Date: 2003-08-25
From: Bemis Mt. Lean-to

To: Little Swift River Pond Campsite
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Last night a mouse got into my hair and tickled my head. I was just about to be asleep when Mr. Mouse decided my head would be a good place to look for the chocolate chip granola bar we hid from him. (We left some food on the ground while we were cooking at the shelter and when we came back on of our chocolate chip bars had been nibbled at.) I jumped to a sitting position and woke Ned. We chased Mr. Mouse with a headlamp and urged him out. I then removed the candy wrapper I had in my jacket pocket (which was a part of my pillow0 and we went back to bed.        Today we got up late. Fremont passed us still in the tarptent at 7:30 and told us his plans for town. We would not be going to town today, but instead a campsite by a pond in hopes of seeing moose. Still, we left before everyone else after briefly joining them for breakfast at the shelter.        They all caught up while we were getting water and doing laundry (really just stream rinsing) at Bemis Stream. The walk down to Bemis was lovely ¢ mostly rock and lots of small views. Everyone flew ahead of us after the stream except Puff and Snappy. Puff wasn¢t feeling well so I was able to keep up with them. The four of us ate lunch at Moxie Pond. It was kind of raining and VERY cold, but we stayed dry under some nice trees. I wanted to walk around the pond (not on the trail) and find the boats we had seen on the other side, but Flanders was unenthused so I didn¢t. We continued on together having a grand time hiking and talking in intermittent rain showers. When we got to Sabbath Day Pond lean-to we found the entire rest of the crew (except Fremont) in their sleeping bags rolling cigarettes. Rolling cigarettes is the new trail fad. We sat with them a while but we weren¢t ready to stop, so we flew 5 more miles to a smaller pond campsite. (Smaller ponds have more moose). At the campsite we passed a guy and his young son on a day hike. They asked us how far it was to the next road. It was over 8 miles to the road and they were carrying nothing but a bottle of water and It was 5:45. Basically, they weren¢t going to make it by nightfall, they had no flashlights or food, but they insisted they COULD make it and ran off. Yikes. Hope they made it.Now, it was time to investigate the campsite. The pond was beautiful and what¢s more: CANOES! Two of them by the pond, each with an oar. We cooked dinner quick so we could get canoeing. Unfortunately, our canoe leaked a lot. I spent the entire time bailing water our of the canoe. It was still wonderful to be riding around the pond though. By the end of the journey the level of water in the canoe was almost level with the pond and Flanders was seriously worried about capsizing. We made it to within swimming distance of the shore before I started getting nervous, but BOY was I nervous. But that was all good ¢ a little adventure.        When we got out of the boat we met an amateur mycologist. He had a big basket for collecting fit to backpack straps and when he found out I was a myconite he started showing us all his treasures. It was awesome. At the end he picked a huge velvety orange mushrooms and brushed it off with his myco-brush and left it for us to enjoy (visually ¢ we didn¢t eat it!). He told us to try out some medicinal mushrooms before he left to find his friend.        After the exit of our mycologist friend, we collected wood and made a fire right on the shore and sat there until we were too tired and had to go to sleep. NO moose yet.                                                        Chicken Feet