Day 26 - Friday, July 8

Linda

For some reason I couldn't sleep past 6:00 this morning, even though I didn't need to get up early. My body clock must be conditioned to getting up at the crack of dawn. We had to do our shopping, and the grocery store didn't open until 9:00. I tried to get a few things organized, but was easily distracted. Richard had to leave at 7:00 for the bus, so we said good-bye to him and wished him well. We've been hiking together for 10 days now, and it's been great. We'll certainly miss his company. Hope he catches up with us again before next month's Reserves Drill, but he'll be five or six days back, so unless we slow way down, or he does some major power hiking, it's doubtful. Hate to keep losing some of our favorite hiking partners. We have also been wondering about Steve and John, and how many days back they are. Maybe we'll see them soon.

Sat around the motel killing time, watching the Today Show and Captain Kangaroo until 9:00, then went grocery shopping for breakfast and lunch stuff. The packs are really going to be heavy this time out. It started to sprinkle while we were in the store, but the sprinkle quickly turned into a downpour. I took one more shower for the road, and we repackaged the food before leaving the motel. Ray had to hitchhike to Berlin, a town about 5 miles away to get to a Western Union Office. Gorham doesn't have one and he was having money wired to him. Hope he can get a ride without too much trouble.

We walked back toward the trail quite a ways in the rain before getting picked ourselves. Vacationers aren't typically inclined to pick up hikers, and that's mostly who was out on the road today. When we finally got a ride, it was from a local. They are much more sympathetic. When we got to the trail it was raining so hard we decided to only go as far as the first lean-to, 1.6 miles away. We were done by noon - for our shortest day so far. That extra mileage yesterday had taken its toll, and Ronald seemed to be coming down with a cold, so it seemed a logical decision. Mike was at the shelter also, and it didn't take much to convince him to call it a day.

In about an hour, another group of 10 kids from Camp Chewanki pulled in. That's the same camp of the ill-fated group we met on Old Speck. I'm not sure how many groups of Chewankites are out in the area this summer, but the area is crawling with them. Their leaders had gone into town for food, but had trouble getting rides, so didn't get there till 4:30. In the meantime, 13 people were crammed into the shelter, and we spent most of the afternoon listening to every silly old camp song and stupid joke in the book. I guess all this stuff gets recycled with every new generation, because not much had changed since we were that age.

Ronald cold was getting the best of him, so he took a long nap, which also gave him some respite from the Chewankites. I wasn't so lucky, but as long as the rain persisted, there was no hope of escape. When Ronald woke up at dinner time, we cooked up a big batch of AT mix. The Van Auken bunch and Bear came in later, so the area was well populated. We built a fire and chatted a while before going to bed.

Ron

Today was our first rest day on the trail. The rain was coming down when we awoke this morning. Since we were in no hurry we took our time getting ready. After stocking up on food at the store, we said our good-byes to Richard. We hope he can catch up when he gets back from Guard duty.

Ray had been trying to get some money with no luck. Looks he will have to go to the nearby town of Berlin. We finally left the motel about 10:45 and hiked down to the hardware store to pick up a couple more items. It took another 15 minutes of hiking down the road before we caught a ride in the back of a pickup to the trail head.

Since we weren't sure if the trail went above timberline before the next lean-to, we decided to stay at Rattle River Lean-to. We did not want to cross any exposed areas in the rain today. With such short mileage, it is our first day off since leaving Mt. Katahdin. Pete, Les, and Rick caught up with us later and are staying here. We also have the company of a group of camp kids.

(1.6 Miles - 296.5 Total)