The Great American Journey

GAP WALK JOURNALS - V

Wednesday - July 23,  2008    Day 140   0.0 miles

Total Maine miles - 53.0 Walking Days - 66

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6   Cumulative miles 1056.4

Moving day - a time to rest from walking, but much else to be
done. Of course much of our day was spent traveling from
Madawaska to Sherman, ME, though we originally thought we
would be moving to Ashland, ME.

Our plan had us walking in the Maine North Woods area for at
least three days. But first we had to check in with a couple of
people.  First was Jim at the Cedar Mill because we would be
going across on logging roads. He was really excited about what
we were doing and readily gave his ok. Then we stopped at one
of the entrance gates we would be walking through, and driving
through each day for a few days. There we met Rita who was
also excited about what we’re doing. She was a little surprised
that the loggers gave us permission because they won’t give
bicyclists permission. We showed her a picture of Jim and she
recognized him and was satisfied.

However, there would be a fee each day for each of the three of
us that in three days would add up to $90. They also had
different groups that had cabins in the Maine North Woods
(MNW). We got info on those, then drove into Ashland to do
laundry and talk about what we wanted to do. While I did
laundry Russ and Connee checked maps, and routes, and came
up with an idea. By adding just nine miles to our route we could
avoid the MNW and stay on Highway 11 until Sherman, but this
would save us a lot of money. They weren’t able to get in touch
with any of the cabins in the MNW, so this seemed like a good
plan.

That also meant it wouldn’t be practical to stay in Ashland, so
we went looking elsewhere. In the town of Patten we went to a
Lumberman’s Museum to ask about a place. Nicole went all out
to help. She made several phone calls for us, then gave us some
more numbers to call. We ended up at a nice motel in Sherman -
delightful people.  They told us about several restaurants in
town or in Patten that would give us a 10% discount when we
show them our key from the motel.

Then we went to Brenda’s Restaurant at the Shell Station for
dinner. It was great! In fact we looked at the menu and realized
we could get our breakfast here to go, and sandwiches for lunch,
and dinner as well. They have a great menu that will make it
easy to eat something different almost every day. The food we
saw coming out all looked great. Our food tasted great. Back at
our motel we were given a menu for Brenda’s.

We took care of our stuff, made phone calls, then headed for
bed.