Date: 2008-09-05
From: Maine 17, ME

To: Maine 4, ME
Miles today: 13.1

I¢m always so amazed at what 1 day of rest can do for the ole¢ bod. I was excited to hike today, but mainly it¢s because I knew today was going to be an easy day, compared to other days in Maine. Yesterday was so much fun, we just wanted to play again all day today, but we both know the more I play, the longer it takes to finish, so hike it was.I love being around the water though, and the Rangeley Lake was beautiful this morning. Karen had me back at the trailhead by 7:30 a.m., per my early morning start request. We had some chores to do this afternoon, so I needed to get back fairly early.Right on Maine 17, it¢s really windy and was quite cool, but in moments, I was protected by my friends¢¦the trees. Today was a beautiful day because there were a lot of ponds to enjoy. There¢s a sign just as you hike in from the MATC saying this 13.1 mile stretch has no major mountains and never gets above 3,000 feet. Ahhhh¢¦..just like the good ole¢ mid-atlantic states. My first pond to enjoy was tiny Moxie Pond. Now what was funny, was that I was hiking along in my non-jovial morning haze (actually I was in a good mood), and I heard what I thought was a human making these WHOOOOOO sounds really loudly. I thought it was cool. Well all of a sudden, I see a naked hiker sitting on a picnic table at the pond and I startled him and he let me know he was nude. I told him it was ok, I wasn¢t going to look. It was a hiker going for a morning swim.Honestly though, from an artistic viewpoint (no¢¦I didn¢t ¢see¢ anything), it would have been a beautiful shot. What portrays humans in a more harmonious way within nature than to see a nude body surrounded by the trees and water and dirt and rocks? In that moment, all things are at their basic form, exposed to nature and at nature¢s mercy. This guy had no idea he (in an indirect way) made me appreciate our place in this vastness out here this morning.I hiked on though, and got to Long Pond, and the side trail to the Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to. I didn¢t go to the lean-to, but I went down to this pond and sat on a big rock for a while¢¦just trying to take all of it in. It¢s hard you know¢¦seeing beauty like this every single day and trying to really pay attention and notice it. It¢s hard because the mind starts blurring it all after awhile, but that¢s what pictures are for I guess. I ate a snack and then a hiker named Extra (MD) came by. He was a nice guy. We chatted for a bit and he was heading into Rangeley today as well.I headed on though, and any climb I had today was short and not that steep. I broke a sweat a few times, but mainly it was like strolling through a deep sea of green forest with the occasional bog and muddy trail with boardwalks and rocks to hop. Knowing there were so many ponds and bogs, I was so hoping to see a moose, especially since I was out so early, but no luck.I hiked the next 4 miles and figured I¢d stop at the Little Swift River Pond Campsite for lunch¢¦hoping there was actually a good spot to sit on the pond. Well, I got there around noon and this ended up being THE coolest lunchspot I think I¢ve had all hike. There are 2 canoes, paddles, and some lifejackets there!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!!? So I¢m like¢¦hey, what better place to eat lunch than across this pond to explore and enjoy?Today, like every single other Maine day, was perfect. High¢s in the 70¢s, some clouds, a breeze. Gosh, it must be balancing out that monsoon I hiked in through NH huh? So, I put my stuff in the canoe, grabbed a lifejacket and hopped in. I paddled all the way to the other side, but this pond isn¢t huge, so it only took like 5 minutes or so. I pulled the canoe up on some rocks and put my crocs on and walked around a little to get my feet wet. There¢s no where really to go, it¢s all natural and uncleared, but it was so neat to be over there. I got back in the canoe and ate my lunch. Just me¢¦in the woods, on a pond, all alone, sun shining with warm rays, in crystal clear water, breeze blowing, and no sounds from civilization. Wow¢¦.one of my favorite moments out here for sure. I watched a large dragon fly buzz around and saw some odd looking salamander in the water, or it was a giant pollywog, not sure which. I finished up lunch and decided to paddle over to the far left side and hug the shoreline in the chance I¢d see some animal. I didn¢t see anything, but it was sure fun. Finally, I docked the canoe back on the shore and pulled it out of the water. This campsite is really nice too, especially for hanging.I knew Howie needed some action shots, and he¢s had a lot on his mind lately too, so I took some pictures of him and we had a talk. In the middle though, another female hiker came up, and I started talked to her. It was Barfight from VT, looks to be in her 20¢s and she (like me) seemed pretty tired. We got to talking about how to get through the next section via slackpacking and I told her what I knew. It¢s pretty expensive and she said she¢d be willing to go if we could find 1 more person and split the cost, so I¢m calling her at the Gull Pond Lodge where she said she¢d be staying. I hope we can work something out, because it would be cheaper, but as of now, my plan is to go full pack for 3 days/2 nites if I can¢t find others to share the cost of a shuttle. Karen can¢t drive into these places in little Skeeter.So I put my shoes back on and started hiking. And then¢¦.the unthinkable happened. You know those stories about families who are on vacation, traveling in the mini-van across several states? You know, they stop at a rest stop¢¦everyone gets out, uses the bathroom, stretches their legs, and then hops back in and zoom off happily, only the parents realize like 100 miles down the road one