What an amazing start to my trip. I arrived in Maine on the 29th at the Katahdin Inn & Suites with Mabel and crunched through the last bit of work. I finished at midnight the night before I left on the first. A really friendly hiker convinced me to stay one more day in town because the weather was going to be bad. The weather turned out to be great but I had a TON of work to wrap up so it was welcomed advice. I decided to go on the first despite bad weather reports. I am so glad I did because the weather was great and it meant that I started with one of the most fun groups of people I have been with in a long time. I thought I would be alone for much of the trail, instead I find myself with 6 other amazing people that love to laugh as much as I do.
We have had a lot of adventures on the trail and off the trail since we started. The 100 mile wilderness was boggy, buggy, hard, and amazing. There were buggy bogs, 3800 foot+ mountains, pristine ponds, placid lakes, and falls. Oh did I mention the bogs. If I didn’t have my 6 companions I would probably not have noticed how beautiful the wilderness truly is. They kept my spirits high and allowed me to pay attention to the beauty all around me.
It was with great shagrinery that I took on a trail name. At the first shelter we met 2 experienced hikers named Thorny and Popeye who promptly dubbed me “Big Cheese” because I was carrying a 2 pound block of cheddar cheese. I had to work fast to get anything other than a name based on smelly dairy products. After hearing the first Wolf Bird on one of the lakes the group started calling me Wolf Bird, which is more my speed. In our group for the 100 mile wilderness we had Cool Blue, Shuffle, Google, Sherpa, Wolf Bird, Thorny, and Popeye. There were some others that we hovered around that were really nice as well but that was the core group.
I’ll post more details of my adventures in the 100 mile wilderness when I get to the next town. I am just about to leave the Lakeshore house and my next stop will be in about 3-4 days at Caratunk and after that Stratton. Below is the address for the mail drop for the next 2 locations in case anyone is interested. I can’t wait to get started again. More details to come.
Caratunk Post Office:
General Delivery
C/O James Puckett
Caratunk, ME 04925
Please hold for AT hiker
ETA 7/15/2013
General Delivery
C/O James Puckett
Stratton, ME 04982
Please hold for AT hiker
ETA 7/19/2013
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