Keeping Secrets in the Western Mountains

If there were any reservations about moving from Aroostook County back to the homeland, they were silenced this weekend.

I miss all of my great friends up north, but having the opportunity to do what I did this weekend is one of the major reasons I relocated.

Perhaps I jumped the gun on my post-Quintuple Iron recovery by biking up to camp on friday. Halfway to Andover, I was cashed.
Got some food and coffee into me and chilled, in order to get myself back together for the last push.

Turns out that was exactly what I needed. I thoroughly enjoyed those last few miles, especially pedaling down East Andover Road, past the cow and buffalo farms, as the sun set behind the mountains.

Coasted into camp as dusk turned to dark, and had some Yuengling as I built the fire.

The next day, Nicole and I woke up to a nice coating of 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. After a big breakfast, we set out to see some of most beautiful terrain in Maine.
This area does not receive the attention that Baxter or Acadia does, and it is every bit as beautiful.. if not more because there aren't people behind or in front of you around every curve.

Hiking in this area is sure to be a solitary experience.

We blue-blazed on the Appalachian Trail, wearing Microspikes for traction on the snow-covered roots and rocks. The trail followed a stream as it continued into a notch between two sizeable mountains, so there were TONS of waterfalls to stop and admire.

There were numerous stream crossings, but we were never thwarted. At one point, we were forced to cross by straddling a downed tree!

All of the work in getting to the main attraction was worth it. Seemingly out of nowhere, we found ourselves in a basin with cliffs all around us. Snow weighed down the hundreds of pine trees, and a thundering of water pounding rocks was coming from somewhere...
Around a corner, a 70 foot waterfall cut into an amazing narrow gorge!
Grand.

After stopping to admire it, we hiked to the top of that fall, hurrying to the next one a quarter-mile away, excited to see the BIGGER of the two. It proved worth the extra mileage, but the camera could do no justice, as it was well-hidden by trees and rocks.

The hike out via Appalachian Trail was a great finish to a superb day: up and over the mountain, through the woods, and to the road!

If you would like info on this hike, shoot me an email, but I'm not interested in advertising the location to the entire planet.
The best kept secret in Maine should stay that way!

Thanks for reading!

krp

To Do

There's a To Do List about a mile long, sitting right here next to the computer.

First on the list: Find a Job.

I'm learning first-hand the meaning of balance.

The Quintuple Iron is over, and I'm confronted by the harsh reality of "What now?"
I spent most of 2010 focusing on the race and making it my top priority.
Now that it's over and done with, I'm a little lost to be honest.
Moving up to the Deca for next year is a no-brainer, but unfortunately solely racing doesn't pay the bills.

I've been in the retail machine long enough to know that I won't be doing that anymore. No more salary jobs that require 60+ hour weeks, phone calls at home on days off, and bosses that frown on having a life outside of work.

The goal then, I guess, is to find a job that let's me punch the clock, and leave work at work. I show up, work hard, and go about my life when the shift is over.
Again with the keeping life simple.

As far as the TentMan life....due to the Maine winters, I won't be spending a lot of time in a tent the next couple of months. I do, however anticipate many a night in my rustic camp in the western mountains of Maine. The amount of hiking, trail running, snowshoeing, and skiing to be done there is ridiculous.
Stay posted!

krp

The Farewell

Well, folks, this is it.
The end of Tentman, Aroostook County edition.

On November 6th, this saturday, I will be leaving The County for the big race in Mexico.
I will not be returning...at least to live anyways.

The Life of Kale R Poland continues on its long, strange trip.

I moved here on a leap of faith. Tired of big box retail and corporate nonsense, I came here, knowing that anything I happened upon for a job would be better than what I was doing.

It was pure fate that I landed a job at a store which thrived on the sports that I was active in. Immediately I was introduced to the amazing community of people and athletes that surround Mojo and the Nordic Heritage Sport Club.

