2005 Quebec-Maine Trip Journal

Trip Journal – 2005 – “Lost in the Market”

Phase 1 – Quebec

Friday, 8/5

We (Susie, Mary, Ian and I) decided to leave about noon.  Susie went into work in the morning, and I had to go to an early morning meeting.  Then Ian and I got everything ready and picked up Susie and Mary.  We stopped at a Subway in Martinsville on our way. 

The drive through Indiana and Ohio was pretty normal, other than the gas stop just outside of Columbus (OH).  We pulled off at a Flying J truck stop and it was a total zoo, cars lined up everywhere, to the point where it was going to be difficult to just get back onto the highway.  We managed to maneuver around to an unused pump, and got gas (evidently it was a lot cheaper there) and then we had to get everyone out of the store back to the van so we could get out of the way of everyone else.  Anyway, it worked a lot better than we thought.

We got to Ashtabula late (about 8, after losing an hour) and found the hotel with no problem.  I asked about a place to eat and they recommended Buck’s Bar and Grill, down the road.  It sounded interesting and turned out to be perfect for the evening.  For starters, we got to eat outside on a little patio (on a cool evening).  And they had live entertainment (a guitarist who was actually very good).  But to top it off, they had Dortmunder on tap (although the first glass was served in a plastic cup…..).  And the food was even pretty good.  (I think I had a buffalo reuben…)  So, it was a good evening.

Saturday, 8/6

This was going to be a long driving day (from Ashtabula to Stowe, Vermont).  And we had planned to make it a scenic drive.  We took the interstate up to Buffalo, onto Syracuse and to Watertown.  Then we got off the interstate and drove across the Adirondack Mountains to Lake Champlain and then took the ferry across the lake.  It was just as nice as we remembered it (Susie and I had taken this route back from Quebec on the last trip).

We made it across the lake and headed to Stowe, Vermont.  It involved a couple of back roads, and we ended up on a road that took us up and over Smuggler’s Notch.  I was driving (Susie was navigating), and the road kept getting narrower and narrower (and very steep), until at the top it was just a one lane road through the large boulders.  But it was very pretty.  There were a few cars parked up near the top (for hikers, I guess).  It was extremely steep on the way down, but we made it OK and found our hotel. 

It looked like a Swiss hotel, with all of the fancy woodworking and painting.  It seemed pretty old, and our rooms were a little strange (we shared a bathroom between the rooms and one of the rooms had a kitchen and a fireplace), but it worked out fine for us.  We decided to just go to the market and get some wine and cheese (and chips) for dinner, and sat on our balcony and had a nice time.  We all went down to the outdoor hot tub later which was also very nice, but a little peculiar (they had some sort of little statuary of animals behind the hot tub).

Sunday, 8/7

We got up in the morning, checked out the Stowe trail (I ran a couple of miles and Susie and Mary walked a couple of miles) which started at our hotel and ran about 6 miles into the center of town.  It was quite nice and a great idea for a town that only had the one major road up the valley.  Susie and I went to church, and then we all had the complimentary breakfast down in the dining room.

We left about 10 and went down to the Ben and Jerry’s factory to see if we wanted to take a tour.  It was a little strange (reminded me a little of Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory) and it had a strong odor of cream/milk.  Since they weren’t making ice cream that day, we skipped the tour, but did check out all of the Ben and Jerry merchandise……

We then took off north through Vermont on a back road all the way to the Canadian Border (almost).  We got onto the interstate about 3 miles from the border, crossed over (no problems) and got off again to take another (non-interstate) highway across Quebec to Quebec City.  We stopped and had lunch in Sherbrooke, QC at a chicken fast food place.  It was there that we began to realize that we were going to have some language difficulties.  The person at the counter spoke little English, and we weren’t very proficient at French, but we managed.  Mary did try some fast food poutine, but it wasn’t very good…..

We then continued driving through the area, mostly farms, but at one point we reached Thetford Mines.  It obviously was a mining area, with huge piles of tailings(some were at least 100 feet high) everywhere.  We didn’t know exactly what they were mining, but Ian guessed asbestos (and I checked later and he was right).  It was just amazing and a little scary.

After Thetford Mines, it was more farms and then onto Quebec City.  The traffic into the city was very heavy, but we made it back to familiar territory and back up to Mount St. Anne.  We arrived there a little early, but Julie and Keith were already there and the house was open, so we moved in and got settled.  Julie and Keith had gone to the store and bought supplies for supper and made spaghetti as we waited for everyone else to arrive. 

