Date: 2017-09-03
From: East Flagstaff Road

To: Road past Pierce Pond
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: light rain

Today we didn't cross any mountains.  It was cold when we woke.  Rain was predicted to start around 4:00 PM, so we all hurried to reach the endpoint before the rain started.  The trail followed the shoreline of Flagstaff Lake for a few miles.  I stopped at one beach just to enjoy the quiet of the morning.   Someone had collected driftwood and used it to construct a clamshell-shaped shelter.  Very interesting and enticing. The trail wandered up and down small hills (nothing steep), through several large bogs, and over rocks and roots.  However, there were several places where the trail was an actual dirt path covered with evergreen needles.   We passed East Carry Pond and West Carry Pond.  The names come from a historical incident in 1775, when Colonel Benedict Arnold led an army of about 1000 to capture Quebec.  The group passed through this area and used these ponds as part of the portage of their boats from the Kennebec River to the Dead River.  The route of the AT between the two ponds precisely follows their path, according to the historical marker.  About six miles from our endpoint the trail crossed a sandy beach on East Carry Pond. Last year when I was here I was hiking with two faster hikers, and we blasted right by without stopping.  I was determined to stop for at least a few minutes this year to enjoy the place.  It would have been a nice place to swim, but it was only 55 today.  (Last year, hiking a week earlier, it was 80).  I sat down on a rock and got out my chocolate mint cookies and my can of Starbucks espresso and cream.  While I was eating the wind came up, and I put on my hat and a heavyweight fleece.  I felt the temperature of the sand with my hand, but it wasn't warm enough for me to take off my shoes.  After this break I took off at high speed.  Arlene and I finished hiking at 3:15 and were able to get our tents up before the rain started.  We all got into the van and packed our food for tomorrow from inside the van.  Then Arlene, Lizzie, Terri, and I killed some time waiting for our phones to charge.  It's so rare that we have any free time, and we spent it laughing and joking.  There are a lot of moose droppings where we set up our tents, so we teased Arlene about what we all would do if a moose stops by to poop on her tent.  (My role is to take the picture).  Sometimes in this group I have a feeling of freshman year in college in the women's dorm - lots of free-ranging discussion and laughing, with no topic off limits.  Since we had all this spare time I rummaged around in my Miscellaneous bin and found the little book of Thoreau essays that my friend Donna sent.  I'd like to read the one on Katahdin before we climb it.  We've had so little free time I'd about given up hope that I could do it though.  It feels good having some down time.Tomorrow we cross the Kennebec in the canoe ferry.  This is the official white-blazed part of the trail.  Warren disdains this and has taken two guest hikers, Bobby Joe Smith and Jeff Emmons, to set up to stealth ford it early tomorrow.  Despite Warren's pressure to ford on foot, all of the Expedition members are taking the ferry.  Because the ferry doesn't start until 9:00 AM and it's only 3.2 miles away, we can sleep in and not leave until 7:00.