Tons of memories.
-Mountain biking for the first time on singletrack, at night, with Chad, Mike, Chris, and Eileen.
-Brent's Slo Mo Triathlon, hungover. Mike and Von and I decide to do it the night before during a night of drinking.
-Morning swims at Gentile with Erika and Kim
-Running on sunday mornings with Mel, Kyle, Lee, Kim, and Georgina(who has fattened me up!!!); and The Christmas Run on the sunday before the big Holiday, when we spent the morning running to people houses to wish them a merry christmas.
-Big St Patty's Party at the Caverhills.
-Good Times Rides then beers with the whole gang...sometimes having to have the afterparty at the store!
-Mornings BSing with the Northern PT crew
-Nights in Mel's or Penny's Backyard, and the great food both cooked for me.
-Penny's BackPorch Nights, solving the world's problems..heck LIVING at Penny's. She let me shower, do laundry, and fed me so many times. My life would have been a lot more difficult without her the last couple of months.
-Running with Mortland and Barb to Houlton...and running through the night on treadmill with Mortland.
-Lifting with Kate Hanes
-New Years Party, and dancing "wax on, wax off" with Kate and Ralph
-Dinners with Kate and Ralph Knowles
-Aroostook Dirty 30

So much more. I had some of the best times of my life here.
Never will I know a place with friends like I have here. REAL people, who ride, run, swim, LIVE, and still aren't afraid to let loose and have a good time.
The level of support I have received as an athlete from everyone I know in Aroostook County is mindboggling, and it will be repaid in one way or another.

While I hate to leave the people, the reasons I leave aren't secret. People who know me know that I've been striving to remove myself from the retail profession for a long time.
It's opportunity downstate, and lack of it here that forces me to pull up my roots once again and find a new location.

No smooth way of saying it...I will miss seeing all of my friends here in Aroostook County.

krp

I'm on a bus headed north, again.

The other side to the whole idea of living the "simple" tent life is the complicated, depending on others thing.
Getting rides to and from the bus station. Using other people's showers, washers, and other amenities.
I can't lie, these are the things that have grown the most tiresome.
I was brought up to do everything on my own, and asking people's help for basic life tasks is a pride-robbing thing- even if the person doesn't seem to care!

Anyways, Nicole and I just returned from a great weekend in Baxter. Hiked South Branch Mountain, returning back to South Branch campground via Pogy Notch Trail. The fall foliage was just amazing, and the two streams we had to cross were chilly.

Can't forget to mention that our night in the tent was graced by a bear, a couple of times. Around 10:30, we were awoken by the huffing and woofing of a bear a little ways from the tent. Next thing we knew, its footsteps were RIGHT outside the tent.
Again, at 3:30 it came by. Not really sure what we would have done had it tried to get into the tent. A little freaky, and definitely freakier than my experience along the Aroostook River earlier in the summer.

Awesome times, but my vagabond life will be coming to a close soon. I'll stick it out until the quintuple iron, then reevaluate my life.
Who knows what new adventures may be ahead??

Thanks for reading..
krp

(kale)idoscope

Sometimes for the best
At other times for worse
how could it be my blessing
Can double as a curse

Holding mirrors to my being
With reflections already there
I don't know what I'm seeing
Just my own life's wear and tear

Mirrors in front of mirrors
A distorted, slippery slope
Things must start getting clearer
I'm becoming a kaleidoscope

krp

update

Hey all.
I didn't die.

Between work, training, and sponsor hunting, I've barely had a chance to update this at all!

As far as the nights go, I have barely been tenting, just training...and crashing on couches when I'm done for the night. Don't see much of a purpose to pitch a tent when I'm only sleeping for a few hours!

Training is REALLY popping off. With the quintuple iron only 3 months away, I've GOT to put less time into adventuring, and more time into high volume zen training.
A few notes:
Nights are getting colder. Supposed to be high 30s tonight.

Also, I've just switched to part-time status at work, allowing me more training time and possibly more adventures!

Thanks for staying tuned!
krp

Rolling with the Punches

"If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty." — Jon Krakauer

I feel like I'm truly starting to come into this lifestyle of homelessness.

It's kind of all about rolling with the punches and adapting to whatever the day throws at you. I don't really view it as a challenge, so much as a way to really just live for the moment.

Troy's housing some Dutch Soccer coaches at his digs in Caribou. We all went mountain biking last night, then had a few beers at the pub...getting into some interesting conversation on healthcare and government. Awesome to hear views from both Europeans and health care professionals. Cool dudes.

