Saturday, 9/12

AT Miles = 10.4 / 1982.2
Other Miles = 1.2 / 62.2
Total Miles = 11.6 / 2044.4

Miles to Katahdin = 196.1

It rained a little bit this morning before I was hiking, and it rained
a little bit this afternoon after I finished hiking, but it never
rained while I was hiking. I must be doing something right.

Yesterday I started hiking at the Orbeton Stream and went south. Today
I started at the same place and went north, It was a nice day to be in
the woods; quiet and peaceful. No spectacular views or prominent peaks
today, just some good, honest work climbing up and down the hills.

I made good time and knocked out the eleven and a half miles in about
6 hours, putting me at the agreed upon meeting place about 20 minutes
before Bob from the hostel was supposed to pick me up at 2:00PM.
2:00PM came and went. 2:15. I tried calling the hostel and got the
answering machine. I told myself that was good news, as it meant Bob
was on his way to pick me up and that's why he wasn't there to answer
the phone. Between 2:15 and 3:10 I called the Lodge 7 times. Finally,
one the 7th call, Bob answered.

"Bob, this is Monkeywrench, you were supposed to pick me up at 2:00 o'clock."

"Um, okay, Where are you?"

So, it turns out that Bob had not forgotten THAT he was supposed to
pick me up, but he had forgotten WHERE he was supposed to pick me up.
He had been waiting for me at an entirely different trail head.

Once Bob drove out to Caribou Valley Road and picked me up, I had him
drop me off in town where I went to Sarge's Pub & Grub. I ordered a
beer and the bartender asked if I wanted a menu. I said yes, and told
her I would start with some of the beef stew they had listed on the
daily specials. A bowl of that went down fast and tasted really good.
I followed that up with a second beer, and a cheeseburger and french
fries. They have really good fries at Sarge's. When the bartender
asked me if I wanted anything else, I told her I'd like another bowl
of that beef stew. She came back from the kitchen with a cup of stew
and told me that was all that was left, and it was on the house.
Finally, I finished up with some apple crisp with ice cream and
whipped cream. That was about 2 hours ago, and now I am hungry again!

I called the Stratton Motel, which is in, of all places, Stratton.
They run a combination motel / hiker hostel. I reserved a room for
tomorrow night, and explained o them that I will be slack packing
tomorrow and made arrangements to drop off my backpack with most of my
gear there in the morning. At the end of tomorrow's hike I will be on
Rt 27, from where I will hitch into Stratton.

I asked Bob how I could get his daypack, which I have been and will be
using, back to him. He told me not to worry about it; that he has day
packs all up and down the trail. Apparently the hostels up and down
the trail get together once in a while and redistribute the day packs
that hikers use when slack packing.


~~~~~
Monkeywrench
Allen F. Freeman
allen@allenf.com
www.allenf.com
allenf.blogspot.com