Date: 2005-10-05
From: Rural woods road Monson

To: Rural woods road Monson
Miles today: 13.2

Today was an eventful day. We slowly woke up at our stealth spot in Monson. We packed up and headed into town. The package that we had been waiting on had still not arrived and we began discussing our options. We didn't want another zero day, we need to get miles done. As we stood outside the post office a man came up to Blaze and me and began telling us that he was a thru-hiker. He had summited last Aaturday. He live in Monson. We began discussing our situation with Ed and he quickly put out the offer to bring us out on an old road to the trail and we could walk back to Monson. Slackpack. Usually disasters occur when we slackpack but we decided to go for it. We headed out immediately after dropping most of our gear on Ed's porch, where we wold pick it up later. We hopped in the truck with our light packs and we were off. It was a long drive on the back roads of Maine. We got out to a certain point and Ed's truck wouldn't go any further, so we would have to hoofit out to the trail. It was an entire adventure walking down "The Dead Head" road in search of the trail. We knew we would be all right though because we had a calibrated compass and Eagle Scout Blaze. We walked through muddy puddle filled roads, across side trails and hunting camps. About 1.5 miles down the road we rejoined when we walked upon the AT. The strange part was going south. It felt weird right away. We started off pretty quickly with our light packs but shortly we gegan climbing and we would not stop all day. We think that we slacked a really tough sobo section, just our luck. We took a few short breaks and just snacked all day. None of the miles seemed to come very easily. The hills were still kicking our butts. We crossed paths with many NOBO's that we have been hiking with lately. Saxy Lady, Moonpie, and the crew. At 5:30 we had 3 miles to the road. We really wanted to get to the road before dark. We were moving quickly over the same old rocks and roots jumping over mud pits as the light slowly faded. We forded 2 streams today. Big and Little Wilson. We were happy when our last ford of the day had a puncheon right across it. As we climbed up to the road we saw a beautiful sunset over the pond. When we got to the road the pinkish orange huew was just disappearing from the horizon. It was beautiful. We were phyched about trail magic at the trail head. Delicious fuji apples. They were so refreshing after a long tough day. We were all chomping on apples as the night grew dark. We put our headlamps on and began trying to night-hitch into town. After one person messed with us another guy turned around to make sure we were all right and then offered us a ride to town. Dude rearanged his car for us and we all piled in. Dude is a plumber from the area, he was a really nice guy. He gave us a ride back to our office, the Moble mart. We wer way to at home in Monson. We all got a slice of pizza and we sitting outside the store. Dready had her and Blazes slice on her lap. An old man pulled up in his Lincoln, got out and began walking into the store. He looked at Dready and without the hint of a smile said, "Your're going to get fat eating that." and then walked into the store. We were all shocked and started laughing. A few minutes later he walked out of the store with 3 Table talk pies. Did you go for a hike today buddy? I think not. Gotta love small town Maine. After our "fattening meal" we went down to Ed's and packed up our heavy packs and headed out to the same stealth spot that we stayed at the previous night. When we got there it was 8:30. We cooked dinner and set up. We listened to music and relaxed after a busy day. Slackpacking made for a long day, we were wiped out. It was a late night after we crawled in the tent. Can't wait to go NOBO again tomorrow and be in THE WILDERNESS.                              Ms. Mileage