Date: 2013-08-27
From: ME, 15 Monson , ME

To: Wilson Valley Lean-to
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Start ME 15, Monson, ME, mile 2071.5Stop Wilson Valley Lean-to, mile 2081.8Sleep lean-to (no flat tent sites!)Cell goodHiked 10.3 miles Northbound 104.1 miles remaining129.4 miles hikes 2013 ATOld Goat's notes:We had a nice zero day in Monson, it was especially nice having the car. We drove to Greenville on Moosehead Lake. We did some window shopping and had lunch before heading back to Monson. Today we started with the famous Shaw's breakfast. They will serve you all you can eat of pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, and hash browns. The luxury of the breakfast caused us to have a 9:15am start. We have officially entered The Hundred Mile Wilderness, we were greeted by a sign warning us to have enough food for 10 days because there are no resupply out here. The hiking went well the earlier part of the day and then we started to slow down. Once we realized how slow we were going we stopped for lunch. The lunch gave us more energy to keep going but the terrain had other plans for us. We went up and down no name bumps that made us climb and descend all afternoon. We had to see The Little Wilson Waterfall, I think the water falls 100 feet into a very narrow valley. We hiked along the edge of the valley as we descended to the floor of the valley and then we crossed the creek. We were able to rock hop it this time which saves us the time of taking off and putting on our shoes if the water was high. At one point this afternoon we hiked up a stone ridge on what I would call a mountain. We were exposed to the sun the whole climb so it was hot. The sun was both a blessing and a curse, the curse was how hot it was, the blessing was the rocks were dry and our shoes had good grip on them. A major accomplishment of this hike was fording The Big Wilson Stream. In 2006 this stream was a very difficult ford. I took a video of a fellow having a difficult time crossing this stream. Check 6 saw that video and it has had her anxious about fording it. The water was a lot lower and the currant tamer, she had no problem fording it today. This was the only difficult ford I had in 2006 so we should have smooth sailing from here. After the ford we had a steep .3mile climb to reach a railroad track. A train runs through here from Maine to Canada, go figure, how can this be a wilderness? The remaining .4 miles ran parallel the tracks just inside the tree line and was fairly flat. We arrived here about 4:50pm with plenty of daylight to get our camp chores done and eat dinner. Only 104.1 miles to completion of this multiyear hike. Check 6's notes:I noticed something today...I still breathe very heavily when we're going uphill (notice I didn't say gasp for breath this time!), but when the terrain levels off or goes down, my breathing quickly calms down. I no longer have to pant for a long time to be able to breathe normally again. It feels so good!!Another thing I noticed two days ago is that my core muscles are much more toned because I'm much steadier when we have to traverse a lot of rocks. I'm still not completely steady because of the balance issues, but with my core muscles more toned I'm steadier. That feels good, too!It was exciting to know we're in the 100 mile wilderness now, but anticlimactic once we kept hiking because there's no difference to the hiking. It's still tough. I really can't expect it to be different...wood are woods! Old Goat tells me the last 40 miles are much nicer. I'm looking forward to that!