of their kids isn¢t IN the van? Then they realize they¢ve left them at the rest stop way back? Yup..well apparently I¢m that sort ¢parent¢ because in the midst of meeting a new hiker and talking shuttles, etc., I realized about 1 hour down the trail, I left Howie sitting in that canoe, where we were taking his pictures!!! SHAME ON ME!!Now, in my defense, remember earlier I said he had a lot on his mind, and he told me he was sort of ready to be amongst ¢his¢ people¢¦in other words, all of the other moose around here, but he did say he needed to do some maturing and he¢d be back someday. I hope so.In the meantime, if anyone finds themselves at the Little Swift River Pond Campsite in Maine, and you remember to look for Howie (in the newer looking canoe), I¢d appreciate it greatly if you could grab him and then email me. I¢ll give you my mailing address and reimburse you for mailing him back to me.   My brain is somewhere apparently.I only had about 4.5 miles left and I was zooming along. Despite the lack of pack weight though, my knees are still hurting a lot by the end of a 13 mile day. I¢ve been trying Aleve and not taking Advil. I don¢t know if it¢s working or not.I got to South Pond (and it had a big orange canoe at it too!) and knew I was about 2 miles from Maine 4. I ran into the Harvard college group I¢d met a few days back and they recognized me. I talked to them a bit and today they were hiking out, but all these freshman were totally excited about their trip and they all hoped to be friends for the rest of their lives. Pretty intense huh? 5 days of backpacking and bonding like that occurs.I could hear construction crews soon and knew I was close to the road, and then it was confirmed. Just before getting to the parking area one of those HUGE orange ¢Road Work Ahead¢ construction signs was IN the woods! LOL It looked so out of place and made me laugh my ass off. I got into the parking lot and saw Karen parked across the street. It was 2:45 p.m¢¦..SCORE!!!I hopped in the car and she said I¢d just missed Lipstick¢s husband who is thru-hiking this year. Lipstick signs my guestbook a lot, so I¢m hoping I run into him. I¢d like to meet him.We zoomed back to Rangeley, but not before Karen totally pulled one over on me. We stopped at a viewpoint at Rangeley Lake, and she pulled her camera out and said, ¢I went walking on a short trail this morning to some falls.¢ It was THE best picture of a bull moose touching noses with a young baby moose. My jaw dropped and I was like, ¢Are you SERIOUS!!!? You SAW this!!!!!¢ Well, Karen isn¢t the best at keeping a straight face, and she started laughing. Then she goes, ¢Yes, I went for a walk, and then went back to the room and took a picture of a postcard I bought in Gorham.¢ It WAS a good one. I about fell out of the car laughing. She got me SO good.   I sort of had it coming from some previous practical jokes I¢d played on her.I told her the tragic news about Howie though, and she was sad for me and him. She dropped me off at the room and I took a shower while she ran some errand. She came back and I got out of the shower to find that she had gone to a gift shop to buy me another moose to carry! How sweet is that? Now, what she told me was that Howie has miraculously matured to a full blown bull moose, and he came back, so I have no choice but to believe her right? LOLI needed to figure out what was going on with shuttles, etc., so I called Bob at the Gull Pond Lodge. He said he didn¢t have anyone yet slackpacking, but all it usually took was one person mentioning it. I hope Barfight gets there, but I¢ll call her again tonight. Bob seems like a terrific guy. He explained the reason it¢s so hard to into this one area is because there¢s Naval pilot crash training in this area and the military land goes right up to the AT, so the military doesn¢t want people poking around.So now I¢m sitting in the laundro-mat, and Karen said I get to have my fried clams fix tonight. I love them, and have been craving them. We found a place here that serves them too, here in Rangeley. I¢m still not 100% for sure what I¢m doing tomorrow, but I¢ll hopefully have that decided within a few hours. Part of me just want to say screw it and go full pack¢¦making it logistically easier, but then I think of how my knees are hurting and wonder if it will make life less painful if I don¢t. We¢ll see I guess.Oh¢¦before I forget, the sunset we saw a few days back as well as this awesome picture Karen took while we were kayaking? She used to work as a graphic designer, designing book covers, and she cracked me up because she said those shots were good enough to be on the cover of one of those Christian devotional books¢¦you know the ones right? They always seem to have pictures of a sunset¢¦all ooey gooey and inspirational. She was so right though, I could totally have pictured it on those books.Ok, so now it¢s later, and I have decided to just pay for a shuttle myself with Bob from Gull Pond Lodge. Nobody else is leaving town tomorrow and Barfight is just so exhausted she doesn¢t think she can make it. I totally understand. It was a difficult decision, because it was either 3 days with full pack or (hopefully) 2 days of slackpacking with higher miles. At this point, the lack of weight is best for my knees. Only thing is, is that Bob can¢t be here to pick me up till around 7:30 a.m., and it¢s a 1 hr 15 min drive out to this crazy logging road, and then I¢ll hike sobo back to Maine 4 for about 15.5 miles. It will be an extremely long day and getting started around 8:45 a.m. will pretty much guarantee I¢ll be nite hiking a little again, but hey, I can handle that right? It¢s a catch 22 for me at this point, so I¢m going to dig down deep and just tell my mind and body I can do this. I need to get some sleep now. Wish me luck for tomorrow folks.~Certain