Date: 2003-09-22
From: Skowhegan, Maine

To: Caratunk, Maine
Miles today: 0.0

start Skowhegan,Me.destination Caratunk,Me.It was past eight before I woke up this morning. Mudbutt was packing up some of her stuff. I groaned asI lifted my legs over the side of the bed. Everything hurt, my knees hurt, my feet hurt, my head hurt..Breakfast made it all feel somewhat better. There is a Rotary Meeting here tomorrow at noon, so we are going to do trail magic today and head to Monson after the meeting. We get to the post office where we both send boxes home. This leaves my trunk fairly empty just in case I find something I can't live without! We drive up to Caratunk where the trail crosses the highway. I head down to the hostel, hunting hikers and also the best place to do trail magic. Who should I run into but Apollo and Snuggles. I have heard about Apollo form a mutual friend of ours. And there coming down the stairs was Loser!! It was great to see him again. I had last saw him in Damascus at trail days. I offer to take their packs down to Moxie Pond, giving them a 12 mile slack. We head down the road, our eyes ever on the lookout for moose. After what seems like a fifty mile drive along Moxie Lake, we finally get to the AT crossing. Just as we get there, we hear voices out in the woods. We call out that we have trail magic. In a few seconds out hikes 1/3 and Trace. They are grinning from ear to ear and then as they spy our treats, their eyes pop out in delight. We sit and talk to them watching with delight as they down cold sodas and cheese sticks, cookies and bananas. Before long here comes three more hikers. Long before they can make our spread out, we are calling to them. Oreos, apples, granola bars, cold drinnks! Once again we enjoy the looks on their faces as they spy the treats. More talking, trail stories, delight in being so close to the end. Pretty soon everyone leaves and Mudbutt and I are left alone. We decide to stay a little longer. We are in the middle of no where, we are in Maine, we are well fed and dry. We both sit along side of the road, reading, doing pocket mails, when Mudbutt slowly gets up and begin to walk down the road. Her movements are slow and stealth like. After a moment I notice that I do not hear her and look up. She is waving frantically at me to come to where she is at. She holds a finger to her mouth, signaling me to come quietly. I grab my camera and beat feet to where she is. There just at the water's edge is a moose. It is a doe. She is walking slowly through the water, every once in a while slipping on the rocks under the water. One time she looks up and stares directly at us. Then lowers her head and continues to eat the water plants. We walk farther down the road and closer to the water where we ge an even better look at her. She lifts her head again, eyeing us carefully, but then continues eating. Our cameras are clickling furiously. We finally climb out on a large rock and sit there, watching her as she eats. The water is flowing by and rocks break the surface here and there. The trees and brush surounding the pond is beginning to show colors of reds and yellows and oranges. Thick white clouds pass by overhead. It seems as though I have seen this picture somewhere. I ponder this for a while, then tell Mudbutt that this is what I pictured Maine to be like in my dreams. The moose comes closer and closer, no fear at all of us as we sit and watch her. Finally, she moves off and we go back to our place by the road. This has been the best magic. Where we set out to bless hikers with snacks and cold drinks, God has blessed us by giving us not a glimpse of a moose, but a show by a moose. A long drawn out snippet of a movie. A real treat of watching one in their natural setting. It is a delightful ending to a great day! I only thought that was the end of the day, when we packed the car and left, no sooner had we started down the road, when two hikers appeared out of the woods. We gave them some food, talked a little while and got back in the car to leave. Just as we drove off, here comes two more hikers, so we stopped again todo some magic. This time it was Kung Fu and his friend Bart. We knew Kung Fu from earlier in the hike. More food dispensed, more trail tales shared. Finally, we head down the road, I am driving pretty slow on this dirt road, when all of a sudden Mudbutt yelps and cries "look...there see him?" I stop the car, calm my heart down and peer into the falling twilight just in time to see this huge brown shape waltz across the road and up the bank. By this time Mudbutt has her car door open and is standing in the road, peering into the woods. Again, she lets out a yelp, there!, there is a female moose, crossing the road just infront of us. We watch them as they disappear into the woods,listening to the sounds of limbs breaking under their feet. Now, THAT is a great ending to a day.