Day 149 Long Pond Stream Lean-to to West Branch Pleasant River

Today's miles 15.2.  AT miles 2101.1

The one thing you don't want to do is get sick in the 100 mile wilderness because you are in the middle of nowhere with no help - so what do I do, get sick.  I started feeling ill during the night last night, feeling very nauseous.  By morning I felt no better, still nauseous and had totally lost my appetite. We were awake early planning an early start but I ended up taking some aspirin and having an extra hours sleep hoping for some improvement.  I felt slightly better the aspirin settling my stomach but had no choice we had to carry on hiking.  So feeling rough all day we made our way over The Barrens, a small range of mountains.   We think it must be a reoccurrence of the sickness bug I had in Rangeley and that I've picked up some parasitic 'alien' along the trail somewhere.

We left camp just before 8am.  First up to Barren Ledges which had great views and then continued up to Barren Mountain where there was an old fire tower.  It was then down and up quite a a few times, on some steep rocky ascents and descents in places, through Fourth Mountain Bog where there were conveniently placed stepping stones and boardwalks then over Fourth Mountain, Mount Three and a Half, Third Mountain, Columbus Mountain and Chairback Mountain. We had views from the tops of the White Cap Mountain range where we'll be heading over tomorrow.  

We finally descended down to West Branch Pleasant River where there was a lovely little camp site, arriving about 6:15.  All I wanted to do was crawl into bed, I still felt nauseous, had no appetite and was feeling no better.  I had not eaten much all day so Nigel did manage to force a few noodles and tuna down me.

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.

Day 147 Moxie Bald Mountain Lean-to to ME15, Monson

Today's miles 17.9.  AT miles 2079.8

A damp day today and not just the weather.  It was an overcast damp day with a few rain showers, still warm though.  We also had three rivers to ford.  We were walking for 6:50, we had a long way to go to get to Monson and didn't want to arrive there too late in the day.  Three miles in we reached our first river ford of the day across Bald Mountain Stream.  A pretty easy ford just below knee level.   The trail continued for nine miles supposedly on a gradual flat descent according to our guide book profile but it had lots of little ups and downs and ran parallel to the Piscataquis River.  We forded the Piscataquis River twice, normally knee deep it was up to my mid thigh today after yesterdays rain.  There were ropes tied across the rivers to hold on to to aid crossing, they were pretty easy crossings.  Our boots were swopped for our Crocs for each crossing.

The trail was very wet and muddy in places with the rain making the rocks and tree roots very slippy.  Towards the end of the day we had a couple of small uphills before dropping down to the ME15 road to Monsoon at 3pm.  The trail came out on a dangerous double central yellow lined bend, not a safe place to hitch so we walked down the road a bit away from the bend to find a better hitching spot.  As we were walking someone pulled up and offered us a ride in the back of there truck, we were very lucky.  They dropped us off right outside Lakeshore House where we had a room booked.

We checked in showered, laundered and got our food supplies for the next six days.  That was our last food resupply! We are very close to the end now, only seven days to go, six through the One Hundred Mile Wilderness and then summit Mount Katahdin, the end of the trail, if everything goes to plan.  We checked the weather and its looking pretty good and dry for the next week thankfully, hopefully the ground will dry out a bit again too.   We had dinner in the bar at Lakeshore, very nice home cooked food again. 

Day 146 Harrison's Pierce Pond Camps to Moxie Bald Mountain Lean-to

Today's miles 22.4.  AT miles 2052.9

7am we were served our 12 pancake breakfast plus eggs and sausages by Tim, they were delicious.  Blueberry, raspberry and apple pancakes, we managed to eat them all, they weren't too big.  Another sunny morning, we left the camp at 7:45 and walked just over three miles to the Kennebec River to catch the morning ferry service.  The ferry crossing is the official AT route, the canoe even had a white blaze painted in it.  Dave the ferryman does a great job ferrying hikers two at a time across the river. Nigel helped with the paddling, I got my easiest two minutes on the AT sat in the middle enjoying the ride!

From the river we had a long steady six mile gradual uphill to Pleasant Pond and then a 1000ft mountain climb up to Pleasant Pond mountain, the first of two smaller mountains we had to climb today.  The descent was a bit up and downy along a ridgeline, Nigel always jokes that the AT designers manual states that all downhill must have some uphill!

Once down we had our first river ford across Moxie Pond, we'd managed to get away with fording and rick hopping instead up to now.  It was an easy ford though, we changed into our Crocs to get across.  Another three miles and we reached Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to.  We had originally planned on stopping here but decided to continue another four miles to make tomorrow a slightly easier day into Monsoon.  The last four miles were up and over Moxie Bald Mountain.  It started to rain not long after we started climbing up and continued raining until we got down to the shelter, Moxie Bald Mountain Lean-to just before 7pm.  The rain eventually stopped but then we did get another heavy shower during the night.  We slept in the shelter because it was wet, well Nigel did, I didn't sleep well at all, too many bugs and mice and another guy snoring.  I hate sleeping in the shelters, I'm much happier in our tent.

Day 145 Little Bigelow Lean-to to Harrison's Pierce Pond Camp

Today's miles 18.1.  AT miles 2030.5

What a contrasting day to the last few days.   No more big steep mountain climbs, just a nice steady trail over levelish terrain. It was warm and sunny again, the ground a little damp after last nights rain showers.  We left camp at eight on a steady downhill then level path.  After two and a half miles we reached East Flagstaff Lake camp spot where we had thought of continuing to last night.  It was a lovely site next to the lake, much prettier though this morning than it would have been in the rain last night.  A bit further and we crossed Long Falls Dam Road which had 'Mile 2000 congrats' painted on it.  It must have been painted a few years ago because we passed the 2000 mile mark yesterday, due to trail changes that road is now @ mile 2016.6.

There were a couple of small hills to go over today, the rest of the trail was quite level.  Some parts of the trail were reminiscent of Pennsylvania with lots of rocks and tree roots but these were small sections, most of the trail today was pretty good, even some nice flat sections.  We were able to walk normally and get a steady stride going for a change, our pace increasing back to 2.5 even 3 mph in parts. 

Half way through the morning we stopped at West Carry Pond, sat on some rocks at the lake edge and had a break.  Another four miles later, we reached East Carry Pond and came across a lovely little beach area at the side of the lake.  We stopped there for another half hours break having a refreshing paddle in the water.  We weren't quite brave enough to go fully in for a swim although the water was fairly warm.  The trail continued alongside the lake and then over some boardwalks then back into forest.  Five miles further we past Pierce Pond Lean-to and carried on just past there to Harrison's Pierce Pond Camps.  A great place just off the trail over some rickety bridges and boardwalks with basic log cabins to stay in and shower facilities. Our cabin is in a lovely spot overlooking the river with a rocking chair on the porch.  Its so nice to have a real seat to sit in at the end of the day.  Tim the owner was very welcoming and friendly, he's been running the place for 29 years.  We're looking forward to breakfast, Tim serves up a 12 pancake breakfast!