Date: 2006-07-24
From: Oquossoc, Me

To: The Cabin - East Andover, ME
Miles today: 13.3
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up at 5:30 this morning and went next door to the store to get some coffee. They have Carabasset Coffee and it's good...especially the Bad Dog blend. I sent in my journal and posted it, then started packing up my mess. I had some wet stuff from yesterday and things were spread out all over the place. It didn't take too long to get organized once I got started. I thanked Don for all he does for the hikers, then Yolanda and I packed up and were leaving when I spotted a note on my windshield. It was from Marta and she asked that Mrs Gorp and I stop by her room over at The White Wolf Inn when we got a chance. I guess the note was there for a day or so, but I knew she was still in town. I went over to Mrs Gorp's car and asked if we had time to stop. We ended up staying there and talking to Marta about 25 minutes before we left. Marta is doing good, looking good and seems to be having a great hike. :-))) We drove out to the Oquossoc trailhead and dropped off my truck.Yolanda got out there and started walking south. I think she's finally seeing the light that sobo's are much better hikers and just all around better people, even seem to be better educated than the nobo's. She always wants to walk south now. :-))) She started walking at 8:50am and I drove her car around to South Arm Rd. It took me 55 minutes to get there. I got on my fanny pack and started the long, steep ascent of Old Blue at 9:45am. It was a beautiful morning for a walk...nice breeze and fairly cool temperature for the middle of summer. I summited Old Blue at 11:20am and sat down for a while and enjoyed the day and the views. I descended Old Blue, then climbed Elephant Mountain and ran into Blain first, then Drew...both sobo's....you know, just all around better people. :-))) I walked down Elephant Mountain and about a mile before I reached the summit of Bemis Mountain, I ran into Yolanda. It was 1pm when I stopped to talk to her. I think she was setting me up because she said there were a couple hikers about 10 minutes ahead of me by the names of Jeff Alt and Loan Ranger that were dying to meet me. Ha, we'll see!! :-))) I summited Bemis Mountain, then Third Peak and headed into Bemis Mountain Lean-to to sign the register. The guys that Yolanda had mentioned were there. Loan Ranger looked at me and said "Stumpknocker." I knew I hadn't seen him before, so I was kind of waiting to see whether Yolanda really did set me up, but turns out Loan Ranger had read my journals online and knew about me. He was hiking with his son, Wrong Foot '98 and Wrench. Loan Ranger and Wrench have been sectioning the trail and only have 133 miles left to finish the whole thing. :-))) Wrong Foot said he's doing a seminar at The Gathering this year, so I'll get to see him there. We talked for about 20 minutes before I walked on. I walked over Second Peak, then First Peak. I had forgotten just how beautiful this area is. I would love to come up here in the winter with snowshoes and go backpacking over this range. I'll bet that would be a great hike!! I descended all the way down to Bemis Stream, then climbed about 750 feet to where my truck was parked at the trailhead on Rt 17. I had a fantastic walk today. It was cooler and much less humid and the bugs didn't start bothering me until the last 2 miles at the lower elevation. I drove over to The Cabin and found Rambunny out back and gave her a hug. I sat down and was talking to her when Bear came out. I heard Aqua say something about me being here...he saw my truck. He and Honey came over and I got a hug from Honey. It's always so good to see every one of them. :-))) Bear saved the private room upstairs for me and Yolanda got the other, not as nice private room downstairs. Ha!!! :-))) Actually I waited until Yolanda got here from her walk today and let her decide which room she wanted. We had just enough time to get showers before dinner was served. Honey had made some delicious lasagna along with several vegetables, salad and garlic bread. Then we had brownies and ice cream for desert. There were 8 of us at the table. Two of them were trail workers getting ready for a 3 week stint of rock work on Bemis Mountain, two were nobo's, Bloody Mess and Fortune Cookie and 2 were section hikers, Left Fielder and Reindeer along with Yolanda and myself. After dinner, I showed Honey and Bear some of the photos from this years hike including one of Loon, a bunch of Frogcaller's summit and seaplane ride and some of the mountains we've been walking over. We all watched a taped news report that ABC did on Earl Shaffer when he walked through this area on his last thru hike, then I stayed downstairs and talked to a few hikers before I turned in for the night.