Date: 2007-09-20
From: Pleasant Pond Hiker Parking Lot

To: Rte 201
Miles today: 5.6

Thursday, September 20, 2007Pleasant Pond Hiker Parking Lot to Rte 201, 5.6 miles.Comfy night at Northern Outdoors. Pearls, Starvin Marvin, Birdlegs, Birdman, and 2 other thruhikers are there.We start late for today¢s short hike, 10:30. Weather like it¢s been, sunny, 70¢s. Colors stronger today.About a half hour into the walk, from the right we hear repeated yowls of a canine, wolf, coyote, dog? Hound of the Baskervilles, says Memere.Wafts of warm fir incense released from stands of baby trees simmering in the sunlight.Hello again to NOBO Nameless Ben, who just saw a moose about 0.1 from here, crossing the Trail, walking north up from Pleasant Pond Stream into the woods.Hello again to NOBO¢s Forest and Spaceman.Road noise from 201 the last half of this hike.A few fall leaves drifting down. I feel no urge to try to catch one.We come out. Memere and Gray Feathers take the PT Cruiser to explore Pleasant Pond and I take the Element to search for a shortcut to Troutdale Rd via Sandy Stream Rd.It¢s a decent dirt road, but there are some culverts where the road is badly eroded. I almost turn around, but decide to press on, traveling about 8-10 mph. I meet a bloody-handed bear hunter, standing next to his parked truck, dogs in the back. He¢s meeting other hunters who are coming out from the woods. He tells me he thinks the road, which used to be impassable, is now driveable because there is fresh logging going on east of here and the loggers have fixed the road. I continue until about the 6-mile mark, where I stop before a partially washed-out bridge. I¢ve taken 2 right forks, and I¢m not even sure I¢m still on Sandy Stream Rd. I could just as well be on a dead-end logging road. No point risking crossing the bridge only to find myself lost and having to recross it to get back. I turn around. We¢ll settle for the established roads, 201 to Lake Moxie Rd to Troutdale.Back at the hiker parking lot at 3:15, I meet a friendly section-hiker from Connecticut who is hiking Monson to Stratton, our route, but in reverse. I drive back to Northern Outdoors. Memere, Gray Feathers and Pearls are doing laundry. Starvin Marvin tells us that a female thruhiker has just quit the trail. She left Northern Outdoors for Waterville where she¢ll get a bus back home. Reason? She was the hiker who was being stalked. Starvin Marvin found out about it just a few minutes after she left Northern Outdoors. He and Pearls are sorry they didn¢t know a little earlier. If they had, they would have offered to hike the rest of the way to Katahdin with her. We¢re sorry too. We could have offered to help her by shuttling her back and forth with us, at least until Monday. It¢s so sad she¢s come this far, and not finish.Pearls adds some of my laundry to hers and Starvin Marvin¢s. She returns it all fresh and folded!Supposedly there is wifi here, but I can¢t get the connection to work on my laptop. I pick ¢hotspot¢ on the Airport menu, but when I try to connect, nothing happens. Reminder to me: learn how to use network diagnostics! Later: change location setting in the network pane of system preferences from ¢automatic¢ to ¢LAN¢Memere and Gray Feathers call their husbands to let them know we¢re one day behind schedule due to aborting the final 6.4 that was planned to be done on Day 2. They¢ll finish Monday morning and come home that evening. We talk about lengthening this hike due to the fabulous weather, lack of bugs, and low water/mud levels, but Memere and Gray Feathers prefer to stick with the hiking plan.September 2008, start in Monson and hike through to Katahdin. We talk about finishing the south. In April or May of 2008, we¢ll hike Devils Fork to Allen Gap, and Garenflo Gap to Fontana. I keep trying to convince them to continue on to Springer, but, 280 miles broken into 10-mile days, plus travel time and 4-5 zeroes may take as long as 6 weeks. Too long to be away from home. Looks like their AT finish will be in 2009, but it sure would be nice to all be in the Class of 2008. Maybe there¢s some way.Looking ahead to Saturday¢s/Sunday¢s hikes, we study the 2007 DeLorme Gazetteer. Possibly by taking back roads, Bald Mountain Rd to unnamed road to Foss Pond Rd we can turn these into 2 day hikes, but it would take us half a day to do the scouting. We¢ll just backpack that piece, from Shirley Blanchard Rd to Troutdale, like Purple Rose, Zig Zag and I did August 26 and 27, 2005.