Date: 2017-07-01
From: Sterling Inn, Caratunk

To: Pierce Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 4.0
Weather: light rain

(I'm typing this up in a library, don't have my guidebook with me, and totally forgot to put a mileage number on this entry, so "4" may be inaccurate... I'll have to come back and fix it later, and check my other mileages too because I think they got off somewhere else, too.)We were planning on a long day today, but I was really sleepy after breakfast so I took a nap, then we figured if we took a short day we could have the famous pancake breakfast at Harrison's tomorrow...A short day is good. It can help my knees feel better, my muscles get stronger, and keep my spirits high. It's been a great day for experiences, too- the canoe across the Kennebec, meeting the guy who runs Harrison's, and now we're here on an absolutely beautiful pond. There was a snake relaxing on a rock, and I saw a loon dive in the water.I am not going to plan how far we hike tomorrow. Anybody I've worked with knows I love planning things, but I want to see how I do with the plan just being to walk. I'll stop when I'm tired, or it's lateish and there's a good spot.I wish I'd gotten the name of the guy at Harrison's- it's probably Tim Harrison, based on the sign here. I've been thinking of him as a sort of a hospitality hermit- he clearly loves being out on his own in the middle of nowhere here, but he also really enjoys meeting and offering hospitality to hikers and other groups. He has a great little dog named Charlie.(Of course I got the dog's name but not the human's...)I feel like there was more that happened today, but I just don't remember. I might remember later, like how I was thinking today about the very perturbed ground bird that crossed my path before Moxie Bald Mountain.It really, really is beautiful here.I will take this occasion of a near-0 day to write out various things I have forgotten.Gear updates:Both of our plastic sporks broke in the 100-mile wilderness. We got a long titanium spoon our first day at Shaw's, but I wanted something with tines for my ramen. Lo and behold, when we ran into Sarah and Tony again at Wilson Valley Lean-to, Tony had found a lovely long metal spork previously, and gave it to us! It is perfect.Greg has tried several times to glue his boots back together to help them make it to Rangeley where he can get new ones. It has only sort of worked.I found a tent stake in the ground where we camped on Pleasant Pond Mountain, so we have an extra now, if either we or anyone we run into needs it.I got a new-in-the-packaging Sea to Summit pack cover from the hiker box at Shaw's that is big enough to fit my clunky old pack. It's a bit heavy, but I think I do like having it to keep the fabric of my pack from getting even heavier with water.I really like cedar trees.(later)It's raining pretty hard, and has been for the last two hours or so. I'm really glad we're in the lean-to. Two very nice section hikers are here, and there are some summer camp girls up the hill in tents, but that's it unless we get some late northbounders.It was raining so hard the entire area in front of the shelter was a puddle, and this is one with pretty good drainage. (Unlike Wilson Valley, where I slipped and fell on my ass in the mud in the middle of the night.)I played Carcassone with Greg on his tablet. In a shelter. Looking at a pond. In a downpour. It was a bit surreal, and he won.