Dennis Dixon is heading North!: NOT (NE 100 Highest)

Updated Oct. 16, 2018 - This "White Cap" is the "White Cap" on the AT, over in Piscataquis County. Since it is "only" 3654 feet, it is NOT THE ONE I WANT (3856 feet) - hopefully I can get "The Real One" (over in Franklin County) later this month!

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Tuesday, July 17, 2018 - Ok ok - yesterday I drove Wendy down to Falmouth where we had a great lunch at The Flying Bridge Restaurant. She is going over to Edgartown for 7 days, so I'm going to Maine for 4 days of hiking! But first I spent last night at CTR as part of the Family Promise team - home this morning to shower and shave, and then off to Depot Diner for breakfast with Caroline!!

As far as "hiking the New England 100 Highest", I have 2 in Vermont remaining, 1 in New Hampshire remaining, but 10 up in Maine (it is a bit harder to do a "day trip to Maine"):

(green = done, yellow = not done, and the red one in the far upper-right = Fort Mtn, which I thought that I would NEVER CLIMB [insane pine needles])

So I did some research, and found a campground near the far upper-right yellow mountain [White Cap Mountain]. So after Depot Diner, I drove 4 1/2 hours up to Northern Pride Lodge & Campground in Kokadjo, Maine:

On my way up my Crosstrek odometer hit 20,000 miles:

(I wonder where I'll be when it hits 30,000?)

It turns out that today's drive took me through Monson, Maine, which is where I drove Deede 2 years ago, for her to meet Tad and hike with him on his final AT stretch through the 100 Mile Wilderness (they let me join them on their last day hiking up Mt. Katadin a couple of weeks later)

It turns out that there ARE ONLY 2 BUSINESSES IN KOKADJO - Northern Pride and the Kokadjo Camps & Trading Post:

maybe Barbara and Wayne run both of them. She had called me yesterday saying they would be "out of town" today, but I would see her for 7 AM breakfast Wednesday morning. I didn't know the restaurant was also closed:

well, I'll grab something down in Greenville after my hike.

I had done my research, and there is a trail to-the-summit - as a matter of fact, it is The Appalachian Trail, so it doen't get any easier than this (at least as far as "navigation" is concerned):

Google Maps did not have a point for the AT trail crossing, or the gate, but their point on French Town Road got me pretty close:

Unfortunately, that is where the road got FLOODED:

Discretion being the better course of valor, I backed up to the last logging-road-intersection and started my hike from there:

Unfortunately, that added 2 miles at the beginning, and 2 miles at the end, making it 11.9 miles in 4 hours 29 minutes.

I got to "the gate" at 4:

and the AT intersection 10 minutes later:

45 minutes later I was up at the Logan Brook Lean-to:

which is right next to, of course, lovely Logan Brook:

The next 1.4 miles to the summit were a little harder than the first part of the trail:

I was excited to get to the VIEWPOINT:

until I realized it wasn't really that exciting:

At least you can still see the white-AT-markers in the fog/clouds:

Great being on the summit at 5:54 PM:

I was in the middle of a cloud up on the summit, so I switched from my Merrells - sandals I had put on for the puddles, and kept on up the trail (they worked pretty well on the trail, but badly on the rocks at the summit) - to my socks and hiking boots. The trip back down was fast, and I finished at 7:41 PM. An hour later I was driving down to dinner in Greenville in a HUGE Torrential Downpour! Excellent meatball sub at Jamos Pizza (they are open until 10 PM), then drove back up to the campground. Because the rain flooded the ground, I slept in the back of the car. It was ok.

THANK YOU GOD for this great adventure!

Today's driving music was the 5th group of the "G" songs from my big iPod. I made it through 91 songs (click here for the list of songs), beginning with:

Mogwai - "Golden Porsche" from the album Happy Songs For Happy People, 2003

and ending with:

Drive-By Truckers - "Goodbye" from the album A Blessing And A Curse, 2006

highlights include:

3 versions of Shirley Bassey - "Goldfinger", 1965. The best version (fullest, best master) is on The Best Of Bond...James Bond

Interestingly, the 3 versions are on albums that are all "default classification" differently: AM Gold 1965 is "Pop", The Best Of Bond...James Bond is "Soundtrack", and Divas Exotica is "Jazz". I guess sometimes labels don't matter that much (a lesson in life).

Bill Conti - "Gonna Fly Now (Theme From Rocky)" from the soundtrack Rocky, 1976

Now that gets me PUMPED to GO CLIMB A MOUNTAIN!

drops of The Beatles, including "Golden Slumbers", "Good Day Sunshine", "Good Morning Good Morning", "Good Night"