Maine ain't no joke, brah

I'm finally in Maine!

It's the 10th state I've hiked through on this journey. The other four - Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia - wait for me in the future.

The past several days of hiking have turned my legs into beaten sticks. It's like every day is another Lemon Squeezer day. It's not just me: This hostel, the Pine Ellis hikers hostel in Andover, ME, is full of hikers washed out of the mountains by today's rain.

In fact, today's 8-mile hike taught me to respect the whims of a powerful Mother Nature.

I had the unpleasant sensation last night of waking up to a mouse scurrying all over my sleeping bag. When I shook it off and looked up, I could see, and feel, a windy rain blowing all around the Baldpate lean-to. It was 1 a.m. When I got up at 6-something it was still raining.

I whiled away the early morning reading the book I just picked up, Jack London's "The Sea Wolf," and the three other hikers in the shelter, whom I'd only met the night before, did much the same. They were content to wait out the rain. That wasn't an option for me, because I had no food other than peanut butter. So I hiked out at 9:40 a.m. in my pants and rain jacket and soon summited Baldpate Mountain, elevation 3,810 ft., in a hard, chilly wind whipped up by Hurricane Bill [actually, it was Tropical Storm Danny].

No trees grow on the summit of the aptly-named Baldpate: It's all rock and alpine plants. I'd look up every few steps and peel back the hood of my rain jacket to see where the next cairn was, then put my head down and work my shoes into the rock in an effort to head in the cairn's direction.

It was the first time of my trip that I actually worried about getting stranded. So I did what any movie fan would do: I challenged the mountain to a duel, Gandalf-style: "You can't beat me!" I shouted at the wind.

So that was my day. Oh, and when I hitched a ride into Andover four miles later, the driver gave me a Budweiser "Clamato" a can of Bud flavored with clam juice, tomato, lime and salt.

Only in Maine!