We left the pub, and next thing I know it's 10pm. I had forgotten to eat. Only place open was McDonalds, so I grabbed all my gear and tooled over there. I got 2 McChickens, some fries, and a drink, and headed to my spot for the night. I sat at one of the benches along the bike path and ate my heart-attack in a bag.

To the person who didn't know me, I must have REALLY looked like a homeless dude, with my beard, my bike, and sleeping bag.
Thing is, I didn't care. The night was nice and quiet, and it was a great way to wrap up a good day.

This morning, I ate my breakfast by the river at Riverside Park. I saw a homeless guy on the other side of the park. There is a small homeless community in Aroostook County...somehow. I wonder how they slip through the cracks in such a small, close-knit area.

I'm intrigued by homeless people in general.
They have a story.
When I started this blog, I had this idea in the back of my mind of eventually meeting Presque Isle's homeless and publishing my chats with them.
I'll sit on it for a little while more, but it's definitely something that would be pretty cool to me.

krp

1 Down

Been a few days since the last update.
Still doing my thing, and really loving it.
Nicole came up this past weekend. Great times.

Spent last night on Mars Hill Mountain.
I biked via the railroad bed and arrived at the base of the mountain around 8pm.
Powerhiking with my pack and pushing my bike up the mountain(sweating my ass off), I arrived at the last level before the final grunt up to the summit.
As I stood there listening to the gigantic windmills, it was impossible to ignore that one of them emitted a really annoying high-pitched squeak. I opted to go down the mountain a little bit and set up camp, just out of range of the noise.

It was cool to wake up to the view...but more awesome was the ride back to Presque Isle on the snowmobile trail, as the sun was coming up. It was the perfect time for wildlife viewing.

I had a deer jump out into the trail a little ways ahead of me. Also seen were a bunch of rabbits, snakes sunning themselves in the trail, and a falcon that flew just ahead of me for a hundred meters at a time. It would stop on a tree adjacent to the trail, seemingly waiting for me, and then fly further down the trail once I got close to it again. We played this cat and mouse game for about a half mile.
Some bear sign was present. With the amount of running, hiking, and biking I do, I know that it's only a matter of time before I have a close encounter.

Mars Hill. That's Peak 1 in my End of July Peak Assault.
I have 12 more days to get at least 11-15 Peaks. My goal is 20...but that is going to be a real challenge with all the work and whatnot. I'll have to be VERY productive on my days off, I guess.

2 Weeks Down: Conclusions Drawn Thus Far

Actually, my first night was June 28th, so I guess it's officially been 16 nights without a car, a bed, or a roof over my head.

I can honestly say I don't miss any of it.

Some conclusions:
-I sleep better than I do in a bed, and actually go to sleep earlier than when I had an apartment. There's not exactly a plethora of things to do once you've set up your tent, so you just go to bed when it gets dark.

-Walking and biking to work and around town for errands is great extra time for training.

-Already, my bills are declining. I'm going to have my only credit card paid off by the end of August. That leaves 2 relatively small student loans. It just gives me incentive to go all winter..or at least until we start the 25 below zero stuff.
I have this dream of being debt free...how that will open up so many options in my life. I'm obsessed with it the idea of it.

-It's hard to "plan" the two things taken most for granted when I had an apartment: food and showers. I figured the shower thing would be easy: show up at the gym every morning, workout, then shower. Nope. It takes about 30 mins to pack up camp, then I've got anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours coming back into town. Often times, that gets me into PI just in time to get to work...and I would feel weird signing into the gym just to shower and leave. Again, planning.

-Lastly, the beard itches. I go through spells where I hate it, and then times where I kind of like it because it fits what I'm doing.

-The amount of people that have supported this mission is amazing. Almost everyone thinks it's a kick ass idea. Special thanks go out to Mel and Penny, as I have crashed in their backyards on numerous occasions on those nights where weather was bad or I had trained until it was too late to go out into the woods.

Don't forget to vote. Only half the followers have voted!
2 days until my assault on as many peaks as I can bag from July 17th to 31.
In planning, the majority might be right in voting on 11-15 peaks, simply because of the lack of mountains in the County.
I'd still like to get more, though!

Have a good day...
krp

Urban Camping

This is what I saw on my way out of town yesterday.

