Date: 2015-09-14
From: Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to

To: Nahmakanta stream campsite
Miles today: 15.7
Weather: clear sky

When I got up this morning, I told Gary this day had real potential to make the list of 'five most miserable days on the trail'. In the end, it probably didn't make the top five, but top ten? Sure!It had started raining before midnight and rained, sometimes heavily, all through the night. I know I have said this before, but camping in the rain is just a miserable experience as far as I am concerned. We decided not to have coffee and tea right away, but just set up the tarp when we got to the road to wait for our food drop and have coffee and tea then.Sasquatch's shin injury was really bothering him when he got up during the night, so he wanted to take it slow and see how things would go. I was ahead a little bit (I think that's a first) but I waited at stream crossings and bog boards do he could use one of my poles.The trail was super easy today, which was a lifesaver. Super easy still means full of mud, bogs, streams (sometimes the trail was the stream, or the stream the trail), and roots, but it was pretty much all level. We made good time and got to Jo Mary Road, where our drop delivery person would meet us, by 8:30. Our drop was scheduled for 9 -9:30 so when I saw a car driving by just as I was walking towards the road, I didn't think anything of it. Even in the 100 mile wilderness, roads have cars on occasion! A couple of minutes later though, the same driver returned and he turned out to be our delivery guy. He had our food, took our trash and even brought us a couple of cold Cokes in a cooler. Even though it was drizzling and fairly cool, we guzzled those Cokes down pretty quickly. We sorted through our food, deciding we didn't need all of it. And most importantly, we got a weather update. The rain was supposed to clear out today with showers still possible in the evening, but the next four days were said to be spectacular! High seventies and sunny, which is very warm for Maine this time of year.Heartened by this good news, we continued on, skipping the coffee and tea altogether. After all, we had had Cokes! .We decided to have lunch at the shore of one of the many ponds or lakes here. I think it was Jo Mary lake but I'm not positive. It was beautiful though, even in the grey mist. It had stopped raining but started again when we were cooking our ramen for a second hot lunch day in a row. Bad timing!Not long after, the sun started to come out and I had to change shirts because I got too warm. Two seconds after I had done so, it started pouring! I was soaked in 30 seconds, after my shorts had just gotten dry, too. Oh well.We passed an area where there is a view of Katahdin but it was covered in a cloud. There are a few more chances, the best one apparently tomorrow. Hopefully that spectacular weather will actually appear!After about 300 more bog boards and a few more stream crossings (which I just walked through in my hiking shoes since they couldn't possibly get any wetter), we arrived at the campsite (which apparently is one word. Who knew?). We were still setting up, hanging stuff in trees in the hopes it would dry, when it started raining again. Argh! We had to scurry to get all our stuff under cover, and none of the drying and airing out actually happened. The other thing that put a damper on the evening is the fact that one of the layers of the hammock is ripped almost completely in half. Hopefully Sasquatch won't fall through the other layer, or we are going to be mighty cramped in my one-person tent! Hammocks are mysterious and temperamental things, it seems to me, though Sasquatch had another very comfy night, and got the set up right in one shot today, so there is that.Again, the tarp saved us from being too miserable while we made a latte (big word for what it was, but at least it was hot!) and then had dinner. Sasquatch did name our wet little camp site Camp Misery though! It seems that we are in between bubbles, and shelters and camp sites are very quiet. Yesterday the only other people at the shelter were the red-haired twins, Grant and Scott. We saw them several times throughout the day and they are here again also. The only other people are Tick and Pocahontas, who arrived late. Late being a relative concept of course, given that it's still before eight and they got here a couple of hours ago.After dinner, and after it stopped raining, however temporarily that may be, we took a little excursion to the stream, which is very pretty. The first few miles tomorrow