Date: 2011-08-07
From: (122) Stratton, ME. Tom's Cabin.

To: (123) Little Bigelow Lean-to
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: moderate rain

Hand-Me-Down and I slept in late today. When I got up my joints were stiff and sore from the Lymes, but I wanted to hike anyway (Usually takes a day for meds to kick Lyme symptoms). While packing, I pulled my phone charger out of a wall outlet, and one of the metal prongs pulled out of the charger and remained stuck in the outlet. For a fleeting and terrifying second I thought that I would not be able to charge my phone for the rest of the trail (But my social life¢¦ Oh the humanity!), but when I looked closer I saw that the end of the metal prong was protruding out of the outlet just enough to grab hold of¢¦ But would I get electrocuted? Adrenaline pumping, breathing sporadically, and my entire life flashing before my eyes, I snatched the prong from the wall outlet in a clumsy blur of speed. I was not shocked, and (Very pleased with myself and my cunning), shoved the prong back into the charger for future use (I am not a smart man¢¦). Tom made us an awesome breakfast of waffles, sausage, eggs, bananas, and toast. We ate until we could eat no more. Then, Tom, struggling to drive with his dog Max on his lap, drove us back to the trail. He told Hand-Me-Down and I that we were two of the best hikers he had ever taken in. It meant a lot to us, because Tom was the best who had ever taken us in. Back in the green tunnel that is the woods, Hand-Me-Down and I began to climb up into the Bigelows, the last brutally mountainous stretch of our journey, after which the trail should flatten out until Katahdin. It rained lightly as we hiked, but for the most part we were spared this additional misery while scaling slippery boulders, or dropping down steep inclines. While climbing, I passed a wooden sign nailed to a tree indicating that i had just finished 2000 miles of hiking. Sick, I snapped some photos and moved on.While I hiked I listened to my half finished audio book, Moby Dick. After listening to an entire chapter dedicated to the anatomy of fish, and then an entire chapter on the color ¢White¢ and why it induces the most fear of all the colors, I found myself wishing that I would slip on one of the wet rocks (preferably a white one shaped like a fish) and knock myself out so that I would not have to hear anymore. It is the last book I will be listening to, having already read or listened to an impressively large list while on the trail (In order): A Walk in the Woods (Started before the trail, ripped in half, burned the pages as I went, finished in Virginia) The Catcher in the Rye (Maryland, Ripped in half, Pennsylvania), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair and The Last Battle (Pennsylvania), 1984 (Pennsylvania), The Bell Jar (Jersey and New York), Into The Wild (New York), Sun Tzu¢s The Art of War (New York), The Alchemist (New York and Connecticut), The Count of Monte Cristo (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont), The Invisible Man (New Hampshire), Lord of the Flies (Connecticut to New Hampshire, burned as I went), Brave New World (New Hampshire), Catch 22 (New Hampshire and Maine), and Moby Dick (Maine). At 5:30pm I passed a shelter coming down the last of the Bigelows, and decided my joints had had enough impact for one day, and that I should probably give my exhausted body a rest until the Lyme disease settles down. In the shelter I was happily reunited with my pals Red Moose and Tridub! We were later joined by Hand-Me-Down, Road Dog, Switchback, Mehap, Mayo, Peter, and many more. For whatever reason a large number of Nobo thru hikers have congested, and a hiker bubble has formed (Probably formed because of the stopping power of the Bigelows). Tridub informed me that he wanted to do a 30 miler the next day. Feeling too sick to attempt a 50 miler (Which was my original plan before entering Stratton); I decided that I would join him. Hopefully the meds will have kicked in, but I am up for it either way. GAME 2011!!! (¢GAME¢ is often signed ¢GA-->ME¢ in logbooks by thru hikers, ¢GA¢ being the abbreviation for Georgia and ¢ME¢ as Maine¢s. This indicates a North bound thru hike from GA to ME, or GAME. South Bound thru hikers often sign, ¢MEGA¢.)