Weather report called for golf ball sized hail and tornadoes.

I chose to leave my tent in the backyard of mels again.

Been super tired lately. Crashed at 8, woke up at 8am.

Night of 7-12-10

Fun night.

Participated in the Ladies Ride, just to spin out my legs after destroying them at Physical Therapy. Went like 11 miles at a slow pace, then headed to Mel's for a BBQ.

The fire was hot and the beers few. Next thing I knew, it was 10:30, and time to bed it right there in her back yard.

Toothpaste again held off the earwigs.

POLLS
Ok, looks like most people think 11-15 peaks will be the top during the last 2 weeks of July. See if I can go 20+ then :)

Also, take a look at some recent video in previous blogs. Let's Re-evaluate.
BEARD OR NO BEARD?

Vote now!

dannananananananananna
TENTMAN

River Wild

Stayed on the Aroostook last night somewhere off Parsons Road. The picture of the amazing sunset you see was right before the rain came. I didn't realize there was a gap between my rain fly and the screen and I got wet. During the night I had two encounters.

Early on, somewhere around midnight, I had something big by my tent, as I could hear it's sniffing and breathing. No tracks this morning that I could find in the softer part of the gravel about 10 feet or so from my tent, so I really don't know what it was. I was a tad nervous for a few minutes. It's all part of the experience though...kind of cool in retrospect.

Beginning about an hour or so after that,I had either muskrats or otters around me all night. I must have set up camp right next to their dwelling, because they kept walking right by and bumping into my tent. Are there even otters in northern maine? That's a question for you wildlife experts, I guess. All I know is that it was some kind of large rodent. They made little whining noises.

Katahdin Trip

Had an awesome time at Katahdin this weekend. Stayed at Foster's Field, just above Katahdin Stream Campground. Hiked to Chimney Pond (shown above), and saw an awesome moose with it's antlers still in velvet. We hiked up the Saddle, and due to the crap weather, had to hike back down the Saddle as well. We had hoped the Knife's Edge would be fine, but conditions at the top weren't that great. Mostly rainy and foggy and windy. At least we hit the summit.
The next day we spent some time exploring the Tote Road and sliding on rocks in a stream, and hiking at Kidney Pond. Excellent trip.

Escape Reality Challenge

Between weather and training, I haven't exactly been getting the wilderness experience I've been striving to achieve during the TentMan Experience.
This could also be blamed on my hectic work schedule.

Pitched at Penny's last night, again. She's been very hospitable these last few days!

I simply don't have time to get out there...yet. My work schedule should be easing up next week.

It's like I'm a caged beast right now.
The more I work, and the more obligations that stack up, the more it makes me want to up the level of craziness when I'm finally free of it all.

These crazy ideas get into my head. Epic thoughts with no limits that take me away from the real world for an extremely long time.

This would be...in my opinion, the best event in the world:

I'll start at the Northern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail, Mt. Katahdin, and run all the way to Atlantic City via appalachian trail, at which point, I get into a drinking contest with the whole cast of Jersey Shore and handily win after 25 shots of vodka in an hour.
Sleep for a few hours, then mount my bike and do the whole Race Across America course backwards, and end up in California.

My bike, which will be absolutely near-junk after biking through 3 different F4 tornadoes in the midwest, and a scary descent on a washed-out road on the continental divide, will be tossed in the garbage and traded for a wetsuit, with which I'll use to swim north up the coast of the Pacific Ocean...all the way into Puget Sound.

Ditching the suit, because of its holes from a battle with a young killer whale, I'll bushwack up to Mt. Rainier, and fashion a hanglider from the frame of my backpack and some tarps.
It'll be a scenic ride as I catch thermals all the way up to the summit of Mt. Mckinley, and a dangerous trek down to the Aleutian Islands via snowshoe and skis. To stay warm, I'll have to wrestle a polarbear and steal it's fur.

This wins much respect from the Inuit, and they give me a homemade canoe, so that I may paddle over to Russia.

The Russians don't appreciate my unannounced landing, so I do 1 year in a gulag, where I complete 5,000 pushups and sit-ups every day. I get extra cycling in because they need someone to pedal the bike hooked up to their electrical turbine for 10 hours a day so that they may have electricity.

