Date: 2015-08-10
From: Orberon Stream

To: Crocker Cirque Campsite
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Had a decent nights sleep. Still pretty tired when I woke up. We left camp a little after 7. We had another up hill climb first thing. It seems that lately were climbing something huge first thing in the morning. But actually, the climb didn't turn out too bad. We took a break at the top. Wall-E came up behind and stopped by for a chat.I was on the lookout for southbounders today. A friend of Sunny's, Michelle, knew someone on the trail hiking SoBo. His name is Kick It. And as we were having our break he walked by! I asked if that was his name and he asked if I was Thistle. Lol. We took a pic together. He actually contracted Lyme in VA this year while doing a section hike. It ended causing a lot of damage and he almost died. But he came back out to do the trail. After that mighty mouse and I hiked on. We stopped for a quick privy break a few miles later at a shelter. As we were leaving guess who we saw hiking southbound. Fireman! He yelled my name, I yelled his! Completely unexpected to run into him again. He took a week off, that's the only reason we caught up. Now he's doing some slack packing. It was great to see him! I didn't think that we would see him again. Funny how people just show up in random spots on the trail. Onward we hiked. A few miles later we got to the trail crossing for the summit of Sugarloaf. We met a woman hiking with her baby in a backpack. Happy baby. We asked her about the decent. We heard it was pretty bad. She said there were a few tricky spots but not bad. Plus she did it with a baby on her back how bad could it be...oh how wrong we were.We went a bit further on and had lunch at a spring. The lady with the baby continued on down. Wall-e passed us as well as another hiker named Wilson. I actually met him in GA one day and haven't seen him since. We chatted for a bit. Pretty cool! After lunch we started down. It wasn't too bad. And then it was bad. I have no idea how that woman did this with a baby on her back. Good grief, she is a bad ass! I couldn't imagine doing that. We made it down, it wasn't the worst down hill we had to do. But it was challenging. Next we had to cross another big river. It had a plywood board between two rocks. Super sketchy. But we did it and we didn't die or fall. Then a few rock hops and we were over. After that it was another mile, uphill of course, to the campsite. We got there about 330 I think. Kinda early but It was another 7 miles to the road and I wasn't sure about stealth sites between here and there. The next climbs are suppose to be tough. Plus I kinda like doing short miles and relaxing for a while. After we set up our tents and did some chores mighty mouse realized her phone was at the place we had lunch. Shit. I called her phone a few times and someone picked up! He was kind enough to take the phone to the hostel we are going to tomorrow. He was just out for a day hike. The trail teaches you that there are good people still in the world. Proven yet again.Now just relaxing in my tent for the night. Which I love to do! Nero ing into Stratton, ME tomorrow. Resupply and then headed on to Monson! Not too much longer!!