Date: 2004-09-23
From: Gentian Pond Shelter

To: Full Goose Shelter, MAINE!
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: clear sky

**********10/12/2004Just wanted to give a real-time update...Dan has less than 100 miles to go. The last I heard from him, he was planning to enter the "100 miles of wilderness" last Saturday 10/9. That is the last section of trail before Baxter State Park & Katahdin! He plans to summit sometime over the coming weekend (10/15 - 10/18), and will be back home by the middle of next week! I will continue to post his journal entries in sequence, even though the journal is a little behind. So eventually (soon!) you will be able to read of his entire journey up to the end.Jen ('the scribe')**********We have arrived in the promised land!!! MAINE!!! Forever when people would ask us how far we were headed we would say Maine, but after today, that answer will no longer work. At the border, we took our pictures and were all excited to be in our last state.Although, we soon learned why a former thru-hiker told us that the "welcome to Maine" sign should say "welcome to Maine mother f....." Maine is hard!! We got on the trail before 8 AM and had only covered 9.6 miles by 5 PM. We had planned on doing another 5 miles, but decided to stop for the day. Especially since Mahoosuc Notch was just ahead and this is noted to be the hardest mile on the trail.The other interesting happening today was my second run-in on the trail with a scary person. I was hiking alone about 10 minutes behind Mickey & Mallory and about 10 minutes ahead of Magnet, Butterfingers, and Wideload. I heard some mumbling just around the corner and thought that there were a couple of people just ahead talking, but when I rounded the corner, it was just one guy (about 30 years old). He asked me if I would be "willing to trade for some duct tape?" I told him that I didn't have any. I also told him that my friends behind me might have some. I did that because I got a bad vibe off him and wanted him to know I wasn't alone. I thought he might just have Tourette's syndrome due to the mumbling and he talked somewhat choppy.The other part of our conversation was about the top of my pack. He noticed I cut off part of my pack and he said "that's a good idea, the top of my pack was so heavy too." Then as I left he said "I'll trade you a rock for a snack." I laughed and walked away thinking he was kidding. Ten minutes later I came across the top of a backpack (or a brain as we call it) and some plastic sheeting. The brain had part of a tent and the poles/stakes. I instantly though that the wierd guy left it. I was very annoyed because I carried the stuff almost a mile to the next shelter. (We usually try to pack out any trash we see.) Things got very wierd when I got to the shelter though...No one else saw this guy. Mickey & Mallory were only 10 minutes ahead and there were no side trails between where I met the guy and the shelter. Also, two other thru-hikers were at the shelter (Gabby & Pokey) and they had been there for a while and hadn't seen him either.For a second I started to think I had been in the woods too long and was seeing things. But then Wideload, Butterfingers, and Magnet came in and said "did you meet that freak?" As we traded stories, I learned that he was some sort of Jesus-freak and Magnet gave him some duct tape for which the wierdo gave him a rock?As if this wasn't wierd enough, in a few days we found out that the backpack wasn't even his. Apparently a thru-hiker had hurt his foot and left his backpack on the trail with a note saying he was hiking to a road to get help and would be back for the pack. I guess the wierdo thought Jesus left the pack for him or something.**********This entry posted on 10/11/2004**********