The house was quite interesting.  It had 9 bedrooms and about 25 beds.  It was supposed to have a capacity of 36 people.  But the most amazing thing is that they seemed to have grafted a common room onto 5 motel rooms, and then connected it all to the main Chapel room which had a downstairs with 4 additional bedrooms.  All of the motel rooms opened out to the front and had kitchen appliances….  But it worked great for us, since the common room was equipped with a ping pong table, which the kids put to constant use.

Laura and Tony and Dad (and families) arrived pretty late, after stopping for a nice lunch in Montreal (after not so good of a dinner in Toronto the night before).  We all got situated and started planning activities for the week ahead.

Monday, 8/8

We started off with the highlight of the day, fresh croissants from the little store up the street.  This was what I remembered most about the last trip.

I decided I really needed to get in shape for the AT in Maine, so I decided to walk up the ski mountain (and back down).  Keith and Laurie also thought it would be good exercise.  The only real challenge was to find a trail up the mountain (really didn’t want to walk up the ski slopes).  We wandered back from the house into the woods and looked for a way across the creek.  We found a jeep road with a bridge, crossed over, and found a pretty rough trail almost immediately that headed uphill.  We headed on up, and eventually hit a more maintained trail, which turned out to be a mountain bike trail.  (During the summer they let people take the gondola up with their bikes and ride them down the mountain.  Judging from this trail, it looks like it would be very exciting….).

After about an hour, the bike trail disappeared (maybe we lost it) and we managed to somehow end up on a ski slope.  We trudged up it toward the ski lift, and when we reached there, we looked to our right and found out that we had a long way to go to get to the top (where the gondola was).  We kept plodding forward and finally got to the top.  (It was hot and steep.)

Then we had to decide how to go down.  (We found out that the gondola didn’t start until 10AM.).  We started down the main ski slope, under the gondola, but it was ridiculously steep, so we found a foot trail in the woods between the ski runs and followed it.  It was also ridiculously steep, but we had trees we could hang on as we stumbled on down.  We were glad to find flat land.  On our short walk back to the house, we observed about 8 teens setting up a slalom course on a short, steep section of road.  They all had on roller blades, but they looked a little different than any I had seen – much longer (about 2 feet) and the boots came up past the calf.  They obviously were practicing for ski season (and were pretty good), but a spill on the asphalt would not have been any fun….

Lost in the Grocery Store.....

When we got back, we got something to eat, and then Julie and Susie showed up.  Evidently, almost everyone else (except Tony and Dad) had decided to take the canyon trail.  It started about 6 miles up the road, and went for about 8 miles, with part of it pretty close to the house.  Evidently, they started the trail and really enjoyed it, but after an hour, they decided since they didn’t have any food or water, they needed to go back.  But the kids were having so much fun, that they wanted to go on.  So, Julie and Susie volunteered to go back to the house to get some food and water and meet them later on the trail.

So, when they got to the house, they asked for help (after a while it began to sound like a rescue mission – poor children with no food or water).  Keith, Dad and I agreed to help, so we gathered what food we had (not much since we really hadn’t been to the store yet) and some water, and set out to find the trail.  (Dad got to carry what was left of a baguette from last night, while Julie had some apples, I had some fig newtons, and I think we had some other cookies or something – not much.)  Julie had a map indicating that the trail headed right next to a subdivision, so after a few false starts, we finally located the trail.  (When Julie finally let on that the trail was marked with red blazes, it became a lot easier.)

We headed on down the trail, and after about 40 minutes, we ran into some other hikers coming the other way.  We asked if they had seen our group, and they said, no, they hadn’t seen any large groups.  At that point, the trail split into two sections, so we decided they must be on the other section (we had missed the trail junction where the trails met up again).  Keith volunteered to go down to that section and we backtracked to try to find the trail junction.  After about 15 minutes, we heard Laura’s voice, and figured we’d found them.  But it was Laura, Mary and Tony (and no kids).  We were a little puzzled.

It turned out that they had taken a wrong turn on the trail, heading up away from the river.  After debating what to do, they all decided they were thirsty and hungry and would rather hike up to the road and maybe catch Julie and Susie as they were heading to the house.  Unfortunately, the hike was a lot longer and steeper than they imagined.  They ended up going through a cemetery and some farm field, but finally made it to the road.  They didn’t catch Julie and Susie.

So, they decided to walk down the road to a little store.  (They figured they were about 5 miles from the house).  That was when the fun started.   First, they had to buy the kids some drinks and snacks.  Then Laura tried to call Tony to pick them up, but she couldn’t remember the exact name of the house rental agency (their office was actually in a corner of our house).  And the clerk at the store didn’t speak English very well.   After quite an ordeal (and the clerk was great, letting Laura use the phone), they figured out the name of the rental agency, called the lady there, and asked her to get Tony. 

