Date: 2008-07-30
From: Bemis Mountain Lean-To

To: Piazza Rock Lean-To
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Finally a 20-mile day! And the only mountains were around 2,500 feet. The second day of good weather as promised. Very comfortable with lower humidity and a high temperature of around 70 degrees. I was on the trail a bit later today, 8:30am. What can I say? I got lazy about eating breakfast and packing up.The first order of business were the last mountains on the Bemis Range. Neither was that high. Nor were they that difficult to go over. Actually, the second mountain (First Peak) is lower in elevation than the Bemis Mtn Lean-to I stayed at last night.Then I figured out why the Bemis Stream Trail (which I had crossed yesterday) had not had any water. Because it was just a trail that led to the Bemis Stream - which today I went across just after Bemis First Peak. Of course today I had plenty of water and did not need any from the stream.The remainder of the day was a easy trail with just a few ups and downs. Passed Moxie Pond and then descended steeply down to the Bates Ledges over man-made rock steps. Got a glimpse of Long Pond which lays along the right hand side of the trail for nearly a mile. The trail circled to the right to the shore of Long Pond (with a fantastic beach to go swimming from!) and around to Sabbath Day Pond where I took a break at the Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to and got updated with the shelter register. There were a couple of hikers and their dog packing up at the lean-to and they soon took off southbound from where I had come from. After about 30 minutes of relaxing I worked my way along a rather easy trail with very few rock ledges and made it to the Little Swift River Pond campsite. Never saw the river, but the pond was very nice and there was a canoe at the shore right by the campsite. It brought back memories of my 2006 hike. There were quite a few canoes that I'd see sitting near lakes. Some (maybe most) would have a chain and padlock securing them to a tree. But there were some that were just sitting there, with oars inside. I'd heard that some hikers would take them out for a bit on the lake(s). Never did figure out if that was okay to do, so I left the canoe alone. But it would have been nice if someone had indeed intended for a hiker to do some canoeing. Saw a boxed spring here but not much water inside. But the lake was fine as a water source as long as you purified the water. There were now a few more step-overs and go-unders on this portion of the trail. But nothing that required any real exertion. Made it to South Pond and then had a easy descent the next mile and a half down to Route 4. During this descent I could see a bit of Saddleback Mountain. It looked pretty impressive (and challenging). I'll go over it tomorrow.Crossing Route 4, I somehow got off on a wrong trail. Took me about 10 minutes of hiking onward before I realized there weren't any white blazes. One day I'll learn to pay attention to the blazes. Retraced my steps and got back on the right trail. Crossed over a metal footbridge that goes over Sandy River. The water was flowing through a sluice of some kind. Not sure why there was a sluice there. I also realized that it was a bit unusual for there to be a footbridge. A lot of the other streams and small rivers by this time were requiring you to ford them. At first it seemed like a real pain to take off my boots and socks to ford across bodies of water. But once I realized how long it would take to dry out the boots I got into the habit of wearing my Crocs for the fordings.The trail remained a easy hike all the way to Piazza Rock Lean-To. The caretaker was there and I shot the breeze with him for a while. Given the good weather and a nice breeze, I opted to tent for the night. The caretaker said there was a good tenting spot up a nearby hill, and he was right. Besides the legit tenting spots there are a lot of stealth camp spots because so many people are hiking to Saddleback Mountain. So the caretaker spends time trying to keep them from tenting where they shouldn't.Don't think anyone else stayed at the shelter, which seemed kind of unusual. But there are some nights when a lean-to will have plenty of hikers and others when you have the place to yourself. Just depends on who all haas been hiking in the general area during the day.After setting up my tent I took a walk a bit further up the hill to see Piazza Rock. This is a giant slab that hangs over an area maybe 20 feet off the ground. You can climb up through a gap in the rocks and get on top of the slab. The privy was also interesting - both the outside and inside. There should be a couple of pictures of it in my photo section. On the outside was a sign that said "Your Move". The inside was a "two-seater" (two toilet seats). I remember at least one other two-seater privy, somewhere back in Virginia, I think.Baldpate Mountain