Getting my last name mixed with my birthplace, the Russians deport me to Poland, where I am forced to steal a Razor scooter and a backpack from a little kid. I push that thing through Romania and into Greece, stopping at Sparta to pay homage to Leonidas for being The Man, then hurl myself into the Mediteranean and swim to Egypt.

I backpack across the African plains, and hook up with a tribe of persistence hunters. All of their best runners have come up lame, and now they need someone to help run down the largest Kudu in the area. After 60 miles of running at sub-7 minute pace in the 110 degree heat, I hop on the kudus back and break off an antler...using it to stab the animal in the heart. After a massive feast and celebration, I must go. They accompany me to the Altantic coast where I will row to South America.

Pirates try to rob me as I leave the shore, but they are no match for my twin Kudu horn-swords...a prize the tribal group gave me for such a brave kill.
Knowing I'm on the home-stretch, the Atlantic row seems easy, and I guide my boat directly into the end of the Amazon. I ditch my boat and I'm forced to swim against the current, all the way to the source. Pirahnas take nibbles and one toe, but no major school attacks.

I orienteer myself from the source of the Amazon all the way to the Yucatan Peninsula, where I don some scuba gear and swim, underwater, into the Gulf Of Mexico.

Oil plumes cloud my navigation, so I swim, against their current, all the way to the gushing hole of BP.
By wearing some rubber gloves, tying 23 electric eels together, and using some iron ore from the sea floor, I'm able to weld the hole shut easily in less than an hour.

As I come to the surface, I'm greeted by a fishing boat. Because I've saved their industry, they are more than willing to give me a ride to Key West, where I find Jimmy Buffett. He declares my event over, I eat a Cheeseburger In Paradise, and then spend the rest of the year sitting on the beach drinking Margaritas.

*blink* oh, time to go to work.
Maybe next year....

Colgate Fresh

Well.

I looked at it long enough.

I decided to take out my new bike on its maiden voyage last night.
It is fast.

The bad side to the whole thing, is that because of this, I left my tent set up at Penny's for the second day in a row...which...you guessed it.
My arch-rival, the Aroostook Earwig, had again infiltrated my fortress.

Spent the next hour exterminating and removing...then shut my light off.

An hour later, I turned my light on, and found 6 more.
Where the hell were they getting in?

Upon closer inspection, I realized that there's a small gap where the two zippers meet, and my tent is a 2 door. 2 holes for those little beasts to come in.
I took toothpaste and plugged the holes, and that seemed to do the trick!

The toothpaste would make a later appearance though, in an unexpected place.
Someone behind me in the DD line this morning told me that I had something on the back of my head.
It wasn't just something, it was a big ass gob of toothpaste.
How did it get there? I'll never know...but at least I'm Colgate Fresh!

Ah, the joys of tenting.

Pitchin at Pee Pee's

Not gonna lie, too much sun and too much booze on the 4th left me feeling less than energetic. Did a two hour bike ride on the ATV trails, hoping that would snap me out of my stupor, but no.
No motivation to go anywhere major.

With thunderstorms threatening, I opted to pitch a tent at Penny's.
We sat on the back porch, eating strawberry shortcake and conversing about life in general.

When dark fell, I crawled into my tent and hoped for a T-Storm to break the crazy humidity. No luck.

The good news: on my bike ride yesterday I found a river island. Hopefully going to hit that up tonight.

Ode To Turner, bub

Spent the last few nights in Turner, visiting family, and pounding down too much Yuengling.
For those not privy to the wonderful brew, get thee to New York or PA and try some. It's not sold in New England. My parents were able to find some, though.
To quote Beerfest,"It's so good, I want to freeze it, then ice skate on it, and then thaw it and drink it in the springtime!"

You know, it's funny. I've been tenting now for a week or so, and hadn't seen any wildlife, except for a lot of bugs....until I went to Turner.
Woke up this morning around 3:30, walked into the house to get a drink, looked down at my tent, and my headlight shone on a coyote right in front of my tent. Crazy. It had been less than a minute ago that I exited my tent. I wonder- if I had turned around on the short walk up to the house..would it have been right behind me??

I always joke about my hometown, because for such a small town, it seems to find it's way into the news an awful lot.
There's murder. There are mythical beasts. There's motorcycle gang violence.
There's even a Turner Triangle.

