Date: 2017-08-08
From: Caratunk

To: West Carry Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: light rain

8/8/17 Day 72 - 14 milesCaratunk House B&B to West Carry Pond Lean-toSlept pretty good in a springy bed and got up at 7:00 for an awesome breakfast. All the NOBOs I had passed yesterday raved about the food here. Apparently Paul is a chef and cooks up meals for his guests. Coffee, French Toast, eggs with saut©ed veggies, bacon, potatoes. All you can eat!  It was tough to leave after that! Paul also has a food resupply store in the house. All the things a hiker could want. I needed 3 days of food to go with the one left over to get me to Rangley about 76 miles away. Now that my belly and my pack were full, I had to get out of here soon or I would be staying another day! Got out around 9:30 and made my way to the Kennebec ferry about a half mile away. Waited my turn to go across and was moving good at 10:30. Moving so good that I totally wiped out on a slippery rock. Took my 2nd spill of the trip and landed on my side. Jumped up to look around and make sure nobody saw- no injuries, it's all good. The rain overnight has made everything slick, mainly the exposed roots and rocks which means the entire trail here in Maine. I was forced to take it a little slower than I'd like and still almost fell a few more times. That's when I came up to a 25' log crossing. It was comical. The log wasn't even flattened out on top. I gave it a quick test with my boot to see how slippery it was, it may as well have been covered in oil. I did manage to make it across, very slowly. The clouds were starting to give way when I passed by a nice waterfall. It was about 11:30 and I was ready for a break and some lunch. Destiny passed by and took a break as well. This kid is fast. He was probably 2 or 3 canoe trips behind me and still caught up in a little over an hour. Looking over the map at lunch, our options are a 14 mile day to the one shelter or a 19 mile day to get to some campsite. I'm thinking with the late start, we're only getting 14 in today. The sun was coming out more and more when I passed Pierce Pond @ 12:18(pics). This is the site where a hiker drowned about 5-6 years ago. I was reading the journal of a guy named Achilles (awesome journal btw) when he stopped updating for a bit. When he finally updated, he told the story of how his buddy jumped in for a swim and cramped up or something. It was tragic. I was a beautiful setting but I could only think of that poor kid.  The trail leveled off for a bit as I came to East Carry Pond @ 2:25 (pics). There's a nice little beach at one point and I decided to soak my feet for a bit. I met 3 NOBOs who were taking a break as well. They said the trail behind them was tough and that they deserved a break like this. They came from the Bigelows which is where I'll be heading tomorrow. It is some serious elevation. I'll have specific numbers in tomorrow's entry but I'm definitely a little anxious. After the Bigelows and Saddleback, I'll be heading into the Whites. Probably the toughest section of the entire AT.  After the beach break it was decided that we'll only do the 14 which put us at the shelter @ 5:00. The place was empty except for one other guy. He asked my name and said "I thought that was you!" It turns out that it's Loon Seeker!! I met him back at the Priest Mountain Shelter back in VA around the 4th of July!! He's hopping around completing sections of the trail that he needs to have the whole thing done. He lives up this way and is heading south towards NY. Just as we're sitting there, you could here the loons calling back and forth. It was nice to catch up with him while we ate our dinner. It's a small trail. Forgot to mention that I took another spill today (for a total of 3 during the whole trip). Hopefully they come in 3's and I'm done. I took a fall off of the bog boards that run over some swampy sections of trail. Luckily it was a grassy section and not that black smelly muck or it could've been a real disaster. The boards were wet and moldy and my foot slipped right off and I went down shoulder 1st. Any one of these falls could end my trip if there's a rock or I get impaled by a stick. I went the entire 1st half without an out of control fall and now I've had 3 this week. Hopefully that'll be the last!