Primary colors from instagram and a retro-post from August 12

August 12 -- Sugarloaf from little Bigelow. Rain tonight ?
So let me catch you up..
I kept pushing on from potential camp site to potential campsite. The rumour during the day was that we were in for 4 days of wet weather . So I'm thinking I better get as far as I can while I can. I'm playing leap frog with two of the ladies that were camped at pierce pond. All four of us make it to the campsite something memorial nestled between Avery peak and west peak of the Bigelows. It's about 3.3 more miles to the next shelter - over west peak and the horn. The two ladies strike off for the next leanto. I rest for a couple minutes and start off to catch them. Weather is rolling in, clouds and serious wind. I'm thinking I better hoof it to the shelter or I'll be stuck for a couple days in the lousy wether. Off I start and after about 3 minutes I say to myself wait a minute . If there 3 plus miles above tree line and up and down it could take me 2 hours. Oh and the time is 5:30. I turn around and start looking for a place to hang. I have no idea how the girls , hiking slower than me are going to make it. Because it's above tree line the camping spaces are very well identified. And there are brand new tent platforms available. I forgo the hammock and try to get the tarp up over a platform. Wind rains and dark are rolling in. I get my ground cloth down and my pad and somehow arrange my tarp sans hammock to keep me dry . There is a small hole in the rocks to get water but it is so black and full of detritus that I need to filter it throught my stinky kerchief. It's the worst water I have ever seen and there is darn little of it. In the morning about everything I own is soaking wet and I decide it would be appropriate for me to escape to Stratton and malindi down the fire warden's trail - almost a direct shot. The other people camping decide the same thing. There's supposed to be 4 days of rain coming on. Interesting that on The way down I have a decent poop. Malindi picked me up right on schedule and we set about to explore Stratton and the surroundings. Interesting that while we were in the grocery store I had to use the bathroom to poo…????? Whats with that? I waited at Malindi's for her to get out of work and then We hit the road for China around 10:30 pm. We almost got to Kingfield before we decide the back tire was sounding wrong so we stopped to check it out and discoverd three of the five rear right tire lug bolts were sheared right off. We called AAA they got to is around 0300 and we got home by 0430. A lot of story to that one..
Just as a closer, the next day I had the worst trots I have ever had in my life. Very similar to the colonoscopy prep but this lasted for three days.! I was going to blame it on the black water a( I even took a picture of my filter set up. ) The kerchief is now permanently stained) but apparantly there was something going around.. ??

Sent from my iPhone

On the trail again

Good bye- last sunset cruise of summer on 3 Mile Pond

Judd left yesterday for Gorham, NH with Steve B. and Mike B. (trail names yet to be determined.) No pictures or blog posts yet--they must be having too much fun together.

The plan is to hike together a couple days and then put Steve and Mike in their car back to Maine while Father Goose proceeds SoBo. (South Bound to Vermont.) You'll see Gorham at mile 319.4 (about a third of the way up the bottom of the page. If Judd gets to Vermont mid-September and it's not snowing yet, he plans on taking a shuttle back to Gorham, NH for a resupply then hike north to Rangeley and Stratton to fill in his section gap from this summer. He was wearing street clothes when they left for the 3+ hour car trip but Judd has assured e he packed his very yellow shirt so we can spot him in subsequent pics. He has also packed, immodium, recently becoming a believer during a bout of unruly, unbecoming and unnecessary summer gastroenteritis. Departures and becoming less monumental--no weighing of the pack--no selfies--no detailed instruction manual on how to access the on-line accounts.  But Judd's parting gift to me is AWESOME!!!  (see below!)

from the 2014 Southbound A.T.Guide by David "Awol" Miller

Self-propeled walking lawn mower than I can run!

