Day 150 West Branch Pleasant River to Logan Brook Lean-to

Today's miles 12.8.  AT miles 2113.9

Another day still feeling unwell but we had to continue, I managed to eat a bit of porridge/oatmeal.  We left camp at 7:15 and after a few hundred yards were straight into a river ford, we had to cross the wide, but low thankfully, West Branch of Pleasant River that we'd been camped near.  By the time we'd removed boots, put on Crocs, forded the river, which was no more than knee deep, then dried our feet and put boots back on again and started hiking it was nearly 7:45. Not long after we passed a junction for the Gulf Hagas Trail, an optional 5.2 mile loop trail that features narrow deep gorges and lots of waterfalls, we didn't take it, instead we continued steadily uphill to the Carl A Newhall Lean-to where we stopped for a break. 

Nigel got our stove out and made me a cup of tea, all I wanted to do was drink.  I wasn't hungry but forced myself to eat a snack knowing I needed the energy as I'd eaten hardly anything the day before.  Eating just made matters worse and gave me bad stomach cramps.  After resting about 45 minutes or so we had to continue. So Nigel carried extra weight taking some of the heavier items out of my backpack and slowly we made our way up and over four mountain peaks, Gulf Hagas Mountain, West Peak, Hay Mountain and White Cap Mountain, stopping regularly for a break at each summit.  From the north side of White Cap Mountain we saw our first view of Mount Katahdin where the AT trail ends, albeit very faint in the hazy cloud.  

It was a really nice well maintained trail today over these mountains with lots of stone steps unlike yesterdays rough rocky trail over The Barrens, shame I wasn't feeling well.  These were also the last big Mountains of the trail until we reach Mount Katahdin, we were on easier flatter ground after today.

We descended down to Logan Brook Lean-to where we called it a day arriving about 5:15.  We had originally planned on going to the next shelter 3.6 miles further on.  I was feeling slightly better but still had no appetite so decided after the earlier stomach cramps it best to starve myself overnight, have a good nights sleep and hopefully feel a bit better and feel like eating in the morning.