Date: 2006-09-25
From: Spaulding Mtn Lean-To

To: Poplar Ridge Lean-To
Miles today: 8.0
Weather: few clouds

Monday, Sept 25, 2006 Spaulding Mtn Lean-To to Poplar Ridge Lean-To, 8.0 milesEveryone razzes on Amoeba who is trying to convert them into non-stove users. It takes too much time when there¢s a long hike ahead, she says.Sunny, cold, crisp, clear. Fall is here, no hint of summer. Temp in the 40¢s? No wind. Start 7:40.A plant that needs ID, Purple Rose is pretty sure it¢s baby¢s tears.Zig Zag and Memere pair up, Purple Rose and Gray Feathers. Getting to know each other. Bruce overtakes. He says Tim will be jetting by soon. He¢s just finishing his coffee.Everyone feels for Purple Rose today. She¢s been beaten up, she¢s lost her confidence, she¢s feeling clumsy, incapable and afraid. She thinks maybe she¢s disfigured (no mirrors for her to see her face). Her lip is numb. Permanently? Memere and Gray Feathers reassure her she¢ll be OK. We¢ve all felt it. We go on.Tim overtakes. Wearing shorts, a shirt and gaiters. He likes gaiters, they¢re an everyday thing. They keep my legs clean and protected.Stop near the sluiceway at Orbeton Stream, on the old railroad bed.Gray Feathers, pulling out food: OOOOH, pepperoni, cheese and peanut butter.Memere: It¢s not lunchtime.Gray Feathers: I¢m having a sort of lunch. When is lunch? Half an hour? I¢m having a pre-lunch.The pre-lunch is consumed at a flat spot, deceptively flat, because as soon as they re-enter the woods, there¢s a steep down, very steep. The map calls it a canyon.Stream crossing at the bottom is tricky. One of the stepping stones is too slanted to feel safe stepping on.Some baby cedar saplings springing up among the spruces.Purple Rose spots rabbit¢s foot fern.Finally lunch.Ascent after lunch. Rest stops on the way up. ¢I¢m counting now, counting steps. That helps.¢Hello Prana (AKA Sarah). The picture I took of you in Massachusetts came out blurred. Can I take another one, asks Amoeba. Sure. Prana is Sanskrit for ¢breath¢. She thinks there are about 10 thruhikers around her and about 15 farther back. Trying to get to Katahdin as soon as possible. She feels like she¢s running out of time.Hello Charlie Foxtrot and, Boulder, it¢s you! Boulder remembers meeting Amoeba back when he started on March 1. Scout started that same day, he says. He¢s re-encountered Scout, and now Amoeba. It adds a kind of completeness to the end of the hike.Bruce and Tim are in the Poplar Ridge (Baseball Bat) Shelter, which holds 6. The women arrive a little before 3:30.Who is around the firepit? Snake Eyes and Two Step, who they last saw about to take a swim in Finerty Pond in Massachusetts. TuTone, last seen at Bascom Lodge. Hurricane, last seen in Massachusetts. Trail Boss, ditto. A hiker new to them, who says he was airlifted in here at a cost of $20,000. This hiker is carrying a large plastic squirt gun and is wearing dredlocks. Amoeba calls him Airlift, but his real name is Breeze. You¢ll always be Airlift to me, she says, offering him a tomato.Iroc, also last seen in Massachusetts. I¢m trying to catch Prana. I thought she¢d hike slower. I can¢t catch her. She¢s fast.Then Just Dan pulls in. He¢s hiked from Rte 4 to here in 4 12 hours. Got a rhythm going, he says. His wife has sent him butterscotch bit cookies which he offers to share.Amoeba and Purple Rose (AKA Pyro) make a big fire. Smoky, but kinda nice.We don¢t have to leave that early tomorrow, Amoeba says. Everyone can make themselves a hot breakfast if they want.Amoeba cowboy camps, discovering during the night that a cold butt warms up if you zipper your fleece vest around it.About 3 AM it starts to rain. Amoeba walks over to the shelter. Tim makes a place for her, pulling Memere¢s sleeping pad closer to him. Amoeba slips into the crack between Memere and Gray Feathers.