Date: 2004-07-24
From: Andover, ME

To: Monson, ME
Miles today: 142.0
Weather: broken clouds

7/18/04 SundayI noticed as I was typing up my last entries that I mentioned rain. A lot. It has been raining nearly every day for a long time now, and I haven't been getting a lot of views. So I wanted to say that today there was SUN! And plenty of it as I hiked all day. I actually got some views. The down side to the sun is that there was also humidity, and plenty of it, so I was sweating as I climbed the steep ups and downs of three mountains in a row. They say that southern Maine has some of the toughest terrain of the Trail, and I'd have to agree. Up and down Moody Mtn., then Old Blue, then the several peaks of Bemis Mtn..I stopped at the shelter between the peaks of Bemis Mtn., and found Gentle Ben there. I've been following him ever since Harpers Ferry, so it was nice to finally run into him. Soon after arriving at the shelter, it began to...wait for it...rain. Thunder and rain. Pouring rain. There was some hail mixed in. Fifteen minutes after the deluge started, Mouth walked in, soaked and dripping. Bad timing, but it was nice to see him again.Maine tally - Rain: yes. Moose: none.7/19/04 MondayIt rained all night, and by the morning, after the rain had finally ended, the Trail was flooded. Just outside the shelter it boded badly for the rest of the day, because there was two feet of standing water on the trail. Instead of trying to pick my way around the water, and jumping from root to rock and trying not to slip and fall in, I opted to just suck it up and wade through the wet parts. After the first shock to my feet, and squelching afterwards, it was very liberating, and I could actually walk quickly through all the water.Today was the first ford of Maine. On the rest of the Trail, all the rivers have bridges, or at least stepping stones. This river didn't have anything, and after the rain the water was even higher than normal. My shoes were already wet, so I didn't worry about it, and just waded in up to my knees. After coming out on the other side I noticed that my shoes were cleaner than they've been in a long time!Mouth and I got to a road crossing and hitched into the town of Rangely to resupply. One great thing about being a northbound hiker in Maine is that we can go into town every other day. Southbounders don't hike that quickly, so they would only hit the towns every three or four days. In Rangely we got enough food to last us a day to Stratton, and then we noticed that there was a movie theatre in town. We decided to stay and watch Dodge Ball, and after the movie we hitched back to the Trail. It was getting dark, but we night hiked the mile and a half to the next shelter. Thankfully it was easy terrain, and not too wet, so we didn't have a hard time. We camped behind the shelter instead of disturbing the sleeping people inside. This shelter has one of the most popular privies on the Trail: a two-seater with a cribbage board built into it between the seats. I guess you've got to be pretty friendly to play a game like that.Maine tally - Rain: yes. Moose: none.7/20/04 TuesdayAll the southbounders have been telling us about today's difficult hike across Saddleback Mountain. Well, they're only southbounders, so obviously the hike wasn't as hard as they made it sound. In fact, I thought it was a great hike up, and the views were amazing across the Saddleback range. To get to the next two mountains we didn't have to hike all the way back down the mountain, but got to walk the shallow dips in the ridge. As I was hiking along I heard thunder in the distance. That's never a good sign when you're up above treeline, but I didn't have a choice but to keep hiking. When I got to the peak of Saddleback Jr. (what a silly name) I stopped and had a snack because I was starving, and watched the lightning show on the next ridgeline over - very impressive. Mouth and Gentle Ben caught up with me, and we all hiked down to the next shelter as a light rain started.We didn't stay at this shelter, because we'd heard that the old summit house on top of Sugarloaf Mountain was a great place to spend the night. It's half a mile off the Trail, and straight up a few hundred feet, but we didn't mind. We hiked up there to find a wonderful structure, with a wood stove, a microwave, and a toaster. Below the summit house was the old gondola for the ski slopes, but it's not in use anymore so the cable is cut, but the cars are still up there. A little spooky, especially since I saw it at night by the light of my headlamp, with fog pouring in a hole in the wall. After we had gone to bed Tarzan