Date: 2006-09-24
From: Caribou Pond (Valley) Rd

To: Spaulding Mtn Lean-To
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: overcast clouds

Sunday, Sept 24, 2006 Caribou Pond (Valley) Rd to Rte 4, N to S, 23.9 miles (5.2, 8.0 and 10.7), 2-night, 3-day backpack Spaulding Mtn Lean-To, Poplar Ridge Lean-ToRoom #1 is a madhouse. Everytone has their gear and food out packing up for a 3-day backpack. Amoeba wishes she had a fish-eye lens.Memere has brought her electric kettle and real cream for this morning¢s coffee. Amoeba has fresh homemade bread from Thompson¢s. She makes toast in the hiker room. For breakfast she has a toasted tomato (Memere¢s homegrown tomatoes), lettuce and mayo sandwich.Everyone has showered and washed their hair with Amoeba¢s Sensitive Issue puppy shampoo (when packing up for Maine, she was out of human shampoo), a real nice product that has no added fragrances. Works great on humans.Start side trail 9:45, AT at 10.Much warmer than yesterday. Breezy.Just into the woods, hello to L-Rod. Purple Rose, Zig Zag and Amoeba first met him in Massachusetts.Hello to Crescent City.Memere and Amoeba cross south Branch of Carabassett River on stepping stones, Gray Feathers, Purple Rose and Zig Zag on a wooden plank. No incidents.They take their time today. Rocks are a little wet. There¢s mud. No need to rush, it¢s a short hike.Hello to a couple out dayhiking.Like gray birches, striped maples feel good as handholds.11:40 end of a long rocky ascent. Sprinkling. Hello to a hiker out for a week. He says trail becomes less steep, it¢s another mile to the summit.Amoeba hears a sickening thunk. Purple Rose has fallen head first. The inside of the right side of her lip is lacerated. She¢s struck her teeth, but they look intact. A little piece of gravel is embedded on the outside of her lip. A little cut under her eye and near her nose. Bleeding. Oh, Purple Rose! Her lip swells immediately. Amoeba gives her a clean muslin towel soaked in water. She uses Purple Rose¢s jackknife tweezers to extract the piece of gravel. Purple Rose is carrying hydrogen peroxide, which they apply to her cleaned wounds.This is not at all like Purple Rose. Usually she¢s the most sure-footed in the group. The pack and her shin splints and her injuries that first day hiking the railroad tracks are taking a toll. Amoeba tries to encourage her. If the tables were turned, Amoeba is pretty sure she¢d be thinking of quitting.That soft-tissue injury inside her mouth is one dr¢s would let be, not try to stitch up. There¢s nothing more Amoeba or Purple Rose can do. Purple Rose takes an advil and gamely hikes on.The couple who passed earlier on their way up Sugarloaf are on their way back down. They want a picture of Purple Rose. The woman says I took a face plant 2 weeks ago but I'm fine now. Purple Rose could easily have told them to get lost, but she graciously agrees to the photo.Hello to section-hiker Tim. This trip he and a friend are hiking Monson to Rangeley. He started hiking the AT in 1997. When done, he¢ll have the 100-mile Wilderness and Katahdin to do and some in PA and NJ. Hopes to finish in 2008.Tim stayed at the Stratton Motel last night and can¢t figure out how the 5 women got ahead of him.Easy, they say. You started at 27 and we started at Caribou Pond Rd.Hello to Tim¢s friend Bruce, from Atlanta. Bruce so does not want a trail name he says he¢ll shoot anyone who tries to give him one. He hikes on.Seeing moose poop on the trail, the conversation flows to moose poop necklaces, which were quite the fad a few years ago. I wouldn¢t wear my moose poop necklace now, says one of the women. It¢s missing some varnish. It needs another coating.Hiking in parts of Maine means pulling yourself up over rocks with your hands and arms. Once hands, arms and upper body get conditioned, it feels really good.Wood sorrel galore.Memere likes the small bright yellow fungus, little dabs of it here and there.Hello to Critter and Railroad. They say they¢re bringing up the rear of the thruhikers. How do they know? asks Zig Zag. Good question.Purple Rose and Zig Zag at the Spaulding Mtn shelter at 4:30. Memere, Gray Feathers and Amoeba at 5.Tim and Bruce are there for the night.Mr Socks, a flipflopper from Bear Mtn to Katahdin, is tenting nearby. Another thruhiker comes in later. He¢s tenting too.Bruce, Tim and the 5 women sleep in the shelter. By 7 it¢s getting dark and everyone is in their bag. Bruce and Tim are real sweet to the women. They¢re cheerful and upbeat, they hang food bags and packs and offer to help any way they can.At 8:30 fierce winds begin howling. Another weather change.Everyone snores, says Gray Feathers, everyone¢s nightsong is different. Melodious, she says. Contented-sounding. The wind as backdrop. Too bad we didn¢t get a sound track.