Date: 2017-08-09
From: Pierce Pond Lean-to

To: Moxie Bald Lean-to
Miles today: 22.8
Weather: clear sky

I woke up at 6 and got up and started packing. AWOL and the sign on the shelter both said that Harrison served breakfast at 7am sharp, and I didn't intend to be late. I got everything packed up and thrown into my bag (I was still wearing camp clothes and so would need to reorganize later anyways) and headed over to the hunting camp. There, amidst the wonderful smell of sausage frying, I found Mr Harrison himself, a one man show in the kitchen, cooking eggs, preparing sausage, and making pancakes. Promptly at 7 he brought the food out, a huge pile of 12 pancakes per person along with eggs and sausage, which I dug into. These pancakes were by far the best I've had on trail... he called them patriotic pancakes which were filled with cinnamon apples, raspberries, and blueberries and topped with real maple syrup. I could barely finish all of mine, but I managed it, stuffed to the point of not wanting to move. A SOBO, Admiral, showed up 20min late and without cash (he only had a credit card) and asked if he could eat but quickly retreated when he was told that they obviously couldn't take credit cards here. I finished up, changed into my hiking attire, and packed up and headed out over the rickety packing pallet bridge that spanned the river where I found admiral eating his breakfast. He said he felt like he had gotten a wierd vibe there and I agreed. Privately, I thought it was obvious that the source of the vibe was the fact that he had shown up without money to a breakfast with posted prices and had arrived 20min late when they made an effort to say that breakfast was at 7am sharp, but I didn't feel like explaining and moved on.The trail followed the outflow from the lake gradually downwards as it wore its way into the rocky landscape, forming a gorge. I passed multiple waterfalls and crossed several tributaries over the next 3mi down to the Kennebeck river. There I found everyone from my camp last night waiting on the shore of the river for the ferry to start at 9am. The only official way to cross the Kennebeck river (according to the ATC) is to use the ferry service they provide, which is necessary because the river is dammed both upstream and downstream of the crossing which means the water level often and unpredictably changes drastically, making fording the river dangerous. On the other bank I could see a man deploy a canoe into the river and start rowing over and it wasn't long until he was heading back with the first two hikers from this side of the river while his son was working through having the rest of us sign the release form. I was on the 4th trip of the day across the river and I got the front seat and therefore a paddle. The guide called me out on having canoed before and we discussed the Alagash river, a several hundred mile long river in northern maine, that we had both canoed before.Safely on the other shore, I chatted for a few minutes with another group from the ATC conference, who were gradually making their way across the river via the canoe, about how the trip had been thus far and why I was out hiking. As their group size dwindled I moved on, walking along the river for a short distance before emerging from the woods onto a road. I crossed and, instead of following the trail, headed 0.1mi down the road to Caratunk House B&B, which I had been eagerly awaiting for the past couple days. There I got a milkshake, made in a real milkshake blender (like the kind you see at diners), though I opted to skip the pulled pork sandwich (which I heard was amazing) since I was still full from breakfast this morning. I hung out for a bit, journaled, and recharged my battery while I enjoyed my shake. Looking through the log, I saw that both Lost and Lookout had been through here only a day or two ahead of me... so close to catching them!Pie and Otto showed up a little bit later and were planning on heading down into town to find the place with the hot tub, which sounded like a wonderful adventure, but I was so close to catching Lost and I had been hearing about the amazing blueberries atop the next two mountains for days and it was time to see what all the fuss was about. I hit the trail and headed gradually uphill, crossing several roads, and running into another ATC group coming down from Pleasant Pond Mt. Up on top of the mountain I did indeed find a multitude of blueberries, and stopped to pick for a while, leapfrogging a couple other hikers as we alternating picking and hiking-and-wishing-we-were-picking until we had to stop. Needless to say those were not very fast miles as I crossed over the rocky top of the mountain and then followed the winding moss-lined paths across the rocky ridge.Perhaps because of the dallying in picking berries, the miles seemed to stretch on and it felt like it took forever to get down off the mountain. I took a short break down by a pond and had a kitkat before heading up my last mountain for the day, Moxie bald. As opposed to the balds earlier in the hike, this one didn't have a soft grassy meadow at the peak but instead had large rocky slabs that the trail was forced to take a very circuitous route to ascend, but in between and on top of almost every rock slab grew blueberry bushes weighed down with multitudes of berries. The sun was starting to head for the horizon, but even so I spent significant time up there just eating, taking a couple steps every couple minutes to get to a blue-er area to graze. I was joined by another two hikers who also stopped to eat and we all eventually pulled ourselves away as the sun actually started to set. The descent down the mountain to camp was pretty quick and even more berries lined the trail on the way down. Home tonight is right on the edge of Moxie bald pond... there were some guys smoking in the shelter and so I was perfectly happy opting for a campsite right next to the lake. I set my tent up in the deepening shadows and brought my food and cook-kit out onto some shore-side rocks where I washed today's filth off and then enjoyed my dinner as the pinks and purples faded from the surrounding hills. I retired to my tent but it wasn't long before the loons started conversing, generating quite the racket as one called out and a symphony of voices responded.I'm only 19mi from Monson, so I'm going to try to get an early start and get there quick enough that I can spend the afternoon resupplying and relaxing before heading into the 100mi wilderness tomorrow with Lost.