SURPRISE!

As Hansel and Gretel were finishing up their last mile in the 100 Mile Wilderness (the 31st mile of the day) they played the song game to pass the time.  Hansel got stuck on a song and fell silent when Gretel started singing... at least that is what Hansel thought.  It wasn't until he looked up that he saw Mom in front of him!  She and Two Bad Dad had hiked in to meet them and Mom, of course, was singing as they walked!  The four of them hiked out together while I hid out in the hotel.

Mom and Two Bad told Hansel and Gretel that I wasn't able to come to Maine since I had a job interview in the beginning of the week.  It could have been true... but it wasn't.  They all returned to one of our two connected hotel rooms.  Hansel and Gretel had no idea I was listening behind the door in the other room as Hansel recounted the story of his fall on The Notch and Gretel hopped in the shower to get ready for dinner.  Two Bad took their laundry down the hall so they would have fresh clothes for tomorrow, and while he was "loading the clothes into the drier" he took me to the restaurant we all planned on eating at once Hansel and Gretel were all cleaned up.  I chatted with the waitress in this rather empty bar and grill while I waited for the family to arrive.  15 minutes later, the rented white suburban pulled up.  Sitting in the middle of the table with a huge menu open and covering my face I listened for all of them to get closer.  Then... SURPRISE!  I dropped the menu and sat grinning at Hansel and Gretel who didn't quite realize what was going on at first.  I watched as their faces changed and suddenly realize that the goofball sitting alone at a table for five was their very own sister!

"I knew it!"  Hansel yelled!  "There was no way you had an interview!"

"I didn't!"  Gretel said.  "I had no idea!"

The three of us exchanged many hugs in the middle of the dinning room and some of us might have even gotten a little teary-eyed in the midst of it all.   We proceeded to have a delicious dinner with drinks and lobster and plenty of laughter!

We returned to the hotel where the second room was revealed.  Hansel and Gretel prepared for their final hike- Gretel braiding her hair and Hansel dividing their candy stash into two even bags that they would carry up Katahdin tomorrow.  I took a video of the two goofs preparing.  It's probably a bit longer than it needs to be, but it's a pretty accurate representation of a typical dialogue.  This was right before bed and they were both very tired after their 31 mile hike.  Click here to see one of their final conversations before the big climb!

Happy Trails!

The Whole Fam Together Again!

Hansel counting out the Good and Plenties

Hansel and Gretel with their blogger in the midst of blogging

The 100 Mile Wilderness: White House Landing

White House Landing: advertised as "an oasis with the 100 Mile Wilderness."  Hansel and Gretel stayed here their last night of the 100 miles.  The method of access to get to White House Landing was truly unique.  The hostel is located about a mile off the trail.  Hansel and Gretel had to wind their way along the shore of another lovely Maine lake until they came out to a dock.  From the dock, they were able to see the house across the lake.  At the end of the dock, there was a fog horn.  They tooted the fog horn and a guy came out of the house and boarded a little boat which he used to cross the lake and collect Hansel and Gretel.

White House Landing had a few private cabins where hikers could stay, though these were a little more expensive than the bunk house where Hansel and Gretel slept.  The house had no electricity and the pluming was fed straight from the water in the lake which the owners of the hostel pumped every day.  For this reason, they asked that showers be restricted to as few minutes as possible.  The water was warmed by solar heat.  They didn't have a true bathroom.  Just a compost privy.  For dinner, you could pay for one of two options.  You could either have a 1-pound burger or a 14-inch pizza.  Hansel selected the burger and Gretel got the pizza... although, Hansel ended up consuming half of Gretel's pizza since she got full after 4 slices.  "Gretel wimped out," Hansel explained.  For desert they had homemade whoopee pies- a Maine staple!

The next morning, the White House Landing care takers agreed to serve breakfast at 7am so that Hansel and Gretel could hit the trail as early as possible.  They planned on leaving their packs at the hostel where Two Bad, mom, and I could hike in and pick them up so that they would be able to slack pack a 31 mile day to finish the 100 Mile Wilderness.  Also staying at the hostel were two South Bounders, just beginning their AT excursion toward Georgia.  Hansel and Gretel finished their breakfast quickly and prepared their day packs so they were ready to go.  They would have to take the boat back across the lake in order start, but the two South Bounders were moving very slowly.

