Daily Journals - July 26, 2008
Jul 27th, 2008 by Lyn Hanush
GAP WALK JOURNALS - V
Saturday - July 26, 2008 Day 143 35.0 miles
Total Maine miles - 143.1 Walking Days - 69
Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1148.5
No, that number is not a mistake - it really is 35 miles that I
walked in one day! Please note that Connee also broke her
record today by walking 20.8 miles. But before I go on to share
about the day, and about how I happened to walk so far, how
about a multiple-choice question. Let’s see if you can pick out
the right answer.
I walked 35 miles today because:
a. Russ drove beside me tantalizing me with an open door, but
whenever I got close enough to hop in he sped off.
b. A bear chased me the last fifteen miles of the day.
c. After spotting a bear I felt vulnerable out in the woods alone,
and asked Russ and Connee to drive alongside me. They did so,
but didn’t tell me when it was time to quit.
d. I was sentenced to walk in a chain-gang of one up a dusty
wilderness road with guards posted to drive alongside me.
See the end of today’s journal entry for the answer. 
The day started out in heavy fog as we began walking at about
7:30 a m. We wanted to get a morning picture of Mount
Katahdin, but that didn’t seem to hopeful. Still it was very
comfortable walking without rain or hot sun and humidity. As it
turned out the whole day was beautiful. The sun came out, but it
never got super hot.
I wish you could have seen the scenery we saw today. The
greens of the hills and the valleys were just awesome. The
flowers were bright and colorful. And, to make our day
complete, people were delightful and kind to us.
After several hills and valleys Connee and I turned off of
Highway 11 onto Benedicta Road. This is a beautiful road.
Russ told us we would still have a couple of hills on this road -
he insists he said a “few” hills, but we’re sure he said a “couple”
of hills. At any rate it seemed there were more than a couple
or a few hills. He had also told us there was a garage sale and a
small, one-home farmers market along this road.
We stopped at the garage sale and looked at some clothes.
Connee actually found and bought some really nice clothes. She
carried them in a bag until we came to where Russ was waiting
for us. After filling our water paks we walked on. Soon we saw
the “farmers market” and stopped for Connee to get some fresh
peas to nibble on. When Leo heard what we were doing, he very
kindly gave them to her, refusing any pay.
We’ve had several people tell us they’ve read about us in the
last few days. The day we did our laundry in Ashland I had
talked with a lady who wanted to pass on the information to the
news, but we hadn’t heard anything more about it. One person
said they thought they read about it in the Bangor Daily News.
We haven’t found anything online, but not everything makes it
to the online news. This may forever remain a mystery.
A little later we saw a man mowing his lawn on his riding
mower (lawns around here are huge, so they really do need the
riding mowers). He saw us and stopped his mower, and offered
us ice cold water and a chance to rest on his deck along with
Hank and McCoy, his chocolate lab and yorkshire terrier. Jerry
was delightful to visit with, but soon we had to say good-bye
and continue walking.
We came to the end of the paved road soon after we left Jerry,
and walked on gravel road after that. Connee was only too
happy to see Lady Mag parked alongside the road ahead, and
even happier to get into the van. Her feet have developed
blisters that were really getting hard to walk with.
This was our lunch break, and we enjoyed our sandwiches,
cheese and fruit. Finally I started walking again - this time
alone.
Now being on a deserted (we saw two other cars on this road all
afternoon) gravel road in the middle of the Northern Maine
woods got me to thinking about bears. What would I do if I saw
a bear - or worse yet, a bear cub. I knew a bear cub would mean
there was a mother bear nearby. As I was thinking about this I
glanced down to get something from my pack. When I looked
back up I saw a real live bear crossing the road about a tenth of a
mile ahead of me. Now I really did feel vulnerable.
I’ve met a few bears out in the High Sierras when I’ve been
hiking with others and had no worries. But somehow being
alone with bears seemed a little less desirable. I tried calling
Russ, then Connee, but no phone service. Just then I heard a car
coming behind me. Turning to look I saw Russ and Connee
coming my way. I flagged them down and told them what had
just happened. They felt the same way I did, and didn’t want me
to be out there alone either. So for the next thirteen or so miles
they drove along behind me, beside me, or just in front of me.
They put together four pepsi cans on shoestrings for me to wear
on my waist to keep from surprising any wildlife. Russ also
periodically honked the horn. We were quite a sight. Connee got
a picture of me wearing my pepsi cans, and I recorded the
sounds of the clanging and the honking on my camera.
When we got to where Russ would have been waiting for me
had he driven ahead Russ asked me if I wanted to stop and refill
my water pak or anything. I told him that since he was driving
beside me I would just wait until I needed something and let
him know.
As it got later and later I kept waiting for Russ to tell me my
time was up. After all he always waits for me at the end and tells
me my mileage. As time kept ticking away, and the miles wore
on I thought to myself, “This must be the day when I reach 30
miles” - my personal goal to reach while Russ was with me.
Finally I saw the end of the road I was walking on with a STOP
sign. I moved to the sign and reached up to touch it. It was taller
than me, and my first attempt to jump up to touch it failed
miserably. Connee and Russ laughed at me. Gathering all my
strength I tried again. This time I succeeded. Then Russ told me
I had to cross the street to the turnout. OK, I could do that.
As I started to take my gear off, Russ just happened to mention
that I only needed 1.9 miles to reach 35 miles. I gasped, and
said, “thirty-five miles!!” He asked if I was tempted to go ahead
and do it. Well, that was a challenge I couldn’t resist, so off I
went down Highway 2. With only two tenths left to go, Russ
passed me by to wait at the Aroostook/Penebscot County Line -
exactly thirty-five miles after starting north of Patten, ME.
Well, there you have it folks. What an exciting day. By the way,
I have learned that wildlife will not pose for pictures. So far
we’ve seen skunks, beautiful deer, a moose, and a bear, but no
pictures. Oh, yes, I did see a fascinating green snake while
walking on the gravel road, and I did get a picture of it. He even
had his head up.
With the walking over we now had to find someplace to eat. By
the time we got to anything it was 9:00 p m, and nothing was
open. We have a microwave in our room and a few things we
could fix, so that took care of dinner. Connee fixed mine so I
could rest, but I felt bad because she had done 20 miles and had
miserable feet.
Finally we got our showers and went to bed. Whew!
Answer to multiple choice - c
