles, relax... And was able to take a straigned breath, followed by another and then finally a full breath. Well, that was something new - had never experienced that before, and said to myself, no more thinking about the family, focus on the trail and something more cheerful. I don't know if it was the emotion of the day, a reaction to the medication I was taking for my chest cold or what, but I did not want to go through that again. I hiked on to the top of the north peak, pushed on to the south peak and ran into a troop of French Canadian girls around 12 years old, out for 3-4 days of hiking in Maine. They were in the process of crossing a stream when I saw them and realized that one of them fell in the attempt and got banged up a little. I talked to them for about 5 minutes and was off to the South peak and lunch. I made it down the south side of Crocker in 1 1/2 hours to the pickup point which was early so I continued to hike down the dirt road. After a mile or so, I saw Ben driving up the road and had a nice ride back to the motel. I looked for Alex and Clara, asked about dinner and found that a group of hikers were cooking in at the kitchen in the hostel. I said that I make a good Caesar and would be glad to whip that up if I could join the group. The all agreed and the dinner crew changed from 4 to 5 people. Bought the groceries across the street at the market, made the salad and had a dinner of stuffed peppers, mashed potatoes, asparagus and a Caesar salad. After dinner, I did laundry again, showered and went to bed. What a day.