"Hey, we're ready to go when you are," Hansel said to them in an effort to get them to move it along.  Apparently Hansel was a litte too subtle and these South Bounders just didn't get the hint that they really wanted to leave asap.  Their boat driver was also fully prepared and the three of them were just kinda sitting around waiting for the other hikers to get it together.

Finally the boat man said, "You know what?  Screw 'em!  I'll waste the gas.  I don't care."  Once on the boat and out of ear shot he expressed a few more sentiments.

"These f***ing South Bounders.  THey don't know what they're doing.  You guys are quick.  You have it together.  You know what you're doing.  But these South Bounders, they take forever.  You're always waiting on them.  They piss me off."

And he was kind of right too.  North Bounders have the routine down.  By the time they reach Maine, they are very efficient and they understand how important their time and energy is.  Nothing is waisted.  South Bounders have not yet realized this.  The guys running White House Landing were also extremely efficient, so they appreciated Hansel and Gretel's timeliness.  It was very kind of the boat man to take Hansel and Gretel across early, because they certainly did have a long day ahead of them.

Later that day, mom, Two Bad and I hiked into the woods to retrieve Hansel and Gretel's packs.  There was a road that took us to the edge of the woods, and then we had to walk about .5 miles to the house.  Well, we would have had to walk .5 miles if we had taken that left turn at the start of the trail.  Instead we hiked about three quarters of a mile until mom called the White House Landing to clarify the directions.  Even driving in was kind of crazy.  There were no real street signs.  Instead we were given land marks.  "It's the third turn marked by a boulder that has graffiti on it.  Then turn left at the place with a hundred signs (*see picture bellow)."  Somehow in all those directions, we missed the left turn at the start of the hiking trail.  So our 1 mile pack retrieval ended up being a 2.5 mile pack retrieval.  This was my first time hiking since breaking my ankle, but luckily the trail was flat and tame, so the 2.5 miles were nothing too worry about.  We got their packs, took some pictures, and headed to the hotel.

Happy Trails!

The left turn marked by 100 signs to get to White House Landing.

Mom and Two Bad looking out at the lake at White House Landing.  You can see the small motor boat that brought Hansel and Gretel across the lake.

Me, Two Bad, and Mom at White House Landing, collecting Hansel and Gretel's packs.

The 100 Mile Wilderness

Hansel and Gretel left Monson in the morning at hit the ominous sign indicating the start of the 100 Mile Wilderness.  Now, having covered 2,000 miles of the Trail, struggled through the heat, and battled the mountains of New Hampshire, the 100 Mile Wilderness turned out to be much less threatening than the sign and the stories made it seem.  In hindsight, Hansel and Gretel thought the sign was really kind of ridiculous.  "It seems really serious, but it’s definitely not has hard as they made it out to be."  There are even back roads that drive in and out of it.  As the caretaker at one of the campsites said, “Yeah, ‘100 Mile Wilderness’ is kind of a misnomer.  More like ‘100 Mile Inconvenient Resupply.’”  It’s true that the wilderness does not go through any towns, but the threat-level is not much to speak of. 

Hansel and Gretel were in and out in 4 days.  The first day they hiked 26 miles, the second they did 21, the third they hiked 23 miles and the final day they covered a whopping 31 miles.  (That is actually 101 miles if anyone did the math since they had to hike an extra mile to bet picked up at a road.)  There were two difficult mountains to climb, some steep uphills, some ridge-walking, a big downhill, but other than that, their main challenge was finding ways to occupy their brains for the long hikes.  

Towards the end of the day their brains would be feeling particularly fried which is sometimes the recipe for negative feelings to pop their way out.  To distract themselves from these negative feelings, they would play little games as they walked together.  Here are some examples of the games they played:

The Word Association Game:

Person A says a word and then Person B says the first word that comes into their mind based on the word Person A said.  In response, Person A similarly says the first word that pops into his mind and the came continues switching back and forth between the two people.  After a while, you stop bouncing back and forth and try to recall the entire sequence word by word, reflecting on how ridiculous the associations became.  