So, when she knocked on the door, Tony couldn’t imagine it was for him.  She said your group is lost and needs to be picked up.  Tony said “Lost – where are they lost?  You must have the wrong house, they were just going up the road.”  She said they were lost in a market up the road.  So, he went to pick them up, and then they came to rescue the rescuers.  They got quite a kick out of dad carrying his baguette through the woods – he looked very continental…

Laurie slept through it all.

So, we all got back to the house.  The kids played ping pong, we got groceries, cooked, ate, read books and argued (discussed) about what to do tomorrow.

Tuesday, 8/9

Most of the group (except for Tony, Dad and Mary – they decided to meet us later for lunch) decided to drive up to Baie St. Paul and then take a ferry to one of the islands in the St. Lawrence and bicycle around the island.  We got to Baie St. Paul pretty late, so we skipped it for later and went for the ferry.  The ferry ride was fun (the only exciting part was going down the hill to the ferry launch site – I think it was a 12% grade). 

Once we got to the island, we went to the bicycle rental place, and after some discussions, got our bicycles (three tandems and 7 regular bikes).  It was very windy, and we started on the flat part of the ride, but it was against the wind.  It was a lot harder than it needed to be.  Susie and I turned out tandem around after about 5 miles and headed back.  The rest of the group carried on (I think it was about 15 miles around the island).  We got in the van and caught up with them at a bakery (patisserie) where they were taking a lunch break.  They had made it up the hill and turned the corner, so the wind was with them most of the rest of the way.

Susie and I stopped for lunch at a very interesting looking bistro along the road.  The food and beer (Irresistable) was great (we even took a picture of my salad). 

But it was so windy, it was difficult keeping stuff on the table.  We left quickly (the waitress was a little surprised), but we had to meet the guys and get back to the ferry.  Once we were in line for the ferry (again at a 12% grade down), Keith, Susie and I went over to the bar by the ferry to get some beer.  It didn’t take long for the ferry to show up, so Susie and I went back to the car to get loaded on, but Keith waited until the last minute to board (finished that beer).

We made it back up the hill, and then went back to Baie St. Paul to wander around.  It turned out Dad, Tony and Mary had already eaten lunch and were headed up the coast to the fancy hotel/casino (although we did see them briefly in town).  After a little walk around the shops, and a stop at the brewpub, we headed back.  Again, the kids did ping pong and other games while we cooked, ate (and drank) and tried to figure out what we were going to do tomorrow.

Wednesday, 8/10

We decided to go into Quebec City today.  One group was leaving early to go to the Montmorency falls and hike around.  Another group was leaving later and was going to stay later.  After our croissants, the “falls group” headed out.  We took the tram to the top, and then walked across the top of the falls (via the catwalk) and took the stairs down (I think they counted 265 steps going down).  One of the interesting signs was just before the catwalk where they described an accident in the 20’s (I think) where the previous catwalk collapsed, killed a couple of people.  But the sign assured us that it was much safer now…..

After the falls, we headed back to Quebec City.  We remembered most of the route there, but made one wrong turn and it took us a while to get to the visitor center.  Once we got there, we wandered around a little (we had most of the kids).  We rendezvoused with everyone and then we had to decide on a restaurant.  It turned out to be a toss-up between an Italian restaurant and an Irish pub.  The Irish pub won, and the food (and beer) was pretty good.

Again, we split up after dinner, one group going directly back, while another group was going to walk around for a while, and a third group was going to stay in town for dinner.  We went back early (but did wander around enough to see a pretty good street act – guy on a slack wire – and wandered through the artist alley) and then stopped at the market to get supplies for dinner (Susie and I were cooking).  The IGA turned out to be a very nice market.  We bought some éclairs there that were almost as good as the croissants.

Then, we cooked, ate, drank and tried to decide what to do tomorrow.

Thursday, 8/11

We decided to hang around the area today (pretty much).  We did our croissant thing, and then we tackled the ski mountain again with a much larger group.  It was Keith, Laurie and I again, but we also had all of the big kids (Ian, Matt, Katherine, Allie and Sean) and Tony.  We started up the same way, but we followed the bicycle path a little longer.  It turned out to be a lot longer walk, but much less steep.  We got to the top, and most of the young group decided to go straight down under the gondola, while the older ones decided to try to find a less steep way down (along another bicycle trail).  We enjoyed our walk, and Tony said the kids really enjoyed their walk/slide down the mountain.

We all got back and kind of hung around reading and resting.  Mary took a group up the gondola to the top of the mountain to see the sled dogs.  Evidently, they have sled dog trips during the winter season, and keep the dogs at the top of the mountain in the summer.  They were fascinated by the dogs and the way they are trained.  Evidently, these dogs are selected as much for temperament as much as pulling ability since they will be used to pull sleds of tourists.  (It wasn’t clear if the tourists were actually driving.) 

