Day Seven

Day 7

Woke up, had another conference call with the office, then bellied up for a breakfast of french toast, bacon and cinnamon rolls.  The quantity of carbohydrates that the lodge served was somewhat mind boggling.  One generally would not be looking for the platter of cinnamon rolls after polishing off a pile of french toast and maple syrup.  The hiking certainly neutralized some of this but Ann, who watches her diet pretty closely, generally seemed to be in a mild state of distress (or perhaps insulin shock) at the AMC table. 

Fred

We hiked the Henderson Brook Trail up to East Chairback Pond that day.  The final mile and a half up to the lake was straight up--I would estimate about 800 feet of elevation.  When we arrived at the lake there was a nice open campsite where we had lunch.  Fred decided to go in for a swim but the rest of us declined to join him. 

Look at where my muscles used to be!

We met a through-hiker who had just started at Mount Katahdin and was walking south.  He had been in the woods for about a week.  The northern part of the trail is difficult terrain with a lot of elevation, winding through the mountains of northern Maine and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  This guy was overweight and out of shape and his backpack appeared to be overfull and somewhat disorganized.  I suspected he was not going to make it, but respected him for trying.  We gave him and apple and a cookie which he deeply appreciated.  Fred then found another apple and tried to make him beg for it, which was mean.  Ann and Cindy scolded Fred and he gave up the apple with no more shenanigans.

Before the mandatory afternoon nap, I challenged Fred and Cindy to a Boggle smackdown at 5pm in the main lodge.  Boggle is a word game where you shake up a bunch of dice with letters on them and pour them onto a tray and see how many words you can make from adjacent letters.  Cindy is pretty good at word games.  She considers the Sunday New York Times crossword a trivial amusement to be completed before her morning coffee.  We knew we were going down but put up a brave front.  Unfortunately I did not wake up from my nap in time to make it to our Boggle appointment--possibly a subconscious protective mechanism at work. 

Fred and Cindy's cocktail hour consists of a shared beer.  Granted, it is generally a high-test IPA, but even so this is a pretty disciplined drinking regimen.  Ann and I also share beer.  I drink my beer then I drink her beer.  She drinks sauvignon blanc. 

That night they served us fish and chips--excellent fish and outstanding home-made french fries.  However, the ladies again found fault--the fish was fried and french fries are apparently not a legitimate vegetable.

After dinner we got the Boggle game out.  Cindy proceeded to (figuratively speaking) pants us and then give us a wedgie.  Generally I would come up with 15 or so words in a turn and she would come up with 30.  My words were generally three letter words like "dog" while here were often multisyllabic words like "I'mahellofalotsmarterthanyou".  Whatever.  Ann came up with some interesting words that were disqualified such as "teef" (apparently an inner city derivation of the common word for molars, incisors, etc.) and Igor, the popular Frankenstein sidekick (disqualified because it was a proper name and also stupid).  We challenged Cindy to a game of either urban parks development or private equity dealmaking--her choice.  She declined, proving that she was afraid of us.