The Movie Connection Game: 

This game is much like the word association game only it is played with movies.  Person A states a movie title.  Person B then provides a new movie title that pops into their head because of some connection to Person A's movie title.  The movies could be connected or associated for any reason at all.  It could be because they have a similar actor, or because they were set in the same place, or they have a common theme, etc.  The connections can be very loose.  For example, Hansel provided the movie "Along Came Polly" and Gretel responded "Kindergarten Cop" because both movies have a ferret in them.  Another connection they made was Gretel said "Jerry Maguire" and Hansel said "Philadelphia" because Bruce Springsteen wrote songs for both movies.  Hansel and Gretel ended up playing this game a lot because it was really pretty mindless.  They didn't have to think too hard since pretty much anything works.  

The Song Game:

For this game, Person A provides a word.  Then each person has to come up with 2 songs that have that word in it, while taking turns sharing their songs.  Since Person A provided the word, he must also provide the first song.  After Person B has provided their 2nd song, they sing the song until they feel like stopping on a new word.  The word that Person B stops on because the word for a new round of the game.  This was a great game for Hansel and Gretel because if they both knew the song, they would end up singing the whole song together before continuing on with the game.  As you might imagine, this takes time so 50 minutes would pass by and they would only have been through 4 rounds of the game.  That is almost 3 miles worth of singing!

They also played the 20 Question Game.  Person A thinks of something and then Person B has 20 Yes/No questions to figure out what Person A is thinking.  

So for the most part, the 100 Mile Wilderness was just kinda boring.  Most of it was low elevation so Hansel and Gretel were just walking through swamp areas or pine forests.  There wasn't much to see, although one thing that they really loved about Maine, was that there were so many beautiful lakes!  Unlike other places on the east coast, no one lives around the lakes.  They were just in the middle of the woods surrounded by trees.  They would be hiking along and suddenly come to this gorgeous body of water!  

Hansel and Gretel were also very lucky to have had perfect weather while hiking through the 100 Mile Wilderness.  There had not been much rain before they started it, so everything had plenty of time to dry up.  If it had been rainy, they probably would have had to go much slower and the trail would have been swampy and floody the whole way.  

Happy trails and some new games!

Hansel with a real picture of the scary 100 Mile Wilderness sign

Munchin' in Monson

The Shaw’s Hotel in Monson served as Hansel and Gretel’s final stop before the 100 Mile Wilderness.  They were greeted by a lovely woman who gave them the basic expectations of all Show’s visitors.  “So basically, this is a home, and while you’re staying here, it’s like your home.  So just treat it like your home.  There is a computer you can use.  There’s a kitchen.  Let me know what you need.”

After Hansel and Gretel took their showers and started settling in, they came upon most wonderful surprise!  A mysterious package with their names on it!  As it turned out, someone who had been following Hansel and Gretel’s story suspected that they would be staying at Shaw’s before going into the 100 Mile Wilderness!  “Such a wonderful surprise!”  Inside the package were some terrific goodies: Gatorade, Cliff Bars, trail mix, and a very kind note! 

When Hansel, Gretel and I were little, we went to a very talented and very knowledgeable soccer trainer, Mr. Turnbull.  Our family has remained in touch with the Turnbull family over the years, and when Hansel and Gretel started their journey, Mr. Turnbull shared their adventure with all of his current students at Soccer Skills and Drills*.  The surprise package came from the very thoughtful family of one of his current students.  Thank you very much!  Such kindness (in addition to those Cliff Bars) is the perfect fuel for this adventure!

Hansel and Gretel didn’t leave Shaw’s as soon as they should have and when they hit the grocery store at 6:15, their spirits dropped a little when the sign on the door said the store was closed.   “We were like, ‘Aw shoot! This stinks!’  ‘cause we really needed to get stuff,” Hansel explained since they were beginning the 100 Mile Wilderness the following morning.  As they stood outside of the store trying to figure out what they were going to do, a man popped his head out the door.

“Ah, can I help you guys?”

“Yeah!  We really need to get some groceries.  Just a couple of things because we are going into the 100 Mile Wilderness tomorrow and we are a little short on food.”

