Date: 2007-08-06
From: Sabbith Day Pond Lean-To

To: Bemis Mountain Lean-To
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: moderate rain

mi. 9sleep hammockdest. Bemis mountain Lean-topday 25"Hanging around. Nothing to do but frown. Rainy days and Mondays always bringme down."That was stuck in my head all day today. Namely because it was monday and justa little rainy.I got up a little later than usual. Not until after 6am. I think I figured outall of my time and pocketmail issues. When I changed the batteries in StrattonI did not fix the date. It thought it was january 1st of this year. So theemails I wrote were actually at the bottom of my list. So I did not loose theone entry I rewrote or the list of my pics that I rewrote last night. The timewas also 45 minutes slow. I was using it at night as my clock. So I have beengetting to sleep later than I thought. But I have all that fixed now.I also awoke to the french girls singing in french "If your happy and you knowit." Complete with clapping and feet pounding. Pretty funny stuff.I went over to the shelter and had breakfest. Woodstock officially annouced hernew trail name was mama bear. It was in front of witnesses, so it is legit. Nice woman. I did eat an instant breakfest and cookies for breakfest.I got on the trail around 8am. I stopped along the beach just down from theshelter to get water. The french girls were just behind me. I needed water andwanted them to get by me.The hiking this morning was pretty easy. The other guys said they ran into thepresident of the Main AT club on Bigelow and he maintains this section. Youcould tell. It was very well maintained and blazed. It also had a lot of newbog bridges where they were needed.It was fun hiking too. I walk a pretty constant 2-2.25 mph +/-. The frenchgirls group was all spread out over a miles or so. I slowly caught most ofthem. It reminded me of all of the 5k rowing races I did. Where you would bestagered every 15 seconds off the start and race for time. It was just a littletoo much fun catching and passing them. I got to a road crossing about 4 miles in at around 9:30. Jason and Clay wherethere along with the rest of the french group. It really started to look andfeel like rain. You can really tell there was a lot of moisture in the air. Istopped with them and had my 2nd snickers of the day. I also put my camera inthe pack and put the rain jacket close. It was going to rain, just a matter ofwhen.I did what I thought was goiong to be the most dangerous thing I would do forthe day and cross the road. Little did I know. I went the next half mile towhat I thought was the river. It was dry. I thought no way with all of therain. The french group was there and asked me if I knew where the water sourcewas. I showed them my map. It showed a river and a spring at the bottom of thevalley.I pressed on and about 2 minutes later came across the small stream they wheretalking about. I drank the remaining half liter I had left and refilled bothliters. I did not want to run out in the 4 miles left to the shelter.I walked the next mile or so and the up hill started. In retrospect it wasn'ttoo bad and I should have pressed on. But I was hungry and runnig out of gas,so I stopped and eat lunch for about 20 minutes. It was raining a little, but Iwas really sheltered under a tree.I debated but ended up putting on the rain jacket. I was so glad I did. Isweated for awhile. I got a little farther up an heard thunder. I figured Iwas already up high, so it was best to push on. Bemis mountain has 2 peaksbefore the shelter which is between the 3rd one. Over the first it was prettyrocky, which ment little trees and protection. It was raining hard enough atthis point that I zipped up my jacket. I even put the hood up. I got up andover the first and it was pouring.It was also thundering and lightning. I was only a mile or 2 from the shelterat this point. I made the decision to push on. I probibly could have foundsomewhere to hang my tarp. But my thinking was that the trees I would behanging off of where the tallest around. Which is pretty open to lighning. SoI pressed on. The shelter and a big dry place also sounded good.So on I went. It got really windy and really rainy. Which also ment that itgot pretty cold. The second peak, leading up, and after had a lot of open rockareas. Which ment no protection. Mind you it was also thundering andlightning. I walked really fast until the open areas. I jogged hunched overwith my trekking poles really low in one hand over the open areas. It was morethan a little sketchy. Ok a lot. This is officially the scariest part of my hike. It is the third I went over inthe rain. The second in a thunder storm. Definitly higher and worse than thefirst. This is also going to be my last in a thunder storm. I think I sawlightning brigther than the other night. That's saying something.I finally rolled into the shelter around noon. A northbounder was sitting therealong with clay and jason in their sleeping bags. Karl was just getting dryclothes on, so he couldn't have been there that long.