Then the adults had decided to go out to eat at a recommended French restaurant, Auberge Baker.  (The kids had pizza night.)  It turned out to be quite nice.  The food was great, the wine was good, and the atmosphere was very French.  We really felt like we were back in France.  One side note – Susie ordered the lapin (rabbit) and Laurie had to take a picture of the little legs sticking up to show Katherine what a cooked rabbit looked like – Katherine has a pet rabbit….

We got back after taking the scenic route through Beaupre and observing all sort of interesting things like llamas and guys standing next to buildings…..  We got back and started getting organized for leaving tomorrow.  Tony and Laura and group were going back to Montreal and then to Niagara Falls, while Julie and Keith were flying back from Montreal.  Susie, Mary, Ian and I were headed for Maine via the Bay of Fundy.

It was a good five days.

Phase II - Maine

Friday 8/12

Got croissants for the last time, loaded up the various vehicles and took off.  We had to go back to Quebec City to cross the river to the south side and then up along the river to Riviere du loup.  We then headed east to New Brunswick and St. John.  We stopped for lunch at a Subway, just over the New Brunswick border.  Ian and I both admitted that we were glad to get back to an English speaking place, but the transition was not as clean as we thought.  There were still a lot of signs in French and it was spoken a lot (mostly).

We ended up in St. John, found our hotel, and headed for the reversing falls and a restaurant.  The “Reversing Falls” is this set of rapids in the St. John River that, when the tide is low, flows down into the Bay of Fundy.  But when the tide is high, the water flows the other way, back up river.  The tides in St. John vary by about 15 feet.  In other parts of the Bay, the variation is as much as 30 feet.  It’s the highest tides in the world.  (I still don’t understand how they vary so much from place to place).

Anyway, when we got there, it was just after high tide, so the river was flowing backwards.  Not real spectacular until you thought about it.  We overheard one person describing how they had to build docks for the boats (and more importantly the cruise ships) so that the ramps could adjust as much as 25 feet.

We wandered downtown and found the brew pub.  The food was OK and the beer was OK, but not exceptional.  They had a guy singing cover songs who was pretty good, so it was a nice time.  We went back to the hotel and crashed.

Saturday, 8/13

This was our drive into Maine.  We started with a pretty basic continental breakfast at the motel.  Then we decided to drive into town and check out the farmer’s market.  (It was raining so it limited some of our options.)  It was pretty interesting, lots of fresh food and fish.  But we were driving all day, so we really didn’t want to try to haul much to the border.  We bought some cheese (for the poutine) and some seaweed (I’m not sure what that was for), and Mary tried some of the eclairs (not as good as the IGA).  We then tried to find one of the city parks on the water so we could check out the tides.  After a few missed turns, we found it.  But it was so foggy and rainy, we just kind of checked it out from the van.

We headed on down to Maine.  It was so foggy, we couldn’t see the coast even if we were on it.  We did see a lot of “moose signs”, but no moose.  We ended up in St. George, the chocolate capital of Canada (?).  As near as we could tell, there was only one chocolate store, but there was a chocolate museum.  We checked out the store (and bought some stuff), but decided to forgo the museum.  An interesting tourism note:  The store and museum are about 200 yards from the border crossing, so I think a fair number of people stopped by while they were stopped in traffic. 

They let us back into the US, and we headed via backroads to Millinocket.  We passed a McDonalds selling McLobster sandwiches, and didn’t stop.  We regretted it later, because we didn’t find it at any other McLobster sandwiches in Maine….  We ended up stopping at some diner that had lots of pies advertised.  The food was OK, the pies were good, but the most memorable thing about the place was their wine menu.  They actually had Chillable Red listed as a wine (all of the selections were obviously box wines).  Pretty high class….  (easy for me to say, who drinks box wines all the time - just not Chillable Red).

We got to the house outside Millinocket and checked it out.  It was quite an interesting mix of very fancy and “needs a little work”.  It was in a great location with a great view of Millinocket Lake and Katahdin.  And it had beautiful hardwood floors in most of the house, and great cabinets.  It had a very fancy bathroom, with stone floors (which were heated, I think), heated towel racks, a separate shower and Jacuzzi tub.  It had six bedrooms but you had to go through one to get to one of the others) but it only had two bathrooms.

