Date: 2013-09-27
From: Jo Mary Campsite

To: Wadleigh Lean To
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: scattered clouds

We slept almost 13 hours last night! It must have been the river near us that gave us such a good sleep. Before the trail, I have never been able to sleep well or sleep throughout the night. But from day one of hiking the AT, I have slept so well. I sure hope this continues after the AT. Last night, I had to get up around 1:30am to visit the great outdoors probably because we went to bed around 6:10pm. I let Bella out of the tent so she could do her typical surveillance walk around the campsite. The night was beautiful so I sat out on the log near the tent enjoying the moon shining through the trees and listened to the river. I just sat there¢¦thinking and thinking. I also was hungry so I grabbed a bag of Double Stuff Oreos and Snyder's Mustard Onion pretzel bits and sat there some more. I was thinking of all the great times on the trail that I was going to miss. I thought about how fortunate we were for us to both make it this far. I thought about all the great hikers that we have met and how privileged we were to be included in such a great community. I thought about the beautiful land and views that each state allowed us to experience. I thought about all the trail angels that have helped us along the way and was so very thankful. Only in the last couple of days, we started to talk about how we were going to go home. I was thinking that I would rent a car and go visit some friends in Mass and PA that we have met on the trail like Big Brother, Plant Man, Ted and Annie, Candu and Y-Knot, etc. After visiting with them, I would drive to Michigan and visit with friends and family for about a week before flying home to Phoenix. Twix was thinking that she would fly to San Diego to visit her friend before flying home. Oh well, just thoughts for now. I am sure we will get this figured out after we have summit, which looks like now on Monday, September 30, 2013. After satisfying my middle of the night hunger and doing a whole lot of thinking, I was ready for bed so I called for Bella to no avail. She usually is so good at staying close, so where is she? After about 10 minutes, I opened the tent vestibule door, and there she was already snuggled in Twix¢s sleeping bag having little puppy dreams. I guess while I was thinking, she sneaked back into the tent. She is such a precious dog¢¦we love her so much. Not sure if I mentioned in previous entries; we love camping near ponds because of the Loons. They are big, water birds. We have been hearing them since Vermont and a lot in Maine. When they call out for each other, their sound is so comforting and soothing. Some may mistake their sound for coyotes that are howling. They have about six different sounds and I believe I only have heard a few like their ¢wail¢ and ¢tremelo.¢ Just like the cicadas would put Coach to sleep, the Loons would put us to sleep. Here is a link where you can hear their sounds and be sure to click on the video. Imagine being in your tent near a pond and going to sleep with these wonderful sounds. I will miss this. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/common_loon/soundsWe got on the trail around 8am. It is hard to believe that we only have 56 more miles to go. The trail was leading us away from the river but quickly went by some ponds. Jo Mary Lake seemed pretty big. At one point, the trail led us over another beaver dam to cross. Sure am glad that they are good, little builders. The trail continues to be fairly flat but with lots of boards to walk on over the bogs. Some of these boards are barely holding together, while some are leaning right into the bog. When your hiking sticks go into the bog, they may sink up to 2-3 feet. So if you were to slip, your sticks would only sink and down you would go. In shelter journals, there were a couple of cartoons made from hikers that depicted hikers at the bottom of the bogs. We made it to Wadleigh Stream Lean To and we had the shelter to ourselves. We snuggled in our sleeping bags with Bella sleeping in between us but mostly under Twix¢s sleeping bag and of course, she¢s facing towards the outside. We were just about to sleep when Bella began growling¢¦loudly. This growl I had not heard before. It was a deep, ¢you better not come near¢ growl. She stood up between us and we let her growl away while we were trying to figure out what she was growling at. Within a few seconds, two hikers came in front of the lean to with their headlamps on. We asked what their names were, but they didn¢t respond. They probably didn¢t hear us due to the loud growling. They quickly walked around and then found a campsite for their tent about 30 yards from the shelter. Once, they started setting up their tent, Bella was convinced that they were not going to intrude and stopped growling, laid back down and kept an eye on them for the rest of the night.   Salsa