Date: 2005-09-20
From: ? shelter

To: ?? shelter
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: clear sky

20 Sept (19.5 mi)The moon was so bright that i couldn¢t tell whether it was day or night when i awoke. Poor sleep, but i really liked waking up to the murmur of Sunflower and BottleRocket¢s morning babble. It¢s raining, and the slabby rock is very slippery, so i battle with the poncho and the poles, and am worn out one mile from the shelter. I actually contemplate hitching out to Rangeley and maybe even skipping the 10mi between ME17 and ME4. ¢What are you thinking?! Snap out of it!! Hike your own hike. H your own H, girl.¢ I do this sometimes ¢ the body is tired, the mind wonders, the emotions are somewhere else, and the over all condition is near-apathy. It is, however, a lot easier to find yourself while you¢re out here, in the wild. Back in society, it probably is easier to LOSE yourself instead of finding. The hope of running into folks from The Cabin pulls me up the last climb before ME17, and ¢¦ the Universe is still amazing ¢ Moonshine, Mr. Fusion, Backtrack, History, Seeker, and 2 cases or beer are chilling on the side of the road! Moonshine and i hike out to a lake with tiny picnic tables and warm water, and then join the rest for lunch at the first shelter. Considering the beer that has been consumed along the way, and was consumed during lunch at the shelter, it doesn¢t look like Backtrack will be moving any time soon, and we all snicker as we push ourselves back onto the trail and into the rain. There are many bog-logs along the way (logs in boggy places to, supposedly, make the trail walk easier and less muddy), and they are slippery as all hell. I take a nose plunge and get stuck between two logs that moved apart to make way for my belly, and then came back together to clamp me down. The train (the guys behind me) is waiting in that split, uncertain moment where one decides whether to laugh or assertain that the clutz is okay. She is. It isn¢t long before we come onto a campsite with lake access and 3 canoes life vests, and oars included. We test out one canoe, but it is so patched up and beat up that it takes up water without anyone in it. Another canoe looks brand new, so we crowd it with 3, and Mr. Fusion and Seeker take the dented aluminum canoe. At one point, Seeker asked how canoes get dented like this. On the lake, we played ¢Pirates¢ and demonstrated exactly how the denting is accomplished. The lake was covered with fog, and we weren¢t certain we¢d find out way back to the campsite once we row out to the middle. By ME4, S & BR caught up to us and convinced everyone to go to the Thai Restaurant in Rangeley, so the last couple of miles to the shelter i hiked solo, which, as always, was great, especially on absolutely flat terrain. I just love crawling into my warm, dry sleeping back after a long, wet day. Such a feeling of accomplishment just isn¢t achieved in today¢s society, and just crawling under the covers isn¢t anywhere near as satisfying! Eagle Foot and Noodle already at the shelter, then, Seeker arrived, and Backtrack rolled in having finished all his beers and taken a nap back at that first shelter. The group from the Thai Restaurant rolled in after dark.