Legends

Three things disturbed my sleep last night. 

1. I needed the toilet but did not go. 2. The fan was on and I knew if I turned it off I would have been able to listen to the crickets and beauty of silence. 3. I was cold but did not use the extra blanket I had. So by being lazy I had poor sleep.

I still woke fresh and excited for day ahead. Having the adventure of hiking the trail each day and the people I will meet is motivating.

I drank filtered black coffee and ate muffins made this morning by Naomi the Muffin Angle. The Dude, Peace Foot and Teach were sitting on the front porch also drinking coffee and eating muffins.

I may not have mentioned Teach, he is a buddy of the The Dude and Peace Foot. Last night Teach was telling stories of when he used to hunt. He was smoking marijuana yesterday, it’s legal to smoke here in Maine.

I had my photo taken with The Dude, Peace Foot and Teach as I have grown fond of them over the past few days. They all took the 7am shuttle from the hostel back to the trail.

I actually prefer to hitchhike cause it’s spontaneous and you get to meet people you would have never met. The tail was about 10 miles from the hostel, after walking for about 15 minutes a pickup came passing bye. I stuck out my thumb and the pickup stopped and the driver said jump in. 

His name was Leo, a man in his late 60’s with a big grey beard and a pot belly. He told me he was on the way to work. I asked what his job was and Leo told me he sold guns from his gun shop. He even showed me the gun he was carrying.

Leo was also the retired assistant fire chief. He was going to the other fire chiefs wedding today so would work half a day in the gun shop. Leo told me he was not sure why his chief was getting married as they had already been together 16 years. Said it would not work out.

I thanked Leo and threw my pack on my back. Headed over to the trail and started hiking up a big climb. The first view had me standing and starring. The shape of valley below mesmerised me.

It was getting hot already and so I took my first break. I found a handmade wooden bench close to another panoramic view. I took my shirt off and lay down, sun beated down on my hard.

After a while I continued hiking. The rest of the day included a lunch break at a lean too where I saw Agent of Chaos plus two other hikers named Mike and Starbust.

I had spent 20 minutes picking blueberries prior to lunch, I carefully carried the berries in my titanium cup to the lean too I would eat at. So pleased I didn’t drop any on the way there. 

I sat them down on the wooden bench. Went to take a pee then came back and sat on the bench with my cup of berries which immediately fell to the floor spilling out all over the floor, the bench had a tilt to it. A few berries remained in the cup. I said fuck it and tossed them into the long grass behind me.

For most of the remainder of my hike today I listened to David Goggins “Can’t hurt me” on audible. David said… “

“Too many people take comfort in the fact that if they do not try they cannot fail. Because failing is too much to handle.”

He has a talent in translating what it’s like to work towards a goal and describes well all the dedication revolving around doing such things.

I made it to Sabbath day pond lean-to and Agent of Chaos is here plus a female hiker named Ref as she’s a referee for basketball.

Before reaching the lean-to I passed four guys who offered me an ice cold beer. Very appealing after hiking 10 hours. They gave me three beers all together, I drank two and gifted the other to Agent of Chaos.

I swam with the guys in the lake close the the lean-to. At first Zi was not sure bout these guys as they were not hikers and seemed they could cause trouble but in the end I was wrong and they were fine.

Time to sleep.