Multiple U-Turners? - Sept 15

Could it be there are multiple U-Turners on the AT? Didn't meet Ice Axe but the story goes that he had just finished a short climb, maybe half a mile or so, stopped on top for lunch and then started back down the other side. Trouble was he couldn't figure out which way he had come up so he didn't know which side to go down. He checked out both trails going down either side of the hill but could find no identifying clues to know which trail was northbound and which was southbound.

Ice Axe finally made his best guess and started down the hill. Of course when he made his way to the bottom he came across a road or a sign or a footbridge, something that he had definitely seen before and knew he had not chosen wisely. I'm sure he was spittin' nails with every step back up that hill. Glad I have a good sense of direction.

Part of my daily routine is to always have a good plan in place to resupply food before we run out. This means every time we are in town buying food I have to know how many miles we are going to hike to the next town and how many days we will need to hike those miles to be able to estimate how many meals we need to buy. If we buy too much food we will be carrying unnecessary weight. Not enough food we starve to death.

When we left Gorham, NH my food bag was so big the lid on the top of my pack couldn't cover some of the bag. As we left town that morning, all the hikers were laughing at me for carrying so much food. One guy said my pack looked like it was giving birth to a food bag. Real funny.

We will be in Monson, Maine in two days. North of Monson is about 100 miles of wilderness, no towns. There is no way we would carry 8 days of food to make it across this 100 mile stretch. Way too heavy. Instead I'm going to check into a guy who has figured out a way to take whatever food you give him, he packages it in some kind of animal proof container (maybe a five gallon bucket) and drops it off at where a logging road crosses the trail. If I trust this guys plan we will carry four days of food and give him the other four days of food to deliver it ahead where we will hopefully find it. Always an adventure.

In the 11th picture, Best Wife and Pappy 12 were eating lunch on a 30 foot sandy beach on East Carry Pond. The entire pond was surrounded by rock except for this stretch of sand. As we started eating this family approached in a canoe from way across the pond.

They joined us on the beach and when they found out we had been hiking for five months they gave us four clementines. Four clementines may not sound like a big deal, but to us they were manna from heaven. Thank you Sperrys for the gift.