Day 148 ME15, Monson to Long Pond Stream Lean-to

Today's miles 15.3.  AT miles 2085.9

Back to sunny spells today after a couple of wet days thankfully and its forecast to stay that way for the next week which us good news for us.  We had breakfast at Pete's Place a great cafe next door to Lakeshore Inn and then Tim, Lakeshore's caretaker, gave us a shuttle ride back to the trailhead at 8am, we were hiking for 8:15.   We entered the '100 Mile Wilderness' today passing the warning sign about this section.  Basically it's the longest and most remote section of the AT trail because it doesn't pass by or nearby any towns so we have to make sure we have enough food supplies to last the 100 miles.  The sign advises ten days food, we have six.

The trail today wasn't too bad, a few small ups and downs over rocky ledges.  It was a bit damp to start with, rocks and tree roots slippy as usual when wet but it started drying out a bit once the sun came out.  We had another three rivers to ford again today, Little Wilson Stream, Big Wilson Stream and Long Pond Stream.  All fairly easy again the second two rivers having rope assistance again.  Big Wilson stream was the deepest yet, water reaching the top of my thigh, not quite our packs though, luckily they stayed dry. It takes up a fair bit of time river fording, by the time we've changed into Crocs, forded and changed back to boots again a good twenty minutes has passed.  The river crossings were busy places today, we saw a few other southbounders crossing too.  We took the trail quite slow and steady today, our packs were much heavier carrying six days of food!

We bumped into Anna 'Birdy' Ball today, another hiker we'd befriended on Facebook before we started so it was great to actually meet her.   She started in April and hiked north as far as Daleville but has now 'flip flopped' and is going south back to Daleville to complete the trail.

We arrived at our shelter site for the night, Long Pond Stream Shelter at 6:15 and set up tent.  At the shelter we met another Facebook 'hiker friend', Miss America, who had also 'flip flopped' so it was good to meet her too.