Date: 2006-09-23
From: Caribou Pond (Valley) Rd

To: Rte 27
Miles today: 8.3

Friday, Sept 22, zero dayAfter wishing Rising Sun, Rusch Hour and Fiddlehead (who are also staying at Abol Campground) good luck on their summit today, Amoeba says goodbye to Grandpa Bear and starts out for Stratton. Have a very happy birthday today, Grandpa Bear!She stops in Bingham for another bowl of Thompson¢s Restaurant Oyster Stew. Just as good as last year. Also in Bingham is the Laundromat she used last year, but this year it seems abandoned. Most machines are out of order, but a few still work. Seems to have cold water only. Good enough. She washes clothes and socks.Free wifi in Kingfield, a little town south of Stratton. She uploads a few photos to trailjournals. No time for anything else.Amoeba picks up Miss Direction from Texas and Cat from California, hitching in to Stratton from the Rte 27 trailhead. They started their thruhikes at the end of April.At the Stratton Motel, hello Don!You¢re in Room #1 with Gray Feathers and Memere, he says.Don gives Amoeba directions to the Caribou Pond (Valley) Rd trailhead. (The street sign says Pond, Amoeba¢s map says Valley). Go 5 miles to the AT railhead, go 1.5 miles past this to a yellow diamond sign on the right showing a truck going downhill, take a right onto the dirt road just before the sign, go 3.9 miles, slowly. Park just before you come to a steel bridge. Walk over the bridge and down the road 0.5, past a large flat rock on the left that is almost large enough to park a car on. There¢s the AT. To head north to 27, turn right.Memere and Gray Feathers arrive about 6. Dinner at the family diner across from the motel.It¢s so neat being with both of you again!Saturday, Sept 23, 2006 Caribou Pond (Valley) Rd to Rte 27, S to N, 8.3 milesAt the AT at 7:45. Memere and Gray Feathers are putting on their raingear. Memere says Gray Feathers looks like a daffodil. Amoeba promises Gray Feathers she will not post that picture!Start 8:05.Pearly everlasting by the roadside.Hello SOBO Swing Easy, Katahdin to Springer. He¢s got a ways to go.Track is littered with red berries of mountain ash, bunchberries and hobblebush.Rocks dry enough not to be slick. Smells of fall. Lots of birch, a pinky grayish bark, not chalky white. Is this gray birch? This birch is silky, so much more pleasant as a hand-hold than fir or spruce.Stone steps near the summit of South Crocker.South Crocker is socked in. Up in the fog, says Memere. Yup, says Gray Feathers.Blue Clintonia berries.Garden Gnome overtakes them. Amoeba met Garden Gnome with 3-skip McGrit in southern VT or northern MA.Summit of North Crocker. Madison-like, raw, cold, but not so windy.Hello SOBO¢s Iceman and Tunderwookie from Cincinnati. They expect to summit Springer end of Feb.This hike is less social than the 100-mile Wilderness where thruhikers have converged, planning group summits, and post-summit celebrations.A signature Amoeba fall on downward-slanting mud. Her foot slides forward so fast she can¢t recover, she falls backward onto her back, head and neck snapping back into the mud. Thank goodness it¢s mud, not a rock. Ear rings for a minute, but OK. Not hurt.Hello Face Plant and his dog Nobee, Seed and his dog Murphy, flipfloppers who will finish in North Adams mid to late October. Check them out at whereiskeith.com.Gray Feathers¢ sister is a good friend of Irish, she knows him as Noel. Amoeba tells Gray Feathers that she, Purple Rose and Zig Zag all met Irish at the Dutch Haus last spring.Another signature Amoeba fall, this one with the mud but without the head-snapping. Clothes are drenched in mud.Out at 3:45. Back to the motel. Zig Zag is there. A big hug hello. Introductions.They wait til 7 for Purple Rose and Purple Sherpa to arrive. They¢re overdue. Meeting time was 6. The 4 women decide to go over to the diner and wait for them there. Motel is visible from the restaurant. Over dinner they discuss ways they¢ll search for the Purples. A while later the Purples arrive. They¢ve been on lots of unmarked back roads, forks, twists and turns, trying to find the AT/Perham Rd intersection, with no luck.Everyone decides the hike from Caribou to Rte 4 will be a 2-night 3-day backpack. Memere¢s car holds 5 and so does Zig Zag¢s. In the morning they¢ll place Zig Zag¢s at Rte 4 and Memere¢s at Caribou.Will they need to carry tents? No Pliers at the motel says the last 2 shelters he stayed at were full. But it¢s so much more pleasant (and safer) to have a lighter backpack. The women decide to risk it, and leave their tents behind. Rain is not in the immediate forecast, Amoeba can cowboy camp if needed.Garden Gnome is at the motel too. Good luck on your finish, Garden Gnome!