Date: 2021-07-11
From: Pierce Pond lean to

To: Bald Mountain Brook lean-to
Miles today: 18.7
Weather: light rain

The Loons arrived at Pierce Pond just before sunset and serenaded the campsite well into the night. I don¢t know where you stand on Loons (hopefully not directly on them, that¢s just mean) but I could listen to their calls everyday.I didn¢t leap up when my alarm went off, knowing I had time to kill before coffee would be ready the the Camp a quarter of a mile away. What I hadn¢t known was that just .1 miles down the trail there was a 15 yard wide stream to be forded. Now, one could take the side trail to the Harrison Camp for breakfast and then take another blue blaze trail over a bridge back to the AT, but where¢s the fun in that?  So off came the shoes and socks and on went my shower shoes and into the water I went. The deepest part only reached my knees and with some careful stepping on the submerged, moss-covered rocks I was soon across and retying my shoes. Then down to the side trail to the Harrison Camp for the $12 breakfast.When the owner brought out three platters of pancakes at 6:58, I assumed that was for our table of 7 hikers. I, was wrong. Each of us received our own platter of 12 saucer sized blueberry-raspberry-apple pancakes.  Then came the scrambled eggs and sausage along with a glass of OJ and coffee to boot. I decided the only way I was going to eat all of that was to start and then not stop until it was all gone.  This took me 20 minutes on non-stop fork work. This is (burp) fine.After breakfast I played fetch with the owner¢s dog out on the front porch before leaving for the 3 mile walk to the Kennebec River. It was a nice post-bacchanalia stroll along a rushing stream dotted with waterfalls as we walked through a pine forest. There was no hurry, as the ferry doesn¢t start until 9am. When we reached the river at 9 there were already half a dozen NOBOs waiting to cross and four SOBOs on the other side of the river coming our way. The Canoe ferry operates from May 22nd until September 30th and this time of year the hours are 9 until 2. It¢s a free service for hikers as they strongly discourage attempts to ford the river due to a dam 17 miles upstream that releases water intermittently. People have list their lives trying to swim across.  After a 45 minute wait in the queue Iceberg and I climbed in (after our safety lesson) for the paddle across. Our ferryman today was a local guide who takes people on whitewater trips. He use to do fly fighting trips as well, but said he got tired off pulling wayward hooks out of his back, arms and head. Once we were on the far bank, I thanked him and tipped him a 10-spot as I had heard you get ¢something special¢ if you do. Well the ¢something special¢ turned out to be a ferryman¢s blessing where he dipped his canoe paddle in the water and thence touched it too my head and arms while asking for a safe and healthy hike for me. He said in four years anyone he had thus blessed had finished their hike. So I¢ve got that going for me, which is nice. From there I kind of took off like a shot, hoping to cover the 6 miles to Pleasant Pond in two hours. This I did, allowing me to get there by noon and take the quarter mile side trail down to the pond shore.  I had told my wife and myself that I would not rush trough Maine, just piling up mikes. I wanted to enjoy Maine and that included at least one swim. As Pleasant Pond (again, this is a large lake) was listed as one of Maine¢s cleanest and (largely) leach free, I wanted to partake of the water. The temperature was in the low 70¢s and the pond (lake) was fairly warm so I splashed and floundered around for about 20 minutes. Then I went back to the small public dock and had lunch. After an hour break I was back on trail for the 1100 foot climb up Pleasant Pond Mountain.Then my day got interesting.About two thirds of the way up I was faced with a hunting dog with a gps collar around its neck he standing in the middle of the trail with his tail low and ears back. At first I did think it was an aggressive dog, but after a few moments I realized he was just exhausted.  I began taking calmly to him and he laid down, panting heavily. As I walked past he got up and followed. When we got to the top of the mountain I found a depression in the granite and filled it with the last half liter of water I had. He lapped it all up and then decided to be my hiking buddy.  So for the next five miles he was either on my heal or just in front of me. About an hour later I was able to find a pool of rain water under in a rock crevasse. Once I got the diggity to understand how to reach the water, he dove in head first and drank his fill.  After that, his tail was up and he seemed much more relaxed. I passed quite a few SOBOs over the next three miles and many asked if they could pet my dog, I said ¢sure, but it¢s not my dog¢. Being constantly reminded of a Peter Sellers movie isn¢t the worst way to spend an afternoon. Finally down the mountain and at a road crossing I came upon the dog¢s owners: backwoods Mainers who had over 10 dogs out running around in the hills looking for bear. Ah well, judge not, lest ye be judged, right?The tail end of the afternoon (tail, dog, I made a funny!) was a mosquito-ridden three mile uphill to the Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to where Iceberg, Quiksilver and I had targeted for our stopping spot. Tomorrow is going to be a little odd as the only decent camp is just nine miles away and Monson is 22 miles away. None of us really want to do 22 miles - even if the terrain is easy as we already plan to do a nero and a zero Tuesday and Wednesday.We¢ll be looking for a stealth site about 15-17 miles away and hope we come up with something. I¢m in my hammock currently, watching the light fade from the sky, with no cell signal to post this entry. Such will be the case for the next fortnight.Alas!