Date: 2005-07-31
From: Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to

To: Piazza Rock Lean-to
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: broken clouds

Miles hiked today : 11.311.2 AT miles + 0.1 roadwalk mileI woke up this morning at 6:00 a.m., packed, ate breakfast, and hiked out at 6:55 a.m. The downside of being the first to leave in the morning is that I get to clear the path of spiderwebs with my face. As soon as I'd wipe the spiderwebs of my face, I'd almost immediately walk through another. Interestingly, if I didn't wipe them away, I didn't seem to gather any more, though I could still feel them on my face.I hiked until 9:00 a.m. and took a 10 minute rest, water, and snack break. Less than 1 minute after I resumed hiking, I arrived at Little Swift River Pond Campsite. It looked like it would be a nice place to camp, but it was early in the day and I was headed to town.At 10:20 a.m., I passed by South Pond, which was enormous and beautiful. Regarding the ponds in Maine, many are gigantic and some have tidal currents. I'd classify most of the ponds I've seen so far as lakes. Hiking on, I was passed by Haiku and Dr. Chickadee as I descended to ME4. I reached the road at 11:10 a.m. and sat out of view of oncoming traffic so that I wouldn't interfere with their hitching attempt. After 5 minutes, a small SUV pulled over and it appeared to have room for all 3 of us, so I darted across the street, helped to load our packs, after which we were off to Rangeley. Our driver was Ed and it turned out that he knew our trail angels from last night. Even though I only knew their trail names, Ed figured out who I was talking about when I mentioned that Otter's husband Long-tailed Duck (Victor) was a lobsterman. Apparently, Otter (Patti) was a co-worker of Ed's for 3 years.Ed dropped us off in town at 11:35 a.m. and I proceeded to the library to use the internet connection. Unfortunately, the Rangely library is closed on Sunday and Monday, so I won't be able to go there in the morning either. I walked by the single screen movie theater and found that the animated film Madagascar is showing at 7:00 p.m. Next stop was The Red Onion, where I put away a large thin crust pizza, after which I sat on a bench outside the general store at 12:55 p.m. to digest my food while journaling.After journaling, I made some telephone calls, during which Michael and Sean showed up. They headed to The Red Onion for pizza while I wrapped up my telephone calls, one of which was to Opa. I talked with him for a few minutes and found that he had diagnosed himself with Lyme disease based upon his 10 day headache, muscle soreness, fatigue, joint pain, and slight depression. I had thought that his mood had been suffering and had tried to cheer him up, though it was typically to no avail. Opa is currently taking antibiotics and doing knee strengthening exercises and is planning on meeting us in Monson to do the hundred mile wilderness. I'll be calling him from Caratunk to check on his progress. Needless to say, I'm very excited at the possibility of his return.I met Sean and Michael at The Red Onion, then we went on a mission to find ice cream. We settled down at a picnic table outside of an ice cream snack bar and lounged for a couple hours. Michael and I weren't very excited about seeing Madagascar and decided to head out of town with the intention of calling the post office in the morning to have his maildrop forwarded to Stratton. Sean was making an extended phone call, so we went to hitch out of town without him.It didn't take long for Michael and I to get a hitch, though we had to ride in the bed of a truck full of equipment. I was half sitting on a lawn mower with the edge of a tool box poking in my back, while Michael was wedged between the cab and the lawnmower. We arrived at the trailhead at 4:35 p.m. and after a 5 minute stand around and do nothing break, I hiked on to Piazza Rock Lean-to, arriving at 5:20 p.m. The privy at this shelter is named "Your Move" and is rather unique in that it is a "two-holer" with a cribbage board mounted on a table in between the two seats. Unfortunately, there aren't any cards present, so we were unable to play.I was still full from my lunch of pizza, so I didn't cook dinner. I set up my sleeping gear and boiled water for hot chocolate, which I drank while snacking on ginger snaps. After my snack, I finished journaling and crawled into my sleeping bag to read before drifting off to sleep. Tomorrow looks to be challenging day with a pair big climbs, though by hiking 1.8 miles out of town this afternoon, tomorrow will be a little easier.Bedtime at 8:35 p.m.