Date: 2014-08-12
From: ME 15

To: Long Pond Stream Lean-to
Miles today: 15.1
Weather: light rain

What a great first day in the 100 Mile Wilderness! Beautiful weather, nice hiking, and some nice scenery along the way - can't complain!After finally going to bed last night (it was such a good book!) Phil dropped me off at Shaw's for breakfast - and it was good too! I ate with Chocolate, Cheese, Listen, Squirrel, and Raven while enjoying OJ, eggs, French Toast, home fries, bacon, sausage - and you can have as much as you want! I only had one round of food which turned out to be a mistake later on - I was full then but became hungry very quickly after starting to hike!Phil picked me up at Shaw's and drove me back to the trailhead so I could begin the hike. I can't stress enough how helpful and friendly Phil is so if you need a point of contact around Monson he is a good person to use! So it begins...the 100 Mile Wilderness! It is finally here and I even have a picture of the sign to prove it! I don't have the suggested 10 days of food but I should be ok - I have figured out the food planning pretty well by now. The hike itself wasn't too bad - occasionally had to watch out for the slippery Monson slate and the mud. Walked along several ponds/lakes (don't know how Maine classifies them) and through a variety of terrain within the first couple of miles - from rock faces to pine needles to mud. As the hike progressed I still wasn't feeling my normal energy to go - I cannot explain it this time I had an awesome breakfast and a mostly good sleep and well hydrated. So instead of trying to push through it I just let up and let my body hike at whatever pace it needed - I had enough time and with a shorter day I could afford to get in a little later. The varying pace helped a little but it still seemed hard for my body to hike - must be end of the trail fatigue.Excluding the tiredness it was a perfect day to hike! The sun was shining, it wasn't too hot, I was around familiar faces, and I wasn't pushing the pace - enjoying things as they came along. Stopped for a little bit of an early lunch at Little Wilson Falls and sat for some time reading a book. It was a great spot to relax and settle down and try to regain some energy. The lunch break revived me a little but not as much as normal - so I just kept hiking at whatever pace I hit. I leapfrogged with Cape most of the day and I would pass him, stay ahead for a while, then he would fly by me and I would catch him while he rested. It was nice to hike around someone familiar!A couple more fords today - nothing crazy to report except for a moose carcass by the last ford of the day. It was missing the head so it might have been hunted solely for that reason...otherwise it would be a weird place for a moose to die naturally. So the 100 Mile Wilderness was not as wild as promoted - most of the time was spent alone away from man made objects and people but the hiking still brought me passed many section hikers and some man made features - even walked over a railroad track for goodness sake! Every so often you could here a car noise but I imagine those things will thin out as we go further north. There was one instance of trail magic that I missed - I didn't follow the road far enough! At the very nice trail magic sign NOBOs go right for about ten minutes (per Chocolate's directions) and you will find the cabin with trail magic. They said it was great with drinks and food and the guys even dropped them off at the trail using a big ATV! Sometimes it pays off to look a little harder...After the last ford I said goodbye to Cape and walked under a mile to my destination for the day - Long Pond Stream Lean-to. It was a decent shelter that had a lot of miscellaneous clothes lying about but it was home for the night. Supposedly the rain was rolling in tonight so I opted for a shelter stay. And I was the only one at the shelter for a while - enjoyed the solitude by finishing up a book and resting. The Swiss arrived later and joined me in the shelter and soon we had a fire going - love a good fire! Naked Ninja and Dr. Zoom stopped by for water before heading up to the Barren Ledges for the evening - they were hoping to catch the meteor shower from up there. Except for a group of section hikers coming in later it was an uneventful evening and we turned in early - I was aiming for an early start to hopefully beat some of the rain tomorrow.Oh by the way...UNDER 100 MILES TODAY! From the shelter there is 99.4 miles of trail left - hard to believe it is so close to Katahdin!