Date: 2007-08-09
From: East Andover

To: New Hampshire!
Miles today: 0.0

Yay! Made it to the Cabin in East Andover, Maine (around 240 miles), and am enjoying the awesome hospitality of Honey and Bear. The hike from Stratton went well, despite quite a bit of rain.The first night out of Stratton, we stayed in the Sugarloaf Mtn Ski Resort warming hut, which was pretty cool...360 degree views of the sunset and sunrise. The night was incredibly windy, and had the place not been 100% steel, it probably would have blown over. The next day we enjoyed a nice morning's walk, only to be slammed with ridiculous amounts of rain, thunder and lightening. We made it to a shelter, and dried out, which was nice. A group of 8 "peak baggers" showed up, under the watchful leadership of a rather strict Trail Nazi, who luckily pushed them on, but only after they dampened the areas of the shelter we had tried so hard to keep dry. We were joined, later in the evening, by Bad Ass Turtle and Footslogger, who were more than happy to dump some of their extra alcohol fuel on our pile of wet wood, which resulted in me toasting all of the hair off of my hand lighting it, but the heat, smoke and phsyco therapy were all very nice. The day was supposed to be a 17, but we only got in 10 or so before the shelter.The next day, we decided that it was time for town, and put in another low mileage day in order to get to Rangeley. When we were hitching, an old man pulled up in a mini pickup with fire wood stacked over the top of the sides of the truck, and asked if we minded sitting on the wood. Still thoroughly soaked from the previous day's rain, we obliged, and narrowly cheated death for the 9 miles into town. When he had to turn off of the road, he kindly asked Numskull if we "had any splinters in our rumps." Got to go grocery shopping at the IGA, which was nice. Somehow I spent 42 dollars. I purchased dinner food and trail food, and ate the following when we got to the hostel: 1 pint of Hagen Daz Coffee ice cream, one pint of blue berries, one cup of vanilla yogurt, a bag of cherry tomatoes, a diet coke and a bottle of beer. All of this, of course, went along with an 8 piece fried chicken dinner Unfortunately, however, people up here just don't know how to cook fried chicken like they do back home...I think I could eat a whole lunch time's batch of Lanexa Plaza fried chicken right now. The hostel was interesting, but they had a kayak. I think that I'm going to buy a kayak when I get home. It was a lot of fun paddling around the lake, talking to the locals and listening to some dude play the bag pipes on the end of his dock. Luckily, the bag pipes only lasted for about 15 minutes...it was starting to sound like a Mary Washington graduation procession.We woke up in Rangeley to rain, but decided that it would be best to push on anyways. We hiked 17 miles, about 10 of which were in the pouring rain. The last 7 were close to worth it, as the sun was out, and since we both had water squishing out of the tops of our boots, we just walked right through the fords and everything. I scored a really nice tent site at the shelter, which was located a bit close to the French Canadian boy scout group, but it was interesting to hear people rap in French.Today was supposed to be another 19, but luckily it wasn't. I came down Old Blue mtn. to the first road to Andover to find Numskull leaned up against a truck, and the first thing he mentioned was going in to town. The original plan was to hike to the next road into Andover, but the mountain on the other side of the gorge looked awfully nasty, and neither of us was really interested in hiking another 10 miles. I have since been able to shower, helped split some wood, did some dishes and am waiting on the availability of the washing machine.   The hiker closet here has some pretty eccentric clothes for when you're clean and doing wash. There is a huuuuge assortment of tie-dye jeans. I'm not sure what decade they're from, but they look like an acid trip transposed onto fabric.I sent home some of my extra weight (around 2.5 pounds), so the burden on the back should be eased. The body's still holding up well, and I'm looking forward to the next 1900 some odd miles. In the rain yesterday, I came across a really angry looking old couple, and when the old lady asked how I was doing, I said "Loving every step," to which she scoffed, and I continued on my way. Even when the weather sucks, every step that you take is one less that you'll have to take the next day.