Days 92, 93, and 94

Day 92, July 4, Zero day at Shaw’s Hiker Hostel

Hiked today 0 total hiked 1413

Shaw’s has a great breakfast!  Bacon, 3 eggs, homefried potatoes and blueberry pancakes.  It was delicious.  I spent the day being lazy, working on some of my logistics, and trying to catch up on sleep.  I failed to catch up on sleep.

The hostel had a July Fourth cookout this evening.  It was really fun and they supplied lots of delicious free food.  Hotdogs, hamburgers, coleslaw, mac and cheese, chips, soda, beer, watermelon, desserts, and more.  It was a great celebration of our country’s birthday!

I went to bed over full and once again barely slept all night.  I’m seriously worried about sleep deprivation.

Day 93, July 5, ME Route 15 to Bald (AKA Moxie) Mountain Pond Lean-to

Hiked today 17.9 total hiked  1431

After a delicious breakfast at Shaws,  a group of 9 of us were dropped at the ME Route 15 trailhead.  I was the only one in the group headed south.  Poet, the owner of Shaw’s recited a haiku that he created for the occasion, kind of epic!  I was on the trail at 8:30 AM

My first view of the day about 2 1/2 miles into the hike.  So far no threat of rain even though thunderstorms are supposed to come this afternoon.

My first ford of the day, I crossed below the dam made of branches. I was worried about getting leeches from the stagnant water upstream of the dam.

I didn’t bother changing shoes.

This is ford number two for the day. It’s not very wide, but it’s moving pretty good and there’s no way to use stepping stones for this one.

And this is actually the second half of ford number two . There was just a tiny spit of land between the two fords.

Stream crossing number three today. I could try rock hopping this one, but I learned my lesson. It’s not worth it. My feet will get wet regardless.

Once again Maine presented rooty rocky muddy terrain for a lot of the hike.  But it wasn’t as bad as some of the previous days, and the hike was comparatively level.  I arrived at Bald Mountain Pond Lean-to around 6 PM.  The rain, predicted for the afternoon, held off until after 8 and I was already in my tent for the night.

Day 94, July 6, Bald Mountain Pond Lean-to to Caratunk ME (Sterling Inn hostel)

Hiked today 18.7 today’s ascent 3700 total hiked 1455

Today I got on the trail just a little after seven but I had to stop for water and to adjust my pack several times so I really didn’t get hiking until almost 7:30 AM.

Once again, it’s a dreary, wet morning with lots of fog. But the rain is very light and intermittent.

The first part of the hike today is up Moxie bald. There should be great views there but everything socked in with fog and cloud. Here’s a picture from the way up.

This is the trail near the top of Moxie Bald today.

Since there’s no view at the top today, you’ll have to settle for my smiling face in front of the summit plaque.

The day is looking better, I’m finally out of the fog and cloud and actually have a view at the top of Middle Mountain.

Finally, some great views today I’m on the north eastern side of Pleasant Pond Mountain and the views are spectacular. The first picture is to the north east. The second picture is pretty much straight east.

This is another view from Pleasant Pond Mountain, this time looking west.

I arrived at Caratunk around 5:30.  The Sterling Inn shuttle picked me up within a few minutes.  They put in a frozen pizza for me while I got cleaned up.  After my pizza dinner I took advantage of their excellent resupply to buy dessert and resupply for another few days on the trail.