[at-l] Rescue! Nine years ago today...

[Mara Factor]

Day 187 - Monson - 6.7 miles - 2045.7 total

Checked the river first thing in the morning. It had gone down but was still impassable. The dragon’s breath on the river was beautiful however. I spoke with Yak and Yo, and Yo, like myself, had tossed and turned last night. We were both worried about Joyous Tears, the woman who was headed southbound and likely blocked by the west branch. Also, we knew more rain was headed our way on Tuesday and with the rate the river had gone down the previous day, we were going to need a boat to get out with our equipment before the new rain.

We ate our "refugee food" oatmeal with a bit of sugar for breakfast. Then we started preparing for the day. I was going five miles back to look for Joyous Tears and encourage her to join us at the east branch. Yo would come with me as far as the shelter two miles back to make sure we did not miss her at the loop by the Horseshoe Canyon Lean-to. She also wanted to pick up some books that were there. Then she would head back to help Yak prepare to swim the river once again and go for help and to find someone with a boat.

Shortly before Yo and I set off for the shelter, Yak caught site of a moose crossing the river along the route of the AT but we could not see if it crossed all of the way.

Then Yo and I left for the shelter. She went around the canyon while I stopped at the shelter. It was apparent that Joyous Tears had not been back to the shelter. When I met Yo at the south junction, she had obviously not met Joyous Tears along the loop. While not surprised, we were disappointed. It meant I had to go three miles further to the west branch of the river. Without Yo along, my imagination went wild. We were all a bit concerned that Joyous Tears might have tried to ford the river before it was passable. We knew she was anxious to get to Caratunk to meet some friends. I could only imagine what I would or would not find when I got to the west branch. The trail paralleled the river which also fueled my imagination. The river was still raging muddy, wild, fast, and high.

Thankfully, when I got to the west branch, I found Joyous Tears high and dry and still stranded. Once Joyous Tears realized that she was not alone on this side of the swollen river and that I came to ask her to come back to the other crossing, she certainly shed some tears of joy and a lot of relief. 

While there, I was able to talk (yell loud) to Miles, Hutch, Bare Chest, and Second Wind who were all on the other side of the river waiting to cross. They had not missed any of the "true" white blazed trail so far and were unwilling to take the high water route around this section. I explained the river situation at the east branch and encouraged them to take the road. As I left, they were still trying to find a way across the west branch but where the river had been ankle deep three days earlier, it was now deeper than chest high.

Rather than walk back with Joyous Tears who would be going slower while carrying her full backpack, I ate some much needed fuel in the form of Fig Newtons and Peppermint Patties that Joyous Tears had so I could try to get back to Yak and Yo before Yak went for help. I kept a good pace going back, stopping to pick up the occasional piece of clothing that I had discarded on the way out.

Just after I passed the shelter, I was crossing a stream that had been raging two days earlier and during this fourth crossing, I noticed a bottle that had been seemingly discarded by an earlier hiker. We just had not noticed it with the water rushing by or even earlier in the day when Yo and I were distracting each other. I was about to just step over it when I noticed the color of the water in the bottle was different from the stream water. I bent down to pick it up only to discover that I had found an apparently unopened bottle of Jack Daniels. I had to laugh because of all of us who had just stepped over it, I, the non-drinker, found it. I put it in my fanny pack knowing that Yak and Yo would likely appreciate it.

When I got back, Yak and Yo were relaxing. I asked them if they would like some Fig Newtons. They just looked at me in disbelief. Then I explained that Joyous Tears, who was following me back, had given them to me along with the candy. Fig Newtons, as it turns out, are Yak’s favorite cookies. Only then did I pull out the bottle of Jack Daniels and enjoyed watching their jaws hit the ground.

They had been cooking lunch when I walked up so we ate our "refugee food" TVP with peas before eating the Fig Newtons, the last of the peanut butter bars, and shots of Jack Daniels for Yak and Yo. Joyous Tears then walked up. She was effusive when showing her gratitude that I had come to get her and that all of us had been thinking about her and were worried about her. When we explained our plans, she pulled out a cell phone to try to call for help. We had a few ideas about who might be able to help, starting with Steve, the Ferryman, who had brought us across the Kennebec. Not surprisingly, the cell phone proved useless.

By the time I had gotten back to Yak and Yo, they had surveyed the river again and had good news. The water was receding at an accelerating rate and Yak had walked across in chest deep water along the route of the AT. After lunch, he was going across again to go for a boat. When Joyous Tears heard this, she decided to try to get across with her pack. By the time we got to the river, the west branch overflow, which had been hip high the day before, was now only calf deep. The east branch, which had been chest deep in the morning, was now only waist deep on Yak. As Yak crossed, Joyous Tears plunged in after him, not even waiting for him to finish crossing. With some difficulty, she got across so Yo, a petite woman, decided to try to get across without her pack. She could not make it across and turned back to safety.

Just then, Second Wind showed up having successfully, but dangerously and with much difficulty crossed the west branch five miles back. He just plunged into the east branch and had little difficulty crossing. He let us know that the rest of the gang I had talked to earlier in the day would soon be following.

Before you knew it, the guys were shedding their packs on the far side and lending a hand. One of them worked with Yak to get Yo across. She lost her footing a number of times but they kept her on course. Then, they all (except Yo) came back across to try to help Yak and me pack up our camp and get us across the river.

I packed up and changed into my thruhiker bathing suit (i.e. black underwear). Bare Chest grabbed my backpack while I helped Yak pack the rest of his and Yo's camp.  Then we made our way to the crossing. As Barechest started across, the other guys asked if I needed help crossing. Given my experience yesterday, I said "no," I thought I could get across on my own. As I waited until Bare Chest got through the worst of the crossing, a flotilla of kayaks came downstream towards us. I am sure we presented them with a curious sight. Some of the guys had come back into the water to spot me just in case I went for a swim so the kayaks ended up lining up downstream just in case I or any of the spotters ended up going for a swim. Without my pack, I had no problem making a slow crossing of the river. Once we were all across, the paddlers wished us good luck and went on their way.

The Jack Daniels was passed around (nobody wanted to carry the full bottle  ;-}  )and everyone eventually left for Monson feeling great. We had a good fast hike to route 15 and after just a few minutes of hitching a pickup beeped from the trailhead parking lot across the street. It was Keith Shaw who knew from the earlier arrivals that we would be there looking for a ride. Our trip to town was punctuated by the appearance of a beautiful Great Blue Heron standing by the side of the road.

At Shaw’s, Baltimore Jack showed me around after I checked in. We all cleaned up and then made our way to the only place in town still serving food at that hour, the local Mobil Gas Station Minimart. There we had pizza loaded with more stuff than I have ever seen on a pizza. Thruhikers who normally inhale a large in one sitting had a tough time getting just half of it down. My ten inch mushroom pizza had way more mushrooms than most but I was hungry and managed to polish it off. For dessert, I ate a Klondike bar, an ice cream sandwich, a Fudgesicle, a couple of Little Debbie Swiss Rolls, and a candy bar. All of this, I washed down with a liter of orange soda. I stayed up late (10:00) talking with Second Wind and another Shaw’s guest.



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