Date: 2005-08-24
From: Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to

To: Monson, Maine
Miles today: 22.0
Weather: broken clouds

Last night, I should have paid more attention when people came in to the shelter. I should have picked up and set up my tent. Two brothers with their father walked in. They were actually nice people but, the younger brother and the father seemed a little on the slow side. They were flip-floppers. They had gotten as far as Harrisburg, Virginia and then went up to Katahdin and started going southbound. They were quite a talkative bunch. Even worse, at 7:30, I announced that I was going to try to get into my sleeping bag and get my snoring over and done with, and they made a hell of alot of noise after that. They were not at all considerate of the fact that I was trying to sleep. There was plenty of place to cook outside the shelter, but all 3 of them decided they were going to cook inside the shelter. The floor of the shelter was like a trampoline. They were banging their shit around and jumping all over the shelter until about 9:00 pm. It was very annoying. Despite the fact that I had my earplugs in, I still had a lousy night's sleep. Just before dark, a northbounder I had met Pellet just before Stratton, walked in after a 25 mile day. He got pissed off too. He stayed in the shelter too, so there were 5 of us in there. I just forded my first river, the Piscataquis River, knee deep and ice cold. I had left my water shoes on because I have to re-cross it in 5 miles. I got a real early start this morning. The thing about not sleeping well is that it's easy to get up early. I started moving around at about 5:00 am, so did everyone else. I was the first one out of there, but Pellet caught up and passed me within a few minutes. I went ahead and walked to the Moxie Bald Lean-to. I decided to eat because I was doing a long day today. I walked in there and Old Yeller was in there getting ready to leave.I sat down in there and cooked some sweet and sour pork and took off a half hour behind him. I caught up pretty quickly. I hiked a few miles through varied terrain. Alot of rocks and alot of mud this morning, also alot of adventerous little creek crossings. I didn't have to take my shoes off until now. When I got to the river crossing that I had to ford, Pellet was there with his camera out, taking a picture of a moose that was in the middle of the river. I spooked the moose. That makes moose #7 that I have sighted. I got into Monson in really good time. I wanted to get in there early enough to get my mail drops taken care of and not have to take a zero day off. I did that successfully. I stopped first and procured a room at Shaw's Boarding House from Mrs. Shaw. I ran down and got my mail.There are no more towns from here to the end of the Trail now, so, everything that I didn't need, I went ahead and packed up and sent to Bob in North Carolina for him to throw in the back of my truck. I got to my room at Shaw's Boarding House. It's a pretty quiet place. It's well known as one of the best on the Trail, but this evening it was pretty quiet. There were just a few people there, Gravity, Danger Pee, Tinkerbell, Dream Catcher and Old Yeller, and a couple of southbounders.I got my shower done. I walked into town a couple of times for pizza and beer, and to hit the ATM. This is the last place to get money as well. When I got back, LWOP was there. He had picked up some guy and brought him in. He was a southbounder who was actually planning to quit because his pack was too heavy. We actually talked him out of it.That makes 5 times that I have run into LWOP on the Appalachian Trail. 3 times this year alone in 3 different states. He is all over the place.That's it.