I think your makin’ my point
at just how iconic the AT has become. Its gone international, spanning the Atlantic and a UM geology professor planned and promoted a good part of it on our side of the pond.
I've given some thought to paddling the East Branch again (did it about 8 or 9 times in the 80s) but this time stashing the canoes in the woods near whetstone. Accessing and backpacking the IAT which is "the old tote road" back to the Wilderness Camps at Matagamon. I would pick up the canoes at whetstone on the way home. No shuttle required. I'm not much of a hiker anymore (bad knees) but this trip has a lot of appeal for me, old stompin' grounds. When I was younger, workin' for the scouts, I hiked bald mtn, chase mtn, traveler pond and peaks all from the east branch, and did an under the radar, south to north, traverse of baxter from whestone to trout brook farm. Also hiked on horse mtn (when it still had the fire tower) and fowler ponds and billfish mtn, and hiked from the old sebois campground back to the boyscout base (chub foster's wilderness camps). I probably hiked more of main road between the B.S.Park and Patton then I care to remember. Hitchhiking was tough because the traffic was very light after shin pond. Rides were hard to come by. See, I'm already an IAT "legend" and didn't even know it. That makes me way cool.
I've only met one "iconic" paddler. Chubs Foster. His enthusiasm for Northern Maine and paddling was infectious. He was well in his eighties when he befriended me and countless other scouts working at the base, his old sporting camp. He was no longer paddling...ah but the stories he told and just watching his face light up when we told him about our adventures and he recalled the places. His wife Fran was also a force in her own right. My favorite Chubs quote: "Baaastard State Park, Percy is rollin' over in his grave, seein' how they 're runnin' the pawk. He (gov. baxter) wanted to share it, Not lock it up."
Where's fat elmo when you need 'em? I can't type north maine woods dialect but you get the idea.