Date: 2009-08-21
From: Little Wilson Stream Falls

To: Long Pond Tote Rd, ME
Miles today: 7.7

Breakfast at Shaws...yee ha! This is such a great thing! You can order a #1 (1 egg, 1 bacon, 1 sausage, 1 pancake)...or a #2, #3, etc. We got a #2 and were struggling to finish!Access:South---Little Wilson Stream--Dick from Shaws took us up Elliotsville Road and then up a dirt road to access a 'locals' swimming hole on Little Wilson Stream. We then hiked 1.2 mi up a side trail along the Little Wilson Stream to where it joined the AT. This is the trail used by 'townies' to get to Little Wilson Falls.   The trail is rough with a lot of roots, no blazes, 'just follow the stream'...was Dick's quote North-- Long Pond Tote Road. This is accessed by driving up to Greenville and getting onto Katahdin Ironworks Road (all dirt from here). And then turning right on Long Pond Tote Road for about 5.7 miles.This access is well over an hour. The Hike:> When we hit the AT, we immediately started down a steep embankment with some very nice, recently-laid stone steps--thank you again Maine ATC!!!Next we came to Little Wilson Stream. The water level was down as a result of no rain over the past week. We were able to stone-hop across.Then it was up very steeply hill for about a mile. We reached some open rock ledges with views over some ponds. There were low clouds/overcast today limiting our views...We went down a rooty trail (most of the trail today was rooty and we made poor time as a result). And arrived at Thompson Brook, which was a rock-hop today. Then we followed an old logging road for .5 mi. The nicest, flatest part of today's trail.We next came to Big Wilson Stream. We heard from other hikers that earlier this summer this was a very bad ford. The guidebook says this could be treacherous and deep in times of rain. We were lucky and it was only knee-high for us. From Big Wilson we climbed very steeply to the Montreal/Maine/and Atlantic railroad and the only RR crossing of the AT in Maine. We stopped at Wilson Valley Lean To for a short rest and then got to the top of an unnamed mountain and had lunch on an open rocky area. From here it was about 3 mi to Long Pond Tote Road. On the way we crossed a big rock slide. We were able to rock-hop Wilbur Brook and Vaughn Stream. We were very lucky today as we could have been required to ford 4 different streams.The Vaughn Stream crossing was on top of a 20' waterfall. This definitely would have been scary if the water was high. Being swept over the falls would not be fun!! If the Maine ATC could build bridges like they do rock steps, this would be a lot safer!!We learned that the female thru hiker that we gave the ace bandage to yesterday spent the night in a shelter, and came back down Barren Mt and was waiting by our pick up truck for Shaws to pick her up and go back to town. When we got to our truck, she had already hiked the 1.6 mi out to the logging road in Katahdin Ironworks wilderness area to meet Shaws.We had a great time in Monson tonight...first was dinner at the famous barbeque place. They are only open weekends and sometimes have to put up a sign 'Closed...ran out of food'! We then wandered down to the General Store as we were told that on Friday nights there is a bluegrass 'jam session'. When we arrived, there were about 10 musicians playing everything from guitar to banjo to a flute. Every 10 minutes someone else came in, set up his/her music and joined in...a hamonica, mandolin, etc. The audience was thru hikers and locals...it was great...enjoy Bugsy's YouTube video! We kept saying 'one more song, then we'll leave'. Eventually we made our way down to the Lakeshore House, the only WIFI spot in this little village. A glass of cabernet and an hour later and Burly Girl had caught up on her 56 emails. Yes, despite the fact that downtown Monson is three blocks long, we had a fun, action-packed Friday night! Bugsy & Burly Girl...doing the AT one day at a time