Day 196
Sunday 9/13/09
Weather:
Overcast
Occasional drizzle, but no heavy consistent rain.
Today's Hike:
ME/15 (Monson, ME) to Long Pond Tote Rd. - 14.2 miles
When we woke up this morning the sun was shining. It was going to be a beautiful day to start our trek through the 100 Mile Wilderness. We got dressed and headed down for breakfast. As we sat in the kitchen drinking a dozen cups of coffee we examined the AT map hanging on the way behind us. Its still hard to comprehend that we've made it this far. Amicalola Falls seems so close yet so far away. As we took a hike down memory lane everything really started to hit me. This was our last town stop, our last resupply, the last time we would see some of our friends whom we had spent nearly the last six months of our lives with. The only thought that came to mind was "this sucks". A zero day would be nice, not because we needed one (we didn't) but because it would allow us to extend our time with our friends whom had been such a big part of our hike. Still, a zero day was impossible given the tight schedule, and again the only thought that came to mind was "this sucks."
Soon, Billy Hoot, Nutmeg, and Ink joined us for the famous Shaws breakfast. Shaws breakfast is famous for two maine (LOL) reasons. First, the breakfast is just plain yummy. Second, the way you order your breakfast rocks. Basically the crew cooks up pancakes or french toast (depending n the day), eggs (cooked to order), sausage, bacon, and potato's. You order by number with your number corresponding to how much you want to eat. I started off with a number 1 which means I got (1) pancake, (1) order of potatoes and (1) egg. After you finish your first round you can keep going until your full. Awesome. I ended up going back for a number (2) of eggs and potato's. As we ate we enjoyed some of our last moments with our trail friends.
After finishing breakfast, I left Grommet and went to our room to pack. It was getting late and we still had to sort through our maildrop and get our bags together. As I was in the process of putting my food bag together Grom came running into the room, and with a huge smile on her face informs me that we were going to slackpack the first 15 miles of the Wilderness. I was excited and confused all at the same time (nothing new right?). Bascally this meant that we could still hike today
AND see our friends again tonight.
YES! After quickly giving me the details we got or day packs ready and headed out the door with Kanga.
The slackpack was typical, however the exit to the road was anything but. Since we were slackpacking in a Wilderness we would have to hike an extra 1.7 miles to a road t get picked up. Kanga informed us that this road went through an area that was currently being bear baited. Oh hurray for us (sense the sarcasm?), and we had also learned from Carhop that at least a mile of the road was impassible by car due to flooding. Double hurray hurray for us. He wasn't kidding. We reached the road of many lakes before sunset. AS we quickly stopped to put on our crocs we heard a large crash in the water in front of us. We couldn't see anything through the woods, but whatever it was (bear or moose) was huge and close. We needed to get the heck out of their. loudly. We threw our packs back on and continued to talk loudly to each other until we reached the car. Crisis averted.
We arrived back to Shaws and cooked a pasta dinner while hanging out with Kanga for awhile. After eating we took our last shower until we summit (for real this time) and headed off to bed. What a day.
Today's Video's:
returned to the bear baited road of many lakes and braved what would most likely be our deepest ford(s) of the day. It was somewhere around 40 degrees and when I stepped into the water my toes went numb. Not exactly how I would like to start the morning, but if that muddy water didn't wake my butt up, I'm not sure what would have.
