July 5 Monson, ME to Chaumont, NY A real long drive

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We spent the night sleeping in the back of our SUV parked at the trail head. The wind blew most of the night with some rain. We were up around 6:30 and started moving things between vehicles. Breakfast was to be taken at Shaw’s Lodging House, a sort of hiker hostel in Monson. We were told last night that this was the place to find out the latest trail conditions and a $7 all you can eat breakfast sounded much better than what we had in the vehicles.

Arriving at Shaw’s we found our friendly newspaper reporter interviewing the hikers there. We made the total for breakfast an even dozen. Drinking hot coffee waiting for the food to be served we found out information about the trail south of Monson that we did not want to hear. Water levels were dangerously high. The two river crossings just south of town were at last report (crossed yesterday) chest deep without any safety lines. I had watched the weather report on the TV before sitting down in the dining room, more rain forecast for Monday and beyond. Today (Sunday) would be very nice, but the rain would return as heavy as ever by Tuesday. We let this settle in as we enjoyed the food and company.

After breakfast was finished CC looked over at me and said she was through for the year. The water crossings were just too stressful on her and the walk had turned sour for the year. We talked it over and decided to just call it a year. These water crossings are a safety issue for us. Over 15" of rain had fallen in the area in the past two weeks. All water levels were one to four feet above normal. Maine has few foot bridges as they are removed in the spring by the ice and water during the breakup. We had only crossed two rivers that had a safety rope and one of those didn’t really seem to need it. Crossing fast moving water with all the safety checks we would use in the Army was still a bit dangerous, without them it is foolish. There are hikers out there who will continue and I’m sure they will do alright. We, however will call it a good year and head home.

We want to thank all of you who have followed us this year and we hope you enjoyed our rambling here on the blog. The photos and videos should have added a new dimension as did the GPS SPOT so you could see just where we might be that given day. We will try to chip away at our remaining miles of the trail this year and next. Here are the stats for this years walk.


706 Trail Miles walked
444 Trail Miles remain
55 Days of walking
12.83 Miles per day walking average
1,427,532 Steps taken by CC (an estimate as she lost her pedometer early in Penn.)

I’m not sure if I will do a walking blog as it happens, as in the past. My “Pocketmail” device is starting to show much wear. I don’t want to go to the expense (that and the extra weight of the device and batteries will be a welcome loss) of replacing the thing for the last 30 days or so of walking. I will keep a paper journal and do the typing upon our return from any walking. Lastly you should go to our video section on “YouTube” and look at the final three clips. Start with the third from last and work towards the last. The first two are some of the wildest white water we have ever seen. There is no commentary, just the water speaking for itself. The last clip will be CC crossing a couple of logs across a river. The stress level she felt is due to the knowledge that is if she falls into the down stream side of the river.... We have about 600' to get her out of her pack and the water before she ends up in those rapids. Again thanks for all your interest. If you want to contact us you can at the below Email addresses.

OD [e-mail]
CC [e-mail]

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

For Photos and Video: http://odandccslongwalk.shutterfly.com/

OD and CC have been marking their path with a GPS using SPOT Satellite Messenger and can be tracked at the following link. It keeps track of their last 7 days: http://tinyurl.com/o2g53z

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