Maine is Here my heart is not

Maine is here and I'm pretty excited about this last stretch of the trail. I'm currently at the Pine Ellis Lodge in Anover. Last night was Tintin's 30th birthday party and it was one of those days and nights on the trail that is going to be remembered for awhile...

I had camped about .5 miles from the Maine/NH border at Col something shelter and I had about 15 trail miles to go to get to Grafton Notch to get to the campground where the party was being held. I started the day 5 miles behind Tintin and Megaladaon and Apollo since I had a late start from Gorham...

anywho.. the trail that day was to take me over Mahoosic Notch (considered the hardest mile on the entire Appalachian Trail)... Instead I decided to take my own route... one that would get me to the birthday party at a reasonable time....

I left The Col something shelter at about 10 AM... and took a side trail down to a Dirt Road called Success Pond Road. about halfway down the sidetrail... I was listening to Phoenix on my Ipod when I was suddenly startled by a heavy galloping to my right.... I glanced up and was kind of frozen for a split second.

Galloping to the right of the trail was an adolescent male Moose. I would estimate that it was probably no more than 10 yards away from me when I caused it to trot away. The first thing that went through my mind was the bewilderment that I had just gotten so close to this moose without me noticing it.... I was heading down steep rocky terrain and the trail was going quite close to a stream... so basically I was just looking down.. concentrating on my Feet and I probably would not have had any time to defend myself if the big fellow had decided that I was a threat.

I've heard that moose cause alot of deaths to people,,so that was also one of the thoughts that went through my mind... Like "damn I would have had zero time to run or hide"

I also immediately grabbed my camera that is in my side pouch.. and I managed to get a very fuzzy picture of the beast. It's a pretty bad picture but you can tell it is a moose.

After making my way down to the Dirt Road,, I still had about 12 more miles of dirt road walking. It was a bit sunny out but I really enjoyed my walk that day.. About two miles from route 26 A pickup truck came buy driven by a forest maintainer who offered to give me a ride... Naturally I took him up on his offer and Not more that 3 minutes after we were driving... we saw A HUGE M***** ******* GIANT Moose!!!!!!!!!.. We were in a pretty massive 4X4x4 550 Pickup Truck and This Female Moose seemed to be at least as tall as the top of the truck.

I don't know what I would have done if I was walking and I came along it. but dang it was something else.

The guy actually gave me a ride to the campground where Tintin Had rented two Lean-to Shelters..

to make a long story short..

I went for a swim in a beautiful swimming Pool by myself as I had gotten there early...
Read my book for a half an hour
Chewy, Longshanks, Maple, Caboose and Spark Showed up

Tintin, Megaladon and megaladon's dad Willy Wonka showed up
Apollo showed up too

Tintin cooked burgers and chicken

Chewy made sasuages

Beer was drunk

Whiskey was drunk

I carry Ipod Speakers

Dancing ensued

A Good Time was had by All.


I'm having an absolute awesome time out here and today it was just me and Tintin out and about. He asked me about Canada and it was kind of hard to describe it to him. I will be perfectly honest and say that while this is what I need to be doing... Finishing the Appalachian Trail is going to happen. No matter how much fun this is... I would still rather be at Buckshot Lake Canada on vacation with my family...

I tried to describe the Family dinners where everyone cooks,, the Oh Heck games,, the Volleyball,, the Dump,, the Fishing,, Wickware :( it's hard to keep typing.

For my entire life Buckshot has been the best two weeks of my life... there has not been a summer that I haven't been up there. It's a home away from home.

It's joy. It's happiness. It's family.

Rainy days spent napping down in Cabin 9 and having long talks with Phil.
Riding to the dump with MC and JP, maybe smashing some TVs.
Chilling with my new crew out on Crab Island.
The James Store after Sunday Mass (sniffle)

It's the best time of the year. It's where I am the happiest. It's hard to say how much I wish that I was there. To the people that understand... Buckshot Lake is Heaven on Earth.

I try not to think about it because I usually end up crying. I guess there is always next year as they say... but sometimes that just doesn't come close to cutting it.


Hopefully I'll be able to give an update soon.

Kashmir.