I figured I would share a few links to get you up to speed on my old stomping grounds...

For evil beasts: click here. and here

For motorcycle gangs: click here

For Sasquatch and the Turner Triangle(highly recommended lol): click here

For murder: click here

Turner is great, with it's rolling hills, awesome roads(except for 219 into Leeds), infinite lakes, and endless snowmobile trails. It really is a training mecca...and growing up there is how I turned out to the way I did. Always a great visit.

Good Times. Thanks for reading.
krp

Squapan Mtn Area.

Don't laugh. This is my first video blog.

I had hoped to get to either Squapan Mtn or the east side of the lake via snowmobile trails....but I flat out ran out of daylight. I still found a really great spot with pretty level ground, next to a nice bridge and stream. Unfortunately the camera didn't do it all justice.

Anyways. Enjoy your weekend. I think I'm doing a major ride today into tonight and ending up downstate.
P.S.- there were no drunk rednecks or earwigs....

Dunananananananaananananana
TENTMAN

Learnin' and Wiggin' Out

Location: Friend's backyard

Weather: Breezy, overcast

Temperature: 45-55 degrees

Hours of sleep: 7

Well, I'm learning a thing or two about preparation while homeless.

Number 1: Don't stay in the same place for a duration of time longer than a night. Why? It becomes not only a "temporary" home for you, but for other creatures. See Number 2.

Number 2: Don't leave your tent in the same spot for a long period of time with the zipper partly open. I had to go on a pest removal-fest last night before bed. Earwigs had gotten all through my tent. I took out 15, at least. I can handle flies. I can deal with mosquitoes. I cannot deal with these little ant/scorpion mongoloids. Gross.
I woke up a couple times in the night and turned my headlight on to be sure there were none that had found their way back in my tent, or worse, my sleeping bag.

Also, the rain for the last 3 or 4 days has killed my efforts to get out and see the wilderness. I am unwilling to pack up all of my stuff soaking wet, let it sit in Mojo for the day(still wet), then set it up and be wet for the next night.

It's been in the 40s and I'm not interested in hypothermia. The good news is that there is great weather now, and for tonight. Time to get Into The Wild .

Speaking of wild, check out this video. I posted it on Facebook yesterday, but I have some followers who aren't on FB. We had a gopher just walk into the shop! Check out our follies as we attempt to rid the store of the varmint!

Happy Trails, krp

Good Times

Location: Friend's backyard

Weather: Breezy, overcast

Temperature: 45-55 degrees

Hours of sleep: 8.5

Good Times last night. Literally.

Did the Mojo Good Times ride with Mark, Brent, Kyle, and Carey.
Enjoyed some roads I've never seen before around Mapleton. Awesome.

After, we went to the pub. I got carded, and didn't have my license. So I:
Run to mojo. Find my license. Run back to pub.
Everyone gets Smithwicks but me. They all kick the keg while I'm gone, now there's no more.
I settle for Bud Light.
Waitress brings over nachos and proceeds to dump salsa on me. Cool.

So, another night in Presque Isle. I'm going to wait on an epiphany to see where I stay tonight. Somewhere cool. Stay tuned.

Happy July

Day 2

Location: Friend's backyard
Weather: Rain and Thunderstorms- WINDY
Temperature: 45-55 degrees
Hours of sleep: 8.5

NOTES
Nothing exciting here.
I had a ton of stuff to do with cleaning out my apartment and moving a few last minute things...which led me until almost dark.

Hammered to Mel's from the bike shop(which has become my "base station" of sorts") to beat the rain and setup.

Burgers and a Sam Adams. Yum

Faux Islands

Night 1 was awesome.
Thanks, everyone, for voting on my first evening out. It really was everything I hoped it would be, and it now fuels my excitement for tonight. I am so stoked to be doing this....waking up every day, knowing I have another adventure in waiting within the next 12 hours.

Sooo....last night. With less-than-stellar memories of my last tent experience in the rain, hail, snow, and thunderstorms 6 weeks ago in VT, I set out. I overpacked my Osprey with waaay more clothing than I needed and hopped on the bike. It would be a rainy, wet, 15-ish mile ride to the island I hoped to stay on.

