Date: 2016-08-05
From: Bemis Mountain Lean-to

To: Little Swift River Campsite
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: overcast clouds

I got a good nights sleep and was ready to make it to town for food, resupply, shower and laundry. Remember yesterday I said it always good to see familiar faces? Well I was wrong. I was on the trail by 6:30 and making good miles. I stopped on top of a mountain peek for a break at 7:30. When I went to hike on what I thought was a path, was not a path. So I got to looking at the two options I had and wasn't real sure which one I came from. So I chose one...your first instinct is usually right, correct? So I head on and I still see spider webs so I must have chose right. About 30 minutes later I turn the corner and there is Suds. I throw my trekking poles to the side and "no way man". I was going to get to town late and now it was going to be later. So talking to her, they had not passed the shelter yet...that means I had been going the wrong direction for an hour and a half. Last night was kind of odd when I looking for blazes....I came across the shelter sign...I was off trail a little bit when I found the sign. So back we hike to the lean-to(that's what they call shelters in Maine). I am surprised when we get there in an hour. So I went back to where I started this morning and the trail split in two directions. There was a sign I had overlooked but also there were white blazes visible in both directions. I turned and seen the blaze and continued going. It seems there was a reroute this year and the old blazes were still visible. I don't know where all I went but it was much farther than it took us to get back. I really stayed pretty calm and the others said they would have been much worse. At this point I was hiking with Subman, Suds and Rabbit. It doesn't do any good to cry I said. At this point I had decided to stop short of town and hit it with these hikers tomorrow. It really worked out because I wouldn't be rushing to get things done. Just have to wait an extra day for that cheeseburger. One other bad thing was water was an hour and a half from where I started and I ended up walking five hours to get there. I had lost my water bladder earlier in the week and only had 22oz to start out and it was a pretty warm day. I kept drinking half of what I had left and finally made it to the stream by 11:30. The others offered me water but I was able to ration it until we got there. We stopped for lunch and to rehydrate. It had been seven miles since the last water and I added five miles to that. It has been dry in Maine this year and we were suppose to have had to forded this stream. Rocks stood above the water so it was not an issue. We climbed up a half mile after lunch and got to a road. There was a bench and a tremendous view of a large lake and the mountains around it. We took a sort break and enjoyed then seat and view before pushing up the rest of the mountain. Around 2:00 we came to a lake with a sandy beach. It was hot and we went swimming. The water was a little cool but it felt great to soak for a while. The beach stayed pretty shallow for a long ways out and the water was crystal clear. We went .3 miles to the shelter where we were going to decide to stay or press on. There were about a dozen girls there from Qu©bec speaking French and we decided to press on after a quick snack. It wasn't too bad of terrain and we were at the campsite by 5:00. This campsite was also on a pond. We ate and enjoyed some conversion. I got my chores done and decided to take a canoe out. Now I don't know this was a good idea after the day I had. The canoes were in bad shape. One was splintered fiberglass sides...that was out. The best looking one had duct tape covering up scrapes on the bottom. I decided on the third. The bottom was dinged up and it looked like someone tried to make a teeter Tooter out of it as both ends were lower than the middle. So I flipped it over, grabbed an orange lifejacket and threw in another 3/4 life jacket that was there, grabbed the paddle that the handle was broken off of and threw in a jug cut open for bailing. I tested it and water didn't pour in so I jumped in and went for it. It was actually a nice little canue trip around the lake. I could have gotten a nice sun set but I didn't trust it enough to take my camera. It was an awesome way to end the day. Even though things don't always go your way...I am blessed beyond belief to be hiking the AT.