The man quickly opened the doors to them and explained that he was just closing up, but the register was still open.  He was such a nice guy and he even gave them a free post card!  So far Monson was turning out to be a great little town with such friendly people!

Following their resupply at the little grocery store, they walked down the street to Spring Creek Bar-B Q, voted #1 barbecue in the state of Maine!  They had a delicious meal and while they were on their way out, they stated conversing with a fellow who had hiked the Trail in 2001.  He now owns an organic farm and had just returned from the market.  He had a ton of delicious veggies in his truck which he generously offered to our Hansel and Gretel.  He talked a mile a minute in rambles with an excited tone.  As Hansel retold the story, it sounded as if this hiking farmer was an auctioneer speaking very quickly without any pauses between sentences.

“Hey you guys want some vegetables I have all these vegetables I have spinach you want spinach You don’t want spinach I have broccoli I have carrots Carrots are great You can just munch on them while you walk…” 

He ended up giving them a ton of vegetables and the carrots were, in fact, delicious! 

Happy Trails!

*If you would like to pick up some excellent ball skills, develop a love for soccer ballet, learn some fun soccer trivia (do you know Pele’s real name?), understand the meaning of good sportsmanship, improve your handshake, and meet a truly sincere and thoughtful person, you should look into Soccer Skills and Drills with Mr. Turnbull.

Fairly Funny Ferry Frolic

This morning, Wallace took Hansel and Gretel back to cross the famous Kennebec River.  This is the only part of the trail that a thru-hiker is instructed to take a mode of transportation other than his feet.  The Kennebec is apparently too deep and dangerous to ford, so the trail guide says to take “the ferry” across the river.  Now the ferry only runs between 9 and 11 am, so it was very important that Hansel and Gretel get there on time.  Wallace delivered them will little difficulty.  Eager to see this dangerous river and the special ferry that would bring them safely across, Hansel and Gretel made there way towards the bank quickly. 

Their arrival was accompanied by a hearty laugh.  At the bank of the river stood a man wearing a brown knit wool cap that was pinned up on one side and had a feather sticking out of it.  It sort of resembled a Robin Hood hat if you can imagine it.  His hair was very long and he had a beard of course.  When he opened his mouth to speak, Hansel and Gretel counted about 6 existing teeth, all of which were pointing in different directions and were stained yellow, maybe ever brown.  This was a serious hill-billy man. 

The grand ferry they had anticipated turned out to be a 3-person canoe captained by this toothless, bearded, Robin Hood hill-billy.  Further more, the river itself was as calm as can be.  Hansel was pretty sure he could have walked across it quite safely.  The “ferry driver” could only take two people in his boat at a time and there were already 3 people waiting at the shore so Hansel and Gretel had to wait a little while. 

When it was their turn to cross, Toothless Robin asked them to sign a release form and gave them life jackets to wear.  Looking at this docile river made the need for life jackets seem like the most ridiculous thing ever.  This whole situation was just ridiculous.  Maybe at different times of the year the river is more treacherous, but today, the danger element was seriously lacking.  When it was their turn to cross, Hansel took the front seat and assisted with the paddling.  Toothless Robin paddled in the back and Gretel got a free ride in the middle.  The most difficult part of the Kennebec crossing turned out to be showing up on time!  I suppose after 2,000 miles of adventure, it doesn’t hurt to have a less eventful river crossing.

Happy trails and dental floss!

In the words of Gretel: "The especially not-so-epic crossing of the Kennebec via canoe."

Hansel paddling in the front.  Note the oh-so-necessary life jacket. 

Wallace of Sterling Inn

Tuesday morning Hansel and Gretel found themselves in search of another shuttle.  They identified the Sterling Inn as a good place to stay so they called and rather confused sounding girl picked up the phone.  Gretel told the girl they would be coming out of the woods at Logging Road right before the Kennebec River.  The girl on the line had never hear of Logging Road and started saying things that didn’t really make any sense to Gretel, “Well, I’ll leave Wallace a note, but the owner would really know.”  Who is Wallace?  Where was the owner?  Gretel was confused about the whole thing. 

Well Wallace called back a little while later.  Apparently Wallace does a lot of shuttling back and forth to the inn.  He is actually the inn keeper’s husband, but the inn keeper is a nurse and lives about 60 miles south during the week.  She is only at the inn on weekends.  Wallace spends his week living with his dog in some kind of a camp.   

