Date: 2004-09-08
From: Pierce Pond Lean-to

To: Pleasant Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 9.7
Weather: light rain

Kennebec RiverMileage Countdown: -145.5Today was a short, self indulgent day. I walked less than 10 mi, and had two 'town' meals.The first town meal was at Harrison Camps, just .3 mi after leaving the shelter. It waa a real hiker breakfast: juice, coffee, 12 (yes, a full dozen) fruit pancakes, 2 eggs and sausage. The apples in the pancakes helped make them fluffy, and the blueberries and raspberries made them really tasty. I was surprised how easily it all went down.From breakfast it was a 4 mi hike to the main event of the day - crossing the Kennebec River. The Kennebec is about 70 yds wide at the point the Trail crosses it. It is normally a couple feet deep and gently flowing, so is tempting to ford. But there is a hydro-electric dam upstream and the flow is determined by the demand of the power grid. (This actually doesn't make sense to me. I worked at a job in the late 70s where I had to know something about satisfying electric power demand. The most economic way to do it is to have your base demand supplied by a high-capital/low operating-cost source, like hydro-electric. To do that you would let the amount of available water determine the rate of generation. There must be other, probably political, considerations.)In any case, when the demands of the power grid indicate that hydro should be turned on, the gates are flung open, so to speak, and a surge of water flows downstream. At the point where the AT crosses the Kennebec, the water level can rise by 2' to 4' in less time than it takes to ford the river, and the current increases from gentle to swift. There was a thru-hiker death from this cause a couple of decades ago, and since that time the official AT crossing of the Kennebec is by canoe, supplied and operated by the MATC. The hours of operation are limited, but even after eating the huge breakfast I was able to get there within the morning window. The crossing went off without incident, not even a minor rise in the level of the water.The quarter mile walk from the Kennebec to US 201 was sadly nostalgic. The last trip my wife and I took together was to Quebec City between her two courses of chemotherapy. We returned home to MA via US 201, and stopped in Caratunk to walk over to the Kennebec to watch the canoe in operation. Walking over that same ground today brought up many memories.After crossing 201 I detoured a bit to visit the Caratunk House. It is run by Paul Fuller, an avid hiker, and seems to be the only commercial activity in the very small town of Caratunk. Paul puts up hikers, but the Cararunk House is best known for its cheeseburgers and milkshakes. And deservedly so - both were delicious. Sadly, Paul told me that this will be the last year of operation. He will be closing for good in a few weeks and going off to spend more time hiking.With heavy rains in the forecast for later today, I decided to retire early when I got to this shelter, since the next one is nine miles down the trail, and I'd rather not spend a night in my tent in a downpour if I have another alternative. Either way, stopping early or going on, I would be getting to Monson on Friday and taking a zero on Saturday. Then depending on what I do through the 100 Mile Wilderness, I would expect to summit Katahdin sometime between Sun, 9/19, and Tue, 9/21.Congratulations to my oldest nephew, Lee, on his 50th birthday!I'm here tonight with Slowman.