Date: 2015-07-23
From: Long Pond Stream Lean-to

To: West Branch campsite
Miles today: 15.2

I woke up a lot in the night as I had to keep rolling back up the slope. I eventually woke up to my alarm at six, when half of the hikers had already left. I managed to leave camp by 7. The morning was cloudy with brief patches of sun. I stopped after about 15 minutes to pick a few blueberries. They're so tiny that you have to eat a bunch of them to get any real flavour. There was a ledge shortly after that was really spectacular, it overlooked a big pond and had views for miles. It was made even better because the sun was out and shining over the whole area. It just looked really wonderful. The morning seemed incredibly long. It took me more than 5 hours to cover just over 10 miles. It was admittedly rocky and rooty, and I had to go up and down a couple mountains, but still. It felt like I should have been moving faster. The only vaguely interesting thing is that I hiked through a bog that had pitcher plants, which is cool. I had a couple of very close calls with falling over, especially at one point where I managed to land with my legs under me rather than smashed on to the jagged rocks ahead of me. I stopped at the shelter for lunch, and stayed there for ages. I only had to cover about 15 miles today so I wasn't in a big rush. I actually only left because I started getting really cold. There was a brief section of tricky downhill rock climbing that was reminiscent of Mahoosuc notch, but thankfully didn't last. It was mostly downhill or relatively gentle in the four miles down to the river crossing. There were a few moments of spitting rain that stopped and now the sky is alternating between gorgeous blue and ominous grey. Some day hikers said that tomorrow is going to be rain all day, which just sounds terrible especially since we will be going over White Cap, which is notoriously rocky. I actually crossed over the river, hoping I could camp there and not ford it in the morning. Unfortunately, there were several very clear signs stating no camping. So I had to ford back over the river. Ultimately this worked out though, since I ended up going to the trail head parking lot and meeting an injured section hiker who gave myself, BigBen, and Smasher a lot of high quality trail food. It was awesome, though I'm seriously wondering about this wilderness thing again. I've had more trail magic in the past couple days than I've had in weeks! After, the three of us walked South along the trail to a campsite across a loudly babbling brook. We've made a little tent circle so we can all sit in our tents and chat, instead of being eaten alive. BigBen also made a slightly unregulated fire. I'm really hoping that none of the embers or sparks will set my tent on fire. Or the forest. I've just eaten one of the gifted Mountain House scrambled eggs meals, as well as some beef jerky. I might have a second dinner later, just because I have extra food. Its really kinda funny, as I have met a few people who claimed that they actually ran out of food in the 100 mile wilderness. That is absolutely not going to be a problem here. My food drop is going to be ready on Saturday at 9am, so tomorrow I'm going to have to eat a lot, even though I'll be hiking about 15 miles again. The following days after the food drop are very, very flat in elevation all the way to Katahdin. There is just one blip in the elevation for literally days of hiking. I know it's going to be rocky, rooty, and muddy though. Everything will be better if it doesn't rain.