So Wallace said he would come and pick up Hansel and Gretel.  He really wasn’t sure if where Logging Road was, but he promised Gretel he would be there. 

“We’ll probably get there around 7,” Gretel told him. 

“Well,” Wallace responded, “I’ll be there by 5 o’clock.  I’m retired and I’ll be there.”  And he hung up the phone before Gretel could say anything else. 

Now usually Wallace takes a nap in the afternoon, but he was so worried that he wouldn’t be able to find Logging Road that he couldn’t sleep.  So, he skipped his nap and packed a backpack incase Hansel and Gretel didn’t make it.  He wanted to be prepared if he was going to have to stay out there over night waiting for them.  He brought a change of clothes, some food and a stove just to be safe.  His wife was worried he wouldn’t be able to find Logging Road and might get lost.  “What if you don’t come back?”  She asked him.  “Well, if I’m gone for more than a month, you can call the authority,” Wallace assured her and he set off. 

Hansel and Gretel emerged from the woods much earlier than they had told Wallace.  At 5:30 they hit Logging Road, but don’t you worry.  Wallace had been there since 3:30 waiting for them!  He greeted them with a cooler filled with cold beer, water and soda (he wasn’t sure what Hansel and Gretel would want to drink).  On the ride home, Hansel and Gretel learned that Wallace was a retired railroad worker where he had been for 40 years.  Before that, he served in the Viet Nam war.  The drive to the inn took about an hour since Logging Road was on the other side of the Kennebec River and there are very few crossing points.  Wallace didn’t seem to mind one bit.  One thing about this lovely gentleman was very clear: he LOVED his life.  Wallace was just the happiest person Hansel and Gretel had come across this entire trail.  It just seemed as if everything he was doing and everything he had done was just the great thing ever!  Although his life might not sound so exciting to anyone else, for Wallace, his life was a dream come true!  Hansel and Gretel took a liking to him immediately. 

Once their caravan had arrived at the inn, Wallace recommended a restaurant called Northern, which was right down the road from Sterling Inn.  Hansel and Gretel invited Wallace to join them.  He cheerfully obliged.   When they walked into Northern, it seems that EVERYONE knew Wallace.  Hansel and Gretel felt like they were walking around with some kind of celebrity!  They learned that the restaurant runs a lot of rafting trips and they often call Wallace to either shuttle people around or to put the adventurers up in the Sterling Inn.  In any case, Wallace was a delight, and he positive attitude was definitely contagious that evening!  He even started referring to Gretel as “B” since that is what Hansel calls her (short for Becca, he really life name).  Thanks for taking such good care of Hansel and Gretel, Wallace!

Happy Trails! 

Hansel and Gretel with WALLACE!

Hansel fording a river with the help of a rope and some sticks... actually they really weren't very helpful. Oh well!

Crazy Cravings and Linda

Perhaps the people in Maine know that by the time thru-hikers get to them, they are very tired and are doing all they can to finish the trail as quickly as possible.  For this reason, there is an assortment of inns and hostels that will help thru-hikers slack pack a good portion of the state.  Monday morning Hansel and Gretel were in search of such an inn.  They were calling around when someone gave them the phone number for the Chamber of Commerce.  Although they were pretty confused as to how the Chamber of Commerce was going to help them, they were pleasantly surprised when they were connected with Linda.  She runs a shuttle service and actually ended up driving 40 miles to collect Hansel and Gretel!  Linda then proceeded to take Hansel and Gretel to get some ice cream (every thru-hikers vice) and then to the store due to a tremendous craving that had come over Gretel.  Gretel needed Ellio's Pizza.  No one can be sure why Ellio's was on her mind.  Mom used to heat it up in the toaster oven for lunch when we were little, but truth be told, it leaves something to be desired in the delicious department.  In any case, Gretel got her Ellio's. 

The next day Linda picked up Hansel and Gretel to take them back to the trail.  When they climbed into her van she pulled out some fresh, hot, homemade blueberry coffee cake!  It was delicious!  What a great way to begin the day!

Happy Trails!