Had a sweet tailwind all the way into Washburn, where I took a left on Gardner Creek Road. It started as pavement, but quickly turned to dirt and mud.
Although terrible for my bike, I have to admit... riding a dirt road on a road bike is probably one of my favorite things in the world. Bad part is, by the time I arrived at the "island", I was covered head to toe in light brown mud. I used one of my many pieces of extra clothing to towel off the caked up mess on my legs.
I put "island" in quotation marks, because as I stepped foot on it, I realized that it was just a lot of rocks with tall grass growing on it. The river still ran through it. Since it was impossible to camp on, I set up on the first good spot by the road that I could see. Daylight was done, and I wanted to get established.

A couple of sketchy vehicles went by around 11, which I didn't expect. This road was really rough, and ended only a half mile away. What were they doing out here? The first car stopped 20 yards past my tent for about 10 minutes. Thinking of the recent Amity murders(killer still on the loose), I watched, waiting for them to exit their vehicles in a rampage with their axes and hack me to death. Luckily, there was no encounter, but I did know this: they had to come back through sometime! I didn't really sleep until both cars came back through around 11:30 or so...After that, I zonked out HARD.

Woke up at 5am, packed up, and was on the road 45 minutes later.

I took my time coming back into Presque Isle...stopping at the Washburn Foodmart for some Nutrigrain bars and some coffee, and stopping to take some pictures of the amazing display of Lupines out on Parsons Road. Unfortunately, the light was very low, and the camera couldn't quite capture it the way I hoped.

Thanks again, for voting. You gave me an awesome experience!
Tonight, I'll be hiking/running somewhere....not staying on the side of a road, waiting to get killed.

Have a great day!
krp

The Sad Part

The sad part....
Isn't that I'm leaving my little hole in the wall after 8 months there- it's that packed, my apartment doesn't look much different than it did not packed.

I move all my junk to storage monday morning, and then I am officially homeless.
Perfecto.
"And the road becomes my bride". Thank you, Metallica.

Oh, I have decided to up the ante on this little experience. What true mountain man vagabond has a vehicle? Get rid of that.
It's in Turner, awaiting sale. Money in the bank.

Also, the beard won! I said polls would close on the 30th, but it was a landslide in favor of, and I wanted to start emphasizing the new poll.
Don't forget to get your vote in on the side bar for my first night out...We're only a couple of days away now, so I need to know whether I'm staying by a field, on a mountain, a river island, or by a lake!


Have a good weekend!
krp

FAQ

Since revealing my summer plans, I'm not surprised to learn that there are a number of different reactions.

There are people that:
Love the idea.
Hate the idea.
Think I won't go through with it.
Want to do it themselves someday.

All of these reactions, however, yield the same questions.
In no specific order, here they are, with my best attempt at answering.

When does this madness begin?
Sometime before July 1. It depends on my condition post-race this weekend.

Where will you stay?
I've been overwhelmed by the amount of people who have offered up their lawns, backyards, and even extra rooms during inclement weather. While this option might be appealing, I will make my best attempt at keeping it a wilderness experience. I also plan on "stealth camping" once in a while.

What?! You aren't gonna shower?!
You forgot I am a triathlete. This means going to the pool and gym. It has showers. I'm not going to be that gross. My hope is that you won't even notice a difference in my appearance, except maybe a little more tan...oh, and maybe the beard, if it wins. Polls close June 30! Get your vote in on the sidebar!

Aren't you worried about wildlife?
Look, the only beast out there is me. Just kidding. I will be taking the necessary precautions of avoiding bears. There are lots of them up here. I'm going to do my best to avoid bringing any food at all to where I settle down for the night. I'm not worried about wildlife. I'm excited at the opportunity to see a ton of it.

Those are the most frequently asked questions.
This blog is going to be really cool, not gonna lie.
It'll be slightly interactive, with some multimedia facets. There will be some video blogging, pictures, and brief daily updates. There won't be any large reports, unless I go on an epic trip, which I do plan on doing here and there.
I envision this as something you might read while drinking your coffee in the morning.
So brew it up, cue it up, and get your dose of the outdoors, TentMan style!

Thanks for following!!
krp

PS: don't forget to vote on the sidebar! Keep it real, or keep it shaved???