Date: 2005-09-04
From: Summit of Old Blue

To: Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Up and gone before dawn this morning. It started to rain just as it was getting light so I packed up my things, cooked breakfast as usual and moved on. Protieus and Buttah cowboy'd up last night and Levi, like me, used a tent. Buttah tried to use a space blanket (emergency blanket) as an outer layer for sleeping in. At first I thought he had no tent at all, I found out later that he did. The blanket did not do well and literally fell apart. I told him it was best to use that type of blanket under neath as a reflector blanket (reflect the heat back on to the body). He agreed in part the next day and also said the blanket made a lot of noise. It was told that Buttah had his sleeping bag lost in the mail (at least that was what I was led to believe). After he told me what had happened and the great inconvenience of it all, it made me make a note to always put insurance on all your gear when you mail it as well as a way to track it too.   No midnight visitors last night, perhaps my pee pee technique worked. Levi was the last to leave and the other two were the first ones gone that morning. Trail talk was looking like it was a true statement, the terrain was awesome to walk along. A lot of rock surfaces were sticking out of the ground and the trail meandered its way marked by stone cairns. The wet sections, like swamps and such, were covered for the most part by puncheons (bog bridges). We all caught up with each other and took a nice break at the Bemis Mountain Shelter (2790 feet). The boys took Buttah's space blanket and covered the privy's toilet seat with it. They did a real good job and even spelled the word "Bemis" on the lid with space blanket material. I had a saying then that dated myself, "I am cool with it". We substituted the word "cool" with Bemis and slowly shortened it over time to just plain "Bemis". An example would be, "what a great view, do you agree?" Answer, "Bemis".    We again moved out and stopped at the next ford at the Bemis stream (we could not get away from that word at all). This ford was in two parts (separate streams), both deep and clear. We laid out in the sun for a while after crossing the second stream and eventually one of us at a time moved on. Off to our left we had been eyeing quite the large body of water. I had a road map with me and our handbooks indicated that it was Lake Mooseookmeguntic (I looked it up, that is how it is spelled). We stopped in at a vista where people driving by could stop in as well. What I saw next I had not seen since the Blue Ridge Highway in VA. A camera stuck out of the car widow, held high so the passenger could get a photo (a drive by photo). I had to laugh, I hope I am never that busy whereas I would do such a thing.   We were able to yogi some food and even a beer off of some local fishermen. They told us that undeveloped land there along the lake was going for 1/4 of a million dollars for 1/4 of an acre. Unbelievable, and people were buying it up. After a few photos we all headed north. There was a place called Long Pond, (Maine ponds are lakes, trust me), that according to the hiker handbook had a sand beach and swimming area. We were all hiking together as a group and stopped in for a while. There we were throwing stones at stacked rocks, skipping stones along the water and Protieus and I even went in for a swim (skinny dipping that is). The water was so nice, shallow as expected, but nice. There I saw my first Maine Leach (I believe they call them ribbon leaches). I thought at first that they came in because we disturbed the water, I was told later on by a local that it was because we disturbed the mud (that made sense to me).   We were there for about an hour, and the sun was setting on Long Pond. We all decided to go to the Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to just .3 miles north of the beach along the AT. I set up my tent on a platform just below the shelter. A former LT hiker from New York City was there with me, his name was Daniel. His trail name was SBD and he was in the area for a friend's wedding and decided to hike a few days before returning to the city (could not blame him, the area was beautiful). He started a fire and Protieus soon joined us from the shelter. The three of us talked for about an hour and soon it was time to get in the bag (I wasn't tired from the day, I was tired from the trail). As of this day I have been on it for five months. Even with all the lazy breaks along the way we were able to do some semi-big miles. Tomorrow's plan is to hike into Rangeley for some supplies. What a great day.