Date: 2015-09-10
From: Logan Pond Rd

To: Jo-Mary Rd. 2133.2 miles
Miles today: 14.0

Thursday, September 10th   Today's hike was one of the easiest in a long time. The hike started off with what was supposed to be a ford of the Pleasant River and I had brought my water shoes just for this. As it turns out the water level was low and 3D and I were able to rock jump across. After this, we climbed 750 feet up and over Little Boardman Mountain. This was the only strenuous part of the day's hike. We had almost 6 miles of smooth almost flat trail after this. Much of this was through dark pine forest where the entire ground cover was only moss. (See the photo) As we passed one of the shelters we saw many of the thru hikers in our bubble. All were asking the same question, "When do you think you will climb Katahdin?" This completion of our hike is on everyone's mind. I would like to add one thing that I noticed today; the leaves are starting to change in Maine and summer is definitely drawing to a close. It is time for this adventure to end. The Sherpa had breakfast and chatted with, Jeff, the owner of the Inn and then packed up and headed to Bangor and Studio One, 80 miles from Moosehead Lake. This is the place to go when your hair needs a good cut. Back in the car and now to Millinocket, 80 miles north. Millinocket is a paper mill town but about 10 years ago the large mill shutdown and 5,000 people lost their jobs. The mill was the number one employer in this area and almost everyone worked at the mill. The town went into a depression and this past December the last mill in town, a small mill, shutdown and 200 people lost their jobs. Now the town is in real trouble. Houses are abandoned all over this area, shops shuttered their doors and very few young people live here anymore. It's virtually impossible to sell a house and there's almost no business except for hiker business. The fellow who owns the shuttle service, that the Iceman uses, is only busy 5 months of the year. He leaves Millinocket and travels the rest of the year with his wife. There's talk of the federal government taking over Baxter State Park, this is where Katahdin Mountain is, and soon they'll be a vote on whether or not the local population wants that to happen. Some say their business' will suffer. They say the feds will build and operate competing lodging facilities and restaurants in the park. They believe this is more bad news. Other locals think it will save Millinocket and the area and bring in jobs. Time will tell. In the meantime, municipalities like Hartford, CT bought up many of the abandoned houses and sent their welfare recipients to live in the houses. Unfortunately, for Millinocket, municipalities are tax exempt and therefore they don't pay property taxes to Millinocket but the people living in the homes need services, like health, schools, etc. Last night at the town meeting two of the board members quit. They don't see any solutions to the mounting problems. Before the mills closed the population earned the highest per capita income in Maine and now they are at the lowest.   Dinner was with 3D at the River Drivers, 8 miles from Millinocket. Almost 100% of the veggies come from their garden and they cook and bake everyday, including bread. Haddock was once again on the menu, stuffed with crab meat or fried with chips. All of the courses were delicious, that's why Tripadvisor considers this the number one restaurant in the area. It's even open in the winter for the snowmobilers. From our table we could see Mt. Katahdin with a rose colored sky behind it as the sun was setting.