But the Jacuzzi tub didn’t work, the refrigerator leaked, the recliner was listing seriously to one side, the boathouse seemed very unsafe, one of the microwaves didn’t work, the satellite TV only picked up some stations clearly, the carpet in the living room was trashed, the screens on the porch were torn, and one of the picture windows was clouded over (the seal broken).  And there were all sorts of markings that they were planning to fix the drywall and paint it.  And the best thing were the dinosaur murals in one of the bedrooms (Susan and Tom were the lucky ones, but they didn’t complain about nightmares).

But we made it work.  The kitchen worked fine for cooking, there was a table big enough for all 10 of us, the outside deck was wonderful (but we had to go scrounge more chairs).  And it had a canoe and kayak for us to use (and we did).  It worked very well.

We got sandwich stuff for everyone when they arrived, and as people arrived, we got everyone situated.  Jeff was first (coming in from Acadia National Park after a week of backpacking on the AT in southern Maine), we were second.  Harriet arrived shortly thereafter after flying in to Bangor from Cincinnati, and then Gary and Anne (also from Acadia).  Susan and Tom were last after a couple of wrong turns and the longest drive (from Rochester NY).  We got settled in and planned our activities.

Sunday, 8/14

We decided to do a reconnoiter of Katahdin, but we planned to leave relatively late (about 10).  So, I went out for a short jog, back to the end of the road, and then further north.  (We heard a lot of noise last night and I was curious).  It turned out that there was a campground, cabins, small hotel and restaurant and a little store just a couple of blocks down the road.  It was also a rafting center.  That explains all of the noise.  I also went the other way, down to the main Twin Pine camp.  I wandered around looking for the hot tub.  The camp was beautifully situated with a great view of Katahdin and a lot of water front.  But it also seemed to be under construction.  The hot tub was in the activities building, but it was under construction and you had to walk through a room being finished, and had to lift some boards just to find the tub.  I don’t think we’ll use it.

We (Gary, Jeff, Mary, Anne and I) left for Baxter State Park (only about 10 miles up the road).  We stopped at the visitor center and got some info on the short hiking trails.  Then we went to the entrance.  While I was paying the entrance fee, the rangers pointed out the cars stopped just ahead of us.  They were taking pictures of the moose in the pond.  There were two, but by the time I got there, only one was still there, but he was happily eating pond plants about 25 feet from the road, so there were a lot of photos taken.

Baxter State Park is very interesting.  Evidently it was purchased by a former Governor of Maine, Percival Baxter.  He tried to get the state to purchase it, but when they wouldn’t, he bought it himself.  He then donated it to the state with some rules, it had to stay primitive (no paved roads, no electricity, no phones, no pets).  So, the road to Katahdin Stream was gravel for about 10 miles.   Pretty washboardy for the van.

We got to the trailhead and started up the trail. 



The first mile to the waterfall wasn’t too bad.  Then it got steep (it was a 4200 foot elevation gain to the top of Katahdin in 5.2 miles).  Mary and Anne quit at this point.  Jeff was way ahead of us, so Gary and I kept going until we caught up to Jeff.  It got progressively steeper and Jeff had stopped at about the 2 mile mark and decided that he didn’t want to go any further if we weren’t going all the way to the top, because he didn’t want to trash his knees anymore than he had to on the downhill.  Gary and I went up another half mile or so, came to a resting point.  I was really winded, but Gary went on for another 15 minutes or so.  He didn’t quite reach the treeline, but reported that it just got steeper and steeper, some places so steep he wasn’t sure how he was going to get down.

We turned around and went back.  The downhill part was harder and I managed to tweak my left knee when I landed wrong on one of the big steps, but it did OK on the way down.  We all got back to the van and headed back.  It was a good scout trip, we knew what we were going to be up against.   We weren’t going to recommend that particular hike to anyone unless they really wanted to try something difficult (maybe Ian).

Anne had taken out the canoe in the morning and Susan and Tom tried it later.  Susie and Ian took out the kayak to see how a two person kayak would work (some paddle crashing).  Harriet cooked us a great meal, and we all read and tried to plan for tomorrow.

Monday, 8/15

Jeff, Gary, Ian and I decided to go for another preparatory hike before hiking Katahdin.  It was a day hike today, the ten miles of the AT leading up to the Katahdin climb.  The ladies were going to do some hiking, a little more canoeing (Harriet was even talking about swimming).  And there were various trips into town for supplies.

The hike was pretty easy, but the shuttle was a little more convoluted than we thought (we shortly got used to that).  It turned out that we took one car (Jeff’s) to the trailhead at Abol Bridge, and Susie and crew dropped the van at Katahdin stream when they went hiking.  The trail turned out to be exceptionally easy, flat with good footing most of the way.  It paralleled the Penobscot River for about 4 miles.  We saw some rafts floating down, but the part we saw didn’t look all that exciting.  Then the trail started paralleling a smaller creek, past Big Niagara Falls (nice) and Small Niagara Falls (didn’t see it) and eventually wandered around the Daciey Pond area.  The last part of the trail was a road walk along the main Baxter Park road.  That part seemed to go on forever.

