To Katahdin: 188.2
Long day into Stratton. Up early and didn’t slow down all day. The first several miles were easy going, nice to see some fast miles. Several more mountains to climb after that, a nice long descent to a stream we had to ford, and then straight up the other side. Lots more fall colors and a couple views of entire valleys in the midst of their autumnal transformations. From the top of the last peak, a long, unending, 5.2 mile luckily not steep) descent to the road into Stratton. Easily the longest day mileage wise since well before the White Mountains.
Hit the road not too long before sunset, yet another successful hitchhike in Maine – the first car, again! That makes two first car, and one ride without even thumbing it. Stratton is a small place, a few inns for the hikers and skiers, a small grocer, and a gas station. Not much else. Would have had more time to get stuff done tonight except the restaurant we went to took an hour or more to provide our food after we ordered. The White Wolf Inn & Restaurant – famous on the trail for the Wolfburger. 1/2 pound of beef topped with mushrooms, cheese, bacon, and a sausage patty. Pretty good, too bad about the poor service though. Most memorable part of the night was trying to do laundry. It was late but we wanted to get it down, a lot of laundromats open 24 hours so Landon and I headed out to find it with all our clothes. Found the place, part of a condominium building, sign above the door announcing “Old Tyme Laundry,”‘went inside the outer door and just inside to our left was a doorway (no door) leading to all the machines. The room was dark but I stepped in looking for the lights or the hours. Immediately inside the doorway a burglar alarm goes off! No locked doors, no posted hours…We quietly went back to the hotel, the alarm still blaring.