Date: 2019-08-02
From: Rainbow Spring Campsite (ME)

To: Nahmakanta Lake Campsite (ME)
Miles today: 14.3

The loons went crazy all night last night. I¢ve never heard so many. It was a comforting sound, and it helped me sleep well. I did wake up to hear something walking around in the dark. It was probably only a deer, but I was more comfortable with earplugs in.Before we flipped, I was getting up most mornings at 6, SC would wake up about 7:30, and we would start hiking about 8:30. This morning I got up at 5, SC 6, and we were hiking at 7! However, all the nobos were up and on the trail before 6. The campers were all still in bed when we left.Today began with lots of mud but there were what appeared to be new steppingstones put in place. Thanks volunteers! I saw more moose tracks in the mud (okay, now I want ice cream). We stopped by the shelter we were aiming for last night, talked to a family who was doing the 100MW there. We then stopped by some cascades that a nobo we saw said was a good swimming spot. I tried to swim but I was too cold and so was the water. There was a nobo man and woman I passed this morning. They appeared to just be section hikers. Anyway, the guy says to me as I pass, ¢You smell like soap!¢ I¢m sure when I¢m this close to the south end of the 100MW, everyone going nobo will smell very clean. It¢s something that you notice when you haven¢t showered in a while.I saw a nobo thru-hiker later who said, ¢That¢s a nice color [referring to my shirt which is pink and white plaid]. Everything I own is dirty and muddy.¢ I want to call my shirt the ¢I¢m-not-a-thru-hiker¢ shirt because people think it looks so nice there¢s no way I¢m a thru-hiker. I do think it¢s some sort of magic shirt because it never gets very dirty looking. Then we climbed our first named mountain of the 100MW: Nesuntabunt Mountain. We didn¢t actually go to the summit where there was a view of Katahdin because there was a good view from the trail. The ¢climb¢ was less than 500 feet. SC had service and talked to her mom and one of her sisters. I didn¢t have any service.Going up the ¢mountain¢ wasn¢t too bad, it was coming back down that was difficult. This is how SC described it later to a nobo: Someone took a stick, drew a line in the dirt down the side of the mountain, and then threw rocks all over it. It was a discouraging mountain probably because it seemed so small and yet was so difficult. I thought the 100MW was supposed to be relatively easy.At some point coming down the mountain my right foot started to hurt. We were going to try for the next shelter, but we met up at this campsite and my foot was hurting. I don¢t think we could make another 3.5 miles before dark anyway. When I got here, SC was helping an older couple unload their things and take them to a tent site. There are two tent sites here plus some other places where you can set up tents, they just don¢t have picnic tables. We are on a grassy spot not far from the lake. It was windy when we first arrived but it¢s since died down. I went wading in the water; SC went in completely. We are able to watch the sunset from here. However, our neighbors in one of the campsites (not the ones SC helped) came out on the beach about 2 minutes after the sunset. I think they came out about 30 minutes before ¢sunset¢ not realizing that from this angle the sun would be setting behind a hill making sunset earlier. Anyway, I hope the loons sing to us all night like they did last night.