Date: 2021-07-10
From: East Flagstaff Road

To: Pierce Pond lean to
Miles today: 16.4
Weather: overcast clouds

Third and last night at the Hostel of Maine brought some sad news: Travelin Beat took a seemingly innocuous fall yesterday afternoon while slack packing through the Bigelows.  He was on a mild downhill and just stepped on a wet tree root and down he went, instinctively trying to arrest his fall by putting his hand down and immediately knew something was wrong. A very kind woman who was working remotely from the Hostel took him 45 minutes to the hospital and he was diagnosed with a break near the base of the ring finger on his left hand. He will have to wait until Monday to see a specialist to see if he needs surgery. 170 miles from the end of a 2193 mile hike and that happens. All we could do was commiserate (he stayed more upbeat than I did) and hope he gets good news from the Doctor that¢ll allow him to get back on trail and finish soon. It just sucks for him.Iceberg, Quiksilver and I were joined by Birdman, Ally and Trebek for the hour ride back to the far side of the Bigelows to resume hiking. We were given a free ride in a 1988 Chevy hightop camper van by Trail Angel and local police chief ¢Batman¢.  Batman frequently gives free lifts to hikers and will also hand out beer and Gatorade trail magic while doing so. Yet another friendly Mainer who gives freely to hikers. I neglected to mention that a few days back while hiking the Bigelows I stopped at one peak and talked with a husband and wife who were out hiking with their dog. Husband and I had the same make and model of shoes, so we were immediately sole brothers. They mentioned they were heading to the same place I was and that they could give me a ride if needed. They arrived at the parking lot five minutes before the Hostel shuttle just as the rain started and they gave Quiksilver and I a ride back to the hostel. Turns out they are on a ¢gap year¢ of sorts from where they live in Hong Kong (he¢s a British expatriate, she an American and they¢ve lived there for 30 years) and came to the northeast to see her son who is a professional rugby player in Boston. In between his matches they drive into the rural areas to hike. And we met them in northeast Maine and hitched a ride. What a weird, wonderful world. Today¢s hike started at 9 at the trailhead and only had moderate elevation gain the whole day - something like 2800 feet total. The sun was out and temps hit the low 70¢s during the day. With four days to cover the 57 miles to Monson I was in no particular hurry. There were no mountain vistas to be had but the trail wound around a series of ponds (they¢re lakes, by cracky, LAKES) that were quite beautiful.  Being from Michigan, it¢s odd to see these large bodies of water with only a handful of camps (they¢re cottages, by cracky, COTTAGES) and no power boats zipping around on a July Saturday. I arrived at the lean-to (they¢re shelters, by cracky¢¦oh, never mind) at 3:30 just as a half dozen southbounders arrived from the other direction. Among their number were a British couple who are here via Mexico on a 90 day tourist visa to hike as many miles as they can. With all the Covid travel restrictions there is a dearth of foreigners on the trail this year. Which is kind of a bummer, as I¢ll miss out on meeting the usual international hiking cadre. Quiksilver and Birdman had arrived about 2:30 and they went ahead about .3 of a mile on a side trail to Harrison¢s Pierce Pond Camp to sign a group of us up for their breakfast tomorrow morning.  $12 for pancakes, eggs and the like at 7am before we head out for the Day. There¢s a hard-stop at the Kennebec River about three miles away as the canoe ferry doesn¢t start operating until 9am.  The river is wide and unfordable and also downstream from a damn. I¢ve heard of hikers swimming across, I¢ve also heard of hikers drowning in the attempt. They¢ll likely be a fair crowd waiting to go across two at a time. Out trio has a short day planned, so we¢re not in any particular hurry. Looking forward to yet another great day in the AT on the morrow - and it promises to be another sunny one!