Date: 2005-09-12
From: Bald Mountain Brook

To: Monson,ME
Miles today: 19.7
Weather: broken clouds

Up and gone by 7:30 this morning. I hiked with Paul in the beginning of the day and finished up the day hiking with Ug. Paul had relatives coming to pick him up at a certain date and needed to put in some big miles to make that date. He linked up eventually with Tom "Many Names" and did make it on time. Tom was another strong hiker and the two of them matched when it came to a fast pace.    In the morning we passed through some interesting rock formations just prior to Moxie Bald Mountain (2629 feet). We could have seen Mount Katahdin that day if only we looked for it, it never crossed our minds. The wind was blowing real strong when we got there. It looked like the top of Everest or someplace like that with all the ribbons and colors. After a quick picture we made our way down hill and took a break out of the wind. Fig and Just Visiting walked past us while we were there.    Fig made a comment that I believe only someone from Maine would understand (Fig is from Maine I must add). We were talking about the trail conditions and he made the comment that it was covered in dry mud. Dry Mud? Not dry as in baked hard, but the type of mud you could step in and sink to the top of your shoes. There was no moister in the mud so it did not stick to anything, hence "dry mud". Fig was also looking a little rough, he fell that day and was all scraped up. True to the nature of the man it did not slow him down at all.   We all meet up again at the Moxie Bald Lean-to and took a short break. I took their photo and we swapped personal info (we were getting close to the end). There was a great swimming area near this lean-to and I would have loved to have spent the night there. Buttah had left a message that he in fact did spend the night along the shore. He also noted that he saw Moose there that evening. He was now about a half of a day ahead of me, I never caught up to him again.   Right after this break Paul left on his own. I walked on for a while by myself and eventually began hiking with Ug. Ug was from Florida, and we hiked for a while a few times before. We were both heading towards the town of Monson and made the decision to hike in to it together. Ug was interested in joining the Military and wanted to talk about doing such. I gave him more information then I knew he could handle. He kept asking questions and I kept giving advise. The decision to enter the service of course was all his, for now though we both needed to make a trail decision, when the leave the trail for town.    When you get to the first turn off for Monson you have the choice of taking one of two routes. You can take either the first trail to town by way of the "Trail to Lake Hebron" or go another 6.7 miles on the AT until you got to ME-15 and then go in to Monson from there. Because it was getting late and the fact that we already hiked 19.7 miles, we took the first trail to town. For me, being the Purist that I was, it meant that I had to go back to where I left off of the trail when I returned and not skip the 6.7 miles (by going to the trail head at ME-15).   We both pulled in and made arrangements to stay at Shaw's Lodging. I stayed inside and took a bunk, Ug stayed outside and used my tent (it saved him a few dollars doing so). We went for Pizza that night at the C&G Country Store (it was great). I was able to call home and talk to my son Joshua (his birthday was the next day). I also got through to my friend Brian and gave him my planned summit date (20th of September with a weather date of the 21st). He said he will be there. I also asked him all the questions I came up with when I spent the zero day in my tent a number of days ago.   The plan I had for the next day was to do laundry (the last time on the trail) and to re supply my food stock. I needed enough to get to the White House Landing Wilderness Camp some 70 plus miles north. It was a little more then half way through the 100 mile wilderness and though apparently expensive, it was a place to re supply. While getting ready for this next leg of the trip I could not believe I was about to head on in to the 100 mile wilderness. Totally amazing.   At Shaw's there were a lot of familiar people. Too many to list. The one thing I realized that night and the next morning. It was going to be the last time I would see a lot of them ever again. My pick up date meant that I had to travel 16 miles a day, on average, and most hikers were not doing that many miles. Perhaps I should have made the summit date a few days later, on the 22nd perhaps. That is hind site talking and at the time I was ready to go. It all depended on the weather and trail conditions.