When we were ready to drive back, some guy came by and asked for a ride to Millinocket.  We told him we could take him as far as Twin Pines Camp (we eventually dropped him at the gatehouse where he probably would have had an easier time finding a ride back into Millinocket).  We started talking.  He had climbed Katahdin this morning as the end of his third thru-hike of the AT.  He said he was from Florida and just liked to walk – he said he was recently retired.  We said, wow, if you’ve done the AT three times, maybe you ought to try the Pacific Crest Trail.  He said he did that in 2000.  Then how about the Continental Divide Trail – he did that in 2002.  We’re not sure whether to believe him or not.

Anyway, while we were driving back through the park, we saw another moose in a pond not far from the road.  (They seem like they are everywhere…..).  (The ladies also saw the same moose (we think) as they returned from their hike around Daicey Pond.)

At the house, Harriet got Jeff out in the canoe (he can’t swim, so it wasn’t the easiest thing for him).  Mary, Jeff and I decided to check out the Loose Moose Bar and Grill at the outfitters down the road (part of the Big Moose Inn).  We thought maybe the restaurant there (???’s) might be an alternative to the River Drivers restaurant, down toward Millinocket.  It turned out the bar was closed, but they served us some beer and we sat out on the porch and watched the people returning from rafting trips.  And the menu at the restaurant looked pretty similar to the other one, and this one was a lot closer….

Then, we enjoyed Anne and Gary’s fine meal, started on a jigsaw puzzle (not a vacation without a puzzle), read some books and started playing poker.  Jeff came with his poker setup (for Texas hold-em).  So, we started out with a few newbies, and a few of us that have watched it on TV, and Jeff.  It was fun, and I think Susan is getting hooked….

Tuesday, 8/16

Most of us decided to take a rest day before trying Katahdin tomorrow.  But Jeff still wanted to do some more of the AT, so he figured out how to drive to a point on the AT that was about 17 miles from Abol Bridge (on Polliwog Creek).  I volunteered to drive him there.  So, we started out about 6:30.  We had to drive back into Millinocket, then south about 14 miles, and then onto logging roads for about 25 miles.  The logging roads were private and we had to pay an access fee $8/person for the day.  At the registration point, the lady told us to be careful, the logging companies own the road and the truck drivers drive like they know it.

Luckily we didn’t see any on the drive in.  It took quite a while (about an hour) to get all the way back to the trailhead, and we had another checkpoint to go through.  Very peculiar system.  One of the oddities of the trip was that as we went through the second checkpoint, they told us there was a taxi cab in front of us trying to find a black car.  He said there weren’t any black cars back there…..  We saw the cab stopped by a black truck about 10 miles further in.  (Evidently the guy had called for a ride. - there is a cab company called Minuteman Taxi that shuttles AT hikers all over Maine.)  On my way out, I stopped at the last registration point to turn in the forms, and they pointed out the black car (and driver) there by the road.  They said he had gotten lost.  They wondered how long the cab was going to wait back there (they didn’t seem concerned enough to call the cab company….)

The other interesting thing is that we crossed the AT twice before we got to Polliwog Creek.  I think Jeff may be planning another hike.

I got back to the house about 9, had some of Anne’s quiche and Susie and I went for a canoe ride.  Susan and Tom had already been out.  There was a lot of progress on the puzzle, on the books and some more trips into town for supplies.  Gary got out his bike and did a ride to the park and then back to Millinocket.  Harriet had even tried swimming (evidently the top three inches of the water was warm, but below that was pretty cold.)  Harriet and I shuttled Jeff’s car back to Abol Bridge.  He got back about 3 and said it was a pretty easy hike (long, but not many hills).

We had another great meal, courtesy of Mary (fish chowder) and turned early because we were going to leave at 5 to get an early start on Katahdin. 

Wednesday, 8/16

We got organized and got the entry gate at about 5:30.  But there was already a long line of traffic, and it took us about half an hour to get through it and into the park.  We managed to hit the trail at about 6:15.  It was dripping a little and it was still pretty chilly.  So, I wore my rain jacket, but the other guys figured they’d generate enough heat on the way up.

The trail seemed a lot easier this time.  Part of it was psychological (we knew what we were getting into), and part of it was Ian setting a very nice pace (we never started breathing hard).  But it did warm up, so I removed the jacket after a while.  It got progressively steeper and steeper and after about 2 hours we reached the tree line.  It was still cloudy and cool (when we stopped) and was quite windy when we were out in the open.  I gave my jacket to Ian, Gary got out his windbreaker and gave his rain jacket to Jeff.

