Date: 2003-09-10
To: Stratton, Maine
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

total miles-1984.8its late in the night, 3:19am, and im in a bed at a sort of bed and breakfast place, without the breakfast, in stratton, maine. right across the street is probably the brightest street-light ive ever fought to sleep against, coupled with the perfect acoustic level for jake-breaking lous-ass tractor trailer trucks. but it was only $13 a nite and its close to everything. like a hotel that's closed on tuesdays (for crying out loud...and guess what day i needed a hotel?), a diner thats closed on wednesdays (nice local touch wouldnt you say...and yes im hungry for diner food, and this morning will be wednesday) and a PO with new, more convenient hours (used to open at 8 am-now...930am!). yes, maine, as they say here,"the way life should be!" ahhh, the trail. sometimes makes you wish you didnt have to leave it. life is so much simpler there.ANYWAY...enough tongue in cheek shenanigans.i have less than 200 miles to go before reaching katahdin, the end of this exciting adventure. the next town of caratunk will mark over 2000 miles hiked. where i stayed last nite was at a ski building on sugarloaf mtn., the second highest peak in maine, katahdin being the highest. it was a clear, cold morning with the overnite low of 31.1 degrees on my thermometer. i believe i saw big K from up there, northeast about 100 miles. not trail miles. trail miles its almost 200. so, to summarize the trail, mileage-wise, you find the straight-line distance between 2 points, and then double it. thats trail miles. seriously, thats pretty accurate.when i set my pack down in the room here today, i looked closely and noticed my pack frame is broken. oh no! its a tubular frame and i thought a dowel might fix it. now i think some hose clamps and a metal splint-like object will do. good thing there's a full service hardware store...IN the grocery store! another quaint fact about stratton, maine. im not putting it down, really. im just a natural questioner of things and procedures. and this is just one of those towns that has stroked my question bone (is bone the right word?).my knees are feeling better, not as bad as they were feeling from mahoosuc notch. havent needed any pain relief pills since.food ate in town-pizza, beer (honey brown draft), 2 chocolate milkshakes, 1 orange pop (ok, SODA!), 1 big bacon cheeseburger, fries, strawberry shortcake (w/o much strawberries...boohoo), and a bowl of chicken/vege soup. and im hungry again!hilites of today-1.seeing katahdin (i think). 2.feeding gray jays from my hand between south and north crocker peaks, with fig newton crumbs and getting pictures of it. 3.nice, easy descent to the road to stratton (it was just like north carolina, ie. smooth, dirt trail covered with dead leaves and some roots here and there...i thought i was gonna emerge from the woods and be in the smokies again! wouldnt that be a sick joke?!) 4.yummy town food. 5.seeing other hikers i havent seen in awhile, like snowberry, easy rider, odwalla, siesta, circit rider and sherlock. yes we were all at the diner at the same time, making them rich. (:on to caratunk...after i go back to sleep...nite!