"Guaranteed to start"

Pics without captions

Judd texts up a storm this morning asking for a ride out of Stratton, earlier than planned. Malindi delivers. And all these pictures show up on my iCloud with no commentary.  You get to make up your own captions.

from Monday's hike: a swim in Flagstaff

Today was going to be a 10 mile hike to the next shelter but it was 2:00 when I got there so it turned into a 15.1 mile hike into a campsite on Flagstaff lake. A personal best so far this outing but the trail is really like a walk in the park. Only a couple ups and downs.
This morning started with the all you can eat breakfast at Harrison's. Nothing special but I couldn't pass up the chance to explore these old lodge. Tim lives there year round with his dog and this time a year he has hikers no fisher people. He makes coffe with a coue antique vacuum pots. The one where there's two pot one on top of the other. Water in the bottom one coffee in the top one as the water heats up it expands into the top one where the coffee it then as it cools it drips back down thru tiny holes into the bottom one. A miracle of science! I hit the trail about 0830 and by 1030 it was pouring rain the one thing I hate more than hiking in soggy boots is putting soggy boots on in the morning. So as long as I'm already wet and feeling good I am going to make it a 15 mile day instead of a 10 mile day.
Today really proved the point that if you take the time to stop for lunch take your boots off eat good food and lots of it you can make much better time. The picture is the hiker box that the folks on west carry pond keep up. Except it was empty when I got here. This part of the AT follows part if the Arnold trail as in Benedict Arnold as In his assault on Quebec. I saw a book at the maritime museum in bath called Benedict Arnold's Navy and the ferry man in Caratunk was reading it. I'm seeing lots of NOBOs finishing up. Many have this dazed and confused look in their eyes. All they want to do is lay down the miles. At Harrison's I saw lots of group pictures. Apparantly after you have been on the trail for a few weeks you fall into a crowd as everyone has figures out how fast they hike and found others at that pace too. They even name themselves: tinsel town, roustabouts, trouble etc.
Had a nice swim first thing into camp on Flagstaff. I doubt it will be dry by morning…
73° Mostly Sunny
West Central Somerset Co, ME, United States

Patriotic Pancakes at Harrison's

I got the drop from the IFF at the AT and rr. 201. Brad and Jana carried my pack and John and Nancy carried me. And I'm off for the 4 me hike into Pierce Pond and Harrison's Camps
Hiked into Harrison's Camps on the way to the lean-to and reserved the all you c An eat breakfast for Monday morning. Pretty standard hiker fare except Tim the owner said they were patriotic pancakes for their red (strawberries) white (apples) and blue( berries) hue. There seemed to be a hiker party going on on the porch . There was a moose head mounted I. The corner and I swear there is a brother peter/ roach pond connection but I just don't know what it is. There was also a pool table that had about 16 in he's of lift on one end. It looked odd but was completely level. The lodge was settling . I checked into the leanto and fried to scope out a place to set up my hammock. Ther must have been a dozen tents and a full lean-to. On one side of me was a 70 yo fellow who was very interested in my hammock. On the other side was a couple who met and married on the trail this summer. They were also at the lodge partying. The conversation I over heard between them and their neighbor around their private camp fire was how many times they, boy and girl, had been interrupted peeing on the trail. Lots of thunder and lightening after sunset but no rain!

Sent from my  Judd's Phone

Stardate 140811*

"the last breakfast" / Damascus, VA -this whole town is high shirt / "Does this caballero make my ass look big?"

I can't title this post "Caratunk"  (because the last post was 'Caratunk' (when Judd hopped off the AT to go to the semi-emergent dental appointment.))   Judd started back on the AT at Caratunk yesterday after the IFF (25th? International Food Fest--a big DiSilvestro and family/Kittery/friends of the family reunion on Pleasant Pond, just 3 miles from the Caratunk AT - Rte201 crossing.  I can't call every time Judd starts a section, "Day 1"  -- I can't keep track of how many days he's actually hiked since last September. 

After a two night sleepover at the DiSilvestro's camp on Pleasant Pond (it looked like an LLBean commercial for the number and variety of tents in his backyard,) Judd had to restock his pack for a 10 day hike. Friends stood by to ooh and ahh, to lift his stuff and remark at the size of Judd's pack. At Caratunk, hikers  cross Rte 201 on foot, hike a few minutes and then take a canoe ferry  (there must be some canoe fairy who stands by from 2- 4pm to do this daily.) Some IFF fans were hopeful they would get a canoe ride when they sent Judd off. I returned to China so haven't heard if they did. 

Judd might not have cell service for days so I'm making up posts til we all hear from him.  Stay tuned for a Trail Test....



*the year 2014, 8th earth month, 11th day