Date: 2014-08-09
From: West Carry Pond Lean-to

To: The Sterling Inn via US 201
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: overcast clouds

All the effort paid off - caught the early ferry, caught up to Chocolate and Cheese, and ran into an old friend Wet Dog! Birdman moved on but now I will be hiking with the Swiss couple - moving on to Monson!After yesterday's effort, I was surprised that I woke up early feeling ready to try and hit the early ferry! Probably had something to do with sleeping on the shelter floor - not as comfortable as the hammock! Since I was up I decided to give it a try - Birdman was up too and planning on hitting the ferry too. 13 miles before 11:00 - let's do it!Lots of nice trail today - I was making great time throughout the morning. Birdman caught up around East Carry Pond and we ran into some loons on the pond - Birdman got some great shots with his camera but I couldn't get a good shot with my camera. Neat to see the loons in action, diving underwater and swimming around!After East Carry Pond, there was a lot of nice walking - even the moose thought so! Found some moose tracks along the AT - unfortunately no moose sightings today. Walked by Pierce Pond on the semi dammed up edge looking over into the pond and down to the stream as well - neat!A couple of points of confusion later, still on time for the early ferry but the trail tried making it tough on me. I slipped several times along the way and fell twice - one semi fall, one full fall to the ground. The second one knocked the wind out of me! I started taking a little more time walking but still moving towards the ferry - Birdman caught up with me and pushed on ahead to flag the ferry down.When we arrived at the Kennebec River, the ferry was on the other side of the river and we didn't know how to get the ferry guy over. Birdman yelled and it caught the ferry guy's attention, so he came over and picked us up. A very nice guy and very talkative as we got ready to "ford" the river - or follow the official route of the AT! I helped paddle the canoe across the river and it was a fun time - I remember whitewater rafting this river when I was younger! We just missed the shuttle to Northern Outdoors so we walked towards the post office to call the shuttle - lucky for us an older couple stopped by and offered to take us there! Surprise trail magic! Northern Outdoors was a nice place for lunch and it even had a hot tub - it was very refreshing to sit in the tub after lunch and soak the sore muscles! Service was a little slow out on the porch but overall a nice place. Also glad I didn't stay in the hot tub - it got swamped with people later in the afternoon. Barely room enough for everyone in it!Several familiar faces appeared for lunch - Chocolate, Cheese, and Wet Dog! I haven't seen him since around the NOC and I found out he flip flopped and is going SOBO now since he took ten days off in PA. Great catching up with him and glad to see him still on the trail and enjoying it! The Swiss are staying at the Sterling Inn so I have some people to hike with tomorrow since Birdman is moving on today - he wants to finish by the 17th so he needs to keep moving!I bid Birdman and Wet Dog farewell and rode the shuttle to the Sterling Inn - what a nice place! The owner greeted me at the door and showed me around - a very friendly gentleman running a good business! The rooms are pretty nice and he has an excellent resupply! I got cleaned up and dried out and settled into my room and relaxed the rest of the day. Listened to comedians on the Kindle and journaled up the last couple of entries - almost near the end of my journaling days!Monson - 100 Mile Wilderness - Katahdin! Let's do this!