came in, trying to find out where we were.Maine tally - Rain: yes. Moose: none.7/21/04 WednesdayThis was another day of steep downs and ups. First we had to come off of Sugarloaf Mountain, all the way down a series of old rockslides, so the Trail was just picking over and around rocks. Slow going. Then back up the other side of the valley to the next mountain, then all the way back down again, then back up again to the next mountain. The final descent was stretched over five miles, so it was much more gentle on the knees. I practically ran down because I was so hungry, and I knew there was a road crossing and a town at the bottom of the mountain.Mouth and I hitched into the town of Stratton, where we found a pizza shop. While the pizza was cooking we went to the grocery store and bought some food to tide us over. Then after our pizza we went back to the store and got some ice cream. Tarzan and Gentle Ben caught up with us, and we all hung out for a while.Tarzan and I went to the library, and then hitched back to the Trail to continue hiking. We got up to the top of Bigelow Mountain, and Gentle Ben caught up with us. We decided to camp right on the summit, and enjoyed the sunset and the stars, even though there weren't really any flat spots on the rough granite.Maine tally - Rain: no (!). Moose: none.7/22/04 ThursdayWe had one last mountain to climb today before the terrain became easier. We caught up with Mouth, who had slept down off the mountain, and then finished climbing Little Bigelow Mountain. After that, the next eighteen miles flew by, and we pulled into the shelter at Pierce Pond in time to go swimming and watch the sunset over the pond. The mosquitoes were terrible, so even though we had the shelter to ourselves we all camped in our tents to keep the bugs away.Maine tally - Rain: no. Moose: none.7/23/04 FridayWe woke up early enough to hike an easy four miles to the Kennebec River and catch the ferry that runs across. Originally the Trail made a ford at the Kennebec, but because the power station has untimed water releases that cause the river to rise two feet unpredictably, the official method of crossing the river is now to use a canoe run by Steve the ferryman.We all got across, and went into the little town of Caratunk for mail. The town was small, and there was no place open for breakfast, but we went to the Caratunk House hiker hostel, and discovered that they sell food there. All four of us just stood around in the food supply room and ate, saving our wrappers so we could be charged for the food later.Several ice creams, bags of chips, bottles of soda and Gatorade later, we were still hungry, and discovered a place to get pizza, so we went over there. When we'd finished we came back and got more ice cream at Caratunk House. We debated staying the night, and trying to hike 36 miles the next day, because the forecast was for thunderstorms, but we decided to make another 18 miles that day, starting at 1:00 in the afternoon.It did indeed rain - it poured in fact, with thunder and drenching rain. As I crossed Moxie Bald I noticed a section of trees to the side which were all burned, probably from lightning. I didn't see that as a good sign as thunder boomed nearby, so I quickly got off the summit. It was dark by the time we got to the shelter, but at least we were dry under the roof. We wrung out our shirts and socks and cooked dinner by headlamp and went to sleep.Maine tally - Rain: yes. Moose: none.7/24/04 SaturdayIt rained all night, drumming against the roof and almost drowning out the sound of Tarzan snoring. When we left the Trail was flooded, and once again it was just easier to wade through the water than try to skirt around it. There were several fords today, the first of which was "just" a creek, but it was knee-high. The second ford was a big river, and it came up to my waist with a strong current. That was difficult, but I made it without any problems. Just after I finished drying off from that ford there was another larger river ford, but that one only came up to my knees. Of course, because the water was shallower it was faster, so this one took a little work to stay on my feet.At the end of the day we came to Monson, the last town before the end of the Trail. Only 114.5 miles to go until Katahdin. There are two hostels in town, and there seems to be a feud going on between them, so I decided to stay out of it altogether and stay with Lindy, a woman who just bought a house and simply asks for some help scraping paint or digging in the garden in exchange for housing. Plenty of food later, I went to bed.Maine tally - Rain: no. Moose: none.