We stopped there to eat a little, with an old guy completing his thru hike.  He headed on up, and we headed on up after him.  And it was even steeper.  I was having a little trouble with the large boulders because my knee wouldn’t bend completely.  And after I saw Ian on the rocks above, with nothing around him, I started to get that nervous feeling again.  Jeff went on ahead of me, and I turned back.  I thought I might be able to make it up, if it didn’t get any worse, but I knew I would have trouble coming back down.  And I was freezing – I really did not plan this well…..

So, I headed down.  I passed a number of people going up (probably 25), including at least 4 more thru hikers, one group of old (over 60) ladies going up, finishing their section hikes - "wild horses weren’t going to keep them from the top", a few that didn’t look quite prepared for the hike (T-shirts and shorts).  I made it down without too much trouble (there were a couple of places where I had to slide on my butt to get down some of the boulders).

Gary made it to the top about 9:15 (Jeff and Ian followed about 15 minutes later).  The said it got even steeper for about a mile and then was not bad for the last mile.  It was cold, very windy and completely fogged in.  There were two (very cold) guys who were already up there, having hiked up at about 1 in the morning so they could get some sunrise pictures (not today).  After about 15 minutes, a lot of other people started arriving from all of the different trails up the mountain (there are about 5 different ways up, but the AT trail (the Hunt Trail) is supposed to be the easiest way up).  (The old ladies were just finishing the hard part as the guys went down.) 

After taking the requisite Katahdin sign pictures, the clouds miraculously parted, the sun came out, and they could see forever.  They took a few more pictures, but it was still cold and windy, so they headed down.  They said it was not something I would have liked.  Ian said he had to concentrate to keep from being blown over by some of the gusts.  And Gary said that at some points, the trail just “went over the edge”.  If you walked up to the edge, you could see a trail there, but it was a little frightening.

They made it down at about 12:30, we had some celebratory beers (root beer for Ian) and headed back.  We spent all afternoon convalescing.  There were a lot of sore feet, a number of abrasions from the rocks (Jeff even got a couple on the top of his head – don’t ask), and some sore knees.

Most of the rest of the group had been out hiking (to Big Niagara Falls), canoeing, going to the store, working on the puzzle and reading.  Harriet drove over to Fredericton, New Brunswick, for the day to visit a friend from Alabama who lives there. Nothing very exciting at the borders, where they didn’t seem to think her terrorist material, and didn’t check any ID or even request a name when she came back to the US!

We went out to eat at the Big Moose Inn.  It turned out to be very nice.  The food was good, the wine was good.  We were there with one other large group (looked like a family reunion, and judging from the accents, seemed to be a family from Maine).  At one point, I think we got onto the topic of talents, and someone mentioned the talent displayed by Sandra Bullock in the Miss Congeniality movie, where she plays a tune by rubbing the tops of different water glasses.  Gary immediately started doing it (quite successfully), the Harriet, then Susie, then most of us.  (I think we had drunk some wine by this time).  It actually is pretty loud if you do it right.  (And it works better with wine glasses than water glasses…..)  Well, the two little girls at the family reunion table watched this and they started trying to do it.  Glad we could help in their talent development.

Thursday, 8/17

This was another rest day for everyone.  Susie, Mary, Harriet and I went back into the park to do a short hike to one of the ponds.  Our first choice was full, but we ended up hiking to Grassy Pond.  And there was a moose there, chowing down on the roots of the plants in the pond (evidently they are high in salt).  We took a bunch of pictures (don’t know if any will turn out) and hung around to see if he would get any closer.  We stopped at the visitor office on the way out to ask about the canoes that seemed to be in every pond (you have to reserve them with the ranger) and about the cabins at Daicey Pond, which looked very nice.

Jeff was resting and plotting (he wanted to do another section of the AT tomorrow).  Ian was recuperating.  Gary did his biking thing.  Harriet did some more canoeing.  Susie, Jeff, Mary, Harriet and I went into town to go to the store and to take our recycling in.  We got $8 for all of our bottles and cans, so we blew it all at McDonalds on drinks (last of the big spenders).  We had to buy groceries for the night.  It was Susie and my turn to cook, but it was complicated because Susie, Mary and Harriet had signed up for the “Moose Tour” that ran from 5-7:30 pm.   So, Jeff volunteered to help me cook.  We tried to keep it simple (brats, corn on the cob and poutine).

