At the beginning of our trip, I was in denial that we would need to hang our food. It’s not like we’re backpacking in the wilderness. They’ll have bear lockers at developed campgrounds where there’s bears, right? We found that hanging food on a clothesline protects from raccoons and chipmunks.
When we got into bear country, Mac started hanging the food higher. The “experts” say the food should be 10 feet from the ground and 4 feet from the tree trunk. This is not an easy task. First you have to find a branch that’s the right height and strong enough. Then you have to tie a rock to a long piece of rope, throw the rock over the branch, tie the food to one end of the rope and pull the food up. Mac’s been doing a good job, but sometimes things just aren’t quite right. Maybe it was because the rope is worn, maybe it was the extra weight of the cantaloupe, or maybe the stars were just misaligned. Last night while Mac was trying to hang the food/cooking equipment bags, the rope broke three times and the bags came crashing down on rocks (and Mac’s head once!).
I took the bags to the camp host and asked if he could store them somewhere for the night. The camp host said ordinarily he would lock them in the wood shed but he was leaving for the night and wouldn’t be back in the morning. He was also having a small crisis because his dog somehow ran through the screen of his RV. He gave me some nylon twine.
I returned to camp with the twine and bags. But it was dark by now and the strength of the twine was questionable. So I approached someone getting stuff from his SUV. Jenny explained the situation and asked if she could store her bags in his vehicle for the night. He seemed reluctant but finally said, “I guess that would be OK.” In the morning we slept in, listened to the radio, read, stretched, and put the tent away, but the guy with the SUV was still sleeping. We were STARVING! I was wondering how I picked the last person in the entire campground to wake up. He finally emerged from his tent after 11am. We devoured the cantaloupe and Fig Newtons and all was well.
Damage from the bags falling on rocks included one spilled yogurt, one bruised but intact cantaloupe, two cracked spice containers, one cracked Tupperware, and one bent but functional frying pan.
Today we climbed Kancamagus Pass (elevation 2,855 feet). In less than 2 hours, we rode 8 miles and climbed about 1,900 feet. You know you’re going slow when the flies land on you while you are riding. I felt like wildlife as all the tourists stared at us from their vehicles. The climb was followed by 22 miles of downhill to Conway, where we are spending the night at a hostel. This was our largest and last major climb. Most of Maine is rolling ups and downs.
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