Date: 2018-09-03
From: Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to

To: Mile 2073.1
Miles today: 18.7

Last night after Cole went to sleep, I sat for half a hour trying to fix his boots. They are falling apart little by little. I had been caring around a tube of super glue, waiting for the boots to be dry enough to attempt a repair. They only have to last just a little while longer. The glue seemed to be holding them together and I crossed my fingers hoping they would survive the final leg of our journey.As soon as Cole woke up this morning I asked him how he was feeling. He replied that he was ready to eat, but he still wanted to sleep for five more hours. He ate his breakfast, plus an extra breakfast we had bought by mistake. Within an hour of starting to hike, he also ate all of his snacks for the day. We had a mountain to climb first thing. It rewarded us with spectacular views. From then on the ground levelled out a lot, but there were constantly roots and rocks to navigate.When we paused to take a rest mid morning, Cole sat there looking around us and said, ¢There are worse places I could be right now. I guess I don¢t hate hiking right at this moment.¢I was glad. I know that he doesn¢t hate hiking. He loves hiking. He¢s just feeling worn down and ready to be home.The sun was bright and the humidity felt a bit high, so when we reached a stream that we needed to Ford, I was very pleased to have to take my boots off to wade through the water. A rope was stretched across the stream to aid in crossing. It was so high off the ground though that I felt stretching up so high to hang onto it was interfering with keeping my balance on the moss covered rocky wet bottom more than it was helping. I let go of it half way across and relied on my poles to steady me. The water felt so good on my feet that I was reluctant to leave it once I had reached the other shore. I climbed up the bank and sat on a rock to dry my feet. Meanwhile Cole was already in the stream and had just passed the halfway mark. He was tall enough to easily hang onto the rope. As I watched him suddenly he let go of the rope and begin waving his arms around in the air. For half a second I thought perhaps he was dancing, but then I realized that is something I would do in the middle of the river, not Cole. He began moving downstream. I knew the water was not deep and the current was not strong so it must not be forcing him down. What was he doing? I hollered at him a couple of times but he did not reply. He just kept waving and dancing and moving on downstream. Eventually he made his way over to the other bank and backtracked to my position. ¢ what were you doing?¢ I asked.¢ There were bees!¢ He exclaimed.¢You were swatting at bees?¢¢Well I didn¢t know what I was swatting at, but then I saw the nest.¢Sure enough, in the tree that the rope was attached to on the north shore hung a bees nest. I must not have disturbed it because I had let go of the rope.¢I¢d better warn other hikers,¢ I said. I pulled out my phone to add a user comment to Guthooks. Someone had beat me to it. If we had read the comments we would have known about the nest ahead of time. Well, at least we didn¢t get stung.We had another stream to ford later in the day, but we were able to find enough rocks to hop on so that we didn¢t have to remove our shoes.We were trying to get as close to Monson as we could so that we wouldn¢t have far to go tomorrow. We eventually stopped just over three miles from highway 15, along a snowmobile path. It also happened to be the route the AT once followed to get to Monson. We set up the tent just off the snowmobile trail. I sat down to cook dinner while Cole set up the tent.After dinner we took stock of our meager food supply. Two and a half packages of pop tarts and one honey bun. Was it even worth hanging? We could shove it inside multiple layers of scent proof bags and zip locks.As we were contemplating this, we heard movement not for off in the trees. Something was out there and it was moving towards us. It sounded big and clumsy.¢Grab the trekking poles Cole!¢ I barked, thinking we might need something to defend ourselves with.¢I¢ve got your boots!¢ he countered.I turned towards him. There he was standing wide eyed with one of my boots on each of his hands looking like he was ready to throw a left jab at whatever emerged from the trees. Closer and closer it lumbered.Before I could jump up from the ground to grab the poles, a big, long haired floppy eared dog bounded out onto the trail. It froze when it saw us and stared in our direction, probably wondering what we would do. We stared back, wondering what it would do. After a minute, it turned and bounded into the trees on the opposite side of the trail.Cole and I looked at each other.¢I think I¢ll hang the food.¢ He said.¢Good idea.¢As I laid in bed after dark, unable to fall asleep, the sight of Cole standing there with my boots came to mind and I began to giggle.¢What is it?¢ Cole wanted to know.I mimicked his voice. ¢I¢ve got your boots.¢¢Whaaaat? I was going to throw them at it.¢¢Throw them? I thought you were going to punch it. Why were you going to throw MY boots?¢Cole began to laugh. Then I laughed some more.¢Grab the trekking poles!¢ I whispered a shout.¢I¢ve got your boots!¢ Cole responded.And we laughed and laughed at ourselves even more.