Gary and Susan began observing us and finally pulled up chairs, because they found it so entertaining.  We managed to limp through it (Tom thought the poutine was the best he’s ever had (the only he’s ever had), the brats were not completely cooked through, but the corn of the cob worked out…..).

The Moose Tour was quite a success.  Evidently they went out on canoes on the Penobscot River, paddled for 3.5 miles, saw a moose and her calf (pretty far away) and saw beavers and ducks and loons and a great blue heron.  Susie said it was just gorgeous and so peaceful.  Then they saw a moose next to the road on the way back.

Friday, 8/18

The guys decided they hadn’t had enough punishment yet, so Jeff decided to do the next stretch of the AT (22 miles) and Gary, Ian and I decided to do the 17 mile stretch Jeff had done on Tuesday.  Again, we had to shuttle cars to Abol Bridge (for us to hike to) and back along the logging roads in the Jo-Mary area (for Jeff to hike to).  We didn’t hit the trail until after 8 after trying to shuttle all of the cars.  It was pretty cool (the weather had been almost perfect all week – highs in the 70’s and lows in the low 50’s or high 40’s).   The trail was very pretty, paralleling a creek for the first couple of miles, then running next to Rainbow Lake for about 6 miles, then up over a slight ridge and down to Abol.  But the footing was terrible.  At one point, you could see the trail going down slightly, and it was just a collection of 2 to 3 foot boulders that you had to navigate.

We did see a group of young girls (girl scouts??) with a couple of leaders, who looked very worn out after climbing up the ridge (it was steep).  And the leaders were trying to get them to sing (to take their minds off their suffering).  We immediately thought of Harriet.

We got back to the car, with extremely sore feet.  I bought a beer at the Abol Bridge Camp Store (they had a big Schlitz sign, so I went for it – I wasn’t even sure they made Schlitz anymore).  We stopped at the little store on the way back to the house to try out the pizza (we thought pizza for dinner would be good).  We got back to the house, ate the pizza (not particularly good) and whatever else we could find, and tried to recover.

The rest of the group had gone to the Kidney Pond area where they took a couple of day hikes and Susan and Tom rented one of the canoes there.  They said they had a much more pleasant time than we did.  Jeff got back from his hike about 5.  He said it wasn’t too bad, except for the last 3 miles which seemed to be straight up and down.  We gave him a hard time about not warning us about the footing on the stretch we did.  He said we were just wimps…..  The AT is not for wimps….

We were planning to just eat leftovers (we had plenty of odds and ends), but Susan ended up driving back into town for eggs and made omelets out of a lot of the leftovers.  We did one last round of poker (Jeff finally got some cards, and ended up with all the chips), and started getting ready to head out in the morning.

Saturday, 8/19

Everyone was leaving at different times.  Gary and Anne were the first out (at 5:30).  They were headed to Erie, PA.  We were next, heading for the middle of Pennsylvania via Rhode Island.  Susan and Tom were leaving shortly after us.  They were going to stop in a yarn store in Maine.  Jeff was heading to New York to a Mets game.  And Harriet had an afternoon flight out of Bangor.

Our drive was OK.  Traffic was very light until we got to Augusta, then it got heavier as we got close to Boston.  We made it to Rhode Island about noon and stopped in a Wendy’s for lunch, just outside of Providence.  I got my 50^th state….

The traffic was really heavy in Connecticut (stop and go in a couple of places), and we managed to get our windshield cracked by some flying gravel.  We cut over (from I-95) to take the Merritt Parkway.  It was very pretty and a lot easier drive, but the traffic was still heavy.  We saw a number of deer and ground hogs.  Then we caught the highway again, over the Tappan-Zee Bridge and down into New Jersey.  We stopped for gas, and then headed into Pennsylvania.  The traffic finally started to thin out.  We got to our hotel about 8, ordered pizza, got some Yuengling beer at the bar, ate and turned in.

Sunday, 8/20. 

We got up early (we got out by 6:20 – Mary and Susie did good).  The traffic on I-80 was almost nil, which was good, because there were a number of construction areas that were down to one lane.  We made good time, had lunch in Columbus, OH at a Waffle House (quite a cultural experience) and got back to Bloomington about 2:30.

Another good trip.  But it was good to be home.

Awards:

Hiker:                                        Jeff

Climber:                                    Jeff, Gary and Ian

Swimmer:                                  Harriet

Moose Sightings:                       Mary (I think she saw 7)

Most Entertaining Cooks:          Jeff and Paul

Best Cooks:                               Anne and Gary, Susan and Tom, Mary, Harriet

Best Poker Player                      Susan??

Most Books Read                      Ian

Best Puzzler                               Anne, Susie, Harriet

Best Photographer                     Tom

Best Canoeists                           Susan and Tom