Date: 2007-09-07
From: Poplar ridge lean-to

To: Swift river pond campsite
Miles today: 15.5

A kind of odd night at the lean-to last night. At around 10 o'clock, the college group all filed past the shelter and headed north up the AT with headlamps on. They returned about 45 minutes later. I'm not sure exactly what it was all about, but they started packing up at 5 a.m. and hit the trail shortly after. I slept in and started hiking around 8. It was a good thing I stayed put last night because there wasn't really any place to set up a tent along Saddleback jr. and the ground was pretty wet. As was the case the previous day, most of the summits today were fairly fogged in, but I got to catch a half view on Saddleback. It was a bit unfortunate because the couple miles between the Horn and Saddleback were primarily above treeline and the walk could have been breathtaking. I had a brief scare coming down the Horn when I slipped a bit on the rock trail and caught my balance with my left foot on another extended rock. I caught it with the ball of my foot and the impact jammed my foot rather nicely, extending my Achilles' a bit further than I'm sure it wanted to go. I cinched up my laces tightly to keep any swelling down and plodded on. I stopped for a bit on top fo Saddleback, finding some protection from the 30 mph winds behind a rock wall someone had built. After a quick break, I hustled off the mountain, briefly stopping in at Piazza rock lean-to for more food and water before pushing on to Maine 4 for a hitch into Rangely.As I stood by the road with my thumb out, the first car to come along was a nice looking Mercury sedan with a Mass. license plate. They're not stopping I said to myself, but to my pleasant surprise, the Mercury pulled over and I eagerly jumped in. It just so happened that the couple in the car were listening to audio cds of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods and they assumed I was thru-hiking the AT. I guess I owe the old chap a bit of thanks because I'm not sure they would have stopped otherwise. As I was talking to them, I found out they were on their way to Rangely to attend a wedding. They were also from Rhode Island and the car was a rental which I think also factored into their decision to pull over. Until I gleaned this information, I had been trying not to lean to far back in the seat to keep my hiker funk from rubbing into the interior. Once they said it was a rental, however, I sank right into my seat, extending my arm along the back seat and letting my less than rosy-smelling armpits rest along the back edge.They dropped me off at the IGA in town. After buying way to much food, I plopped a seat on the bench on the side of the store and started sorting my food. A fellow in a pickup truck rolled up and asked me if I wanted a ride to the trail. My how the trail doth provide sometimes. I was in and out of town in well under an hour. I had loaded up on water at Piazza Rock with 2.5 liters and I must have bought 10 pounds of food in town so my pack felt like it weighed a ton. The sun came out and the humidity rose so I started getting a bad case of the chafe as I hiked along the AT. Initially I thought I'd head to Sabbath-Day pond lean-to, but with my balls on fire and my shoulders feeling the load, I pulled into Swift River pond campsite and said to hell with walking any more.I initially had the place to myself, but a weekender rolled in and three nobos a bit later, one of which was a cute blond with legs up to her neck (I could tell because she was wearing a pretty short skirt). She thought she recognized me and came over to where I had my tent pitched and started chatting before realizing I was just another random bearded guy on the AT. She said she still had to hike from Harpers Ferry to Damascus in October and that I might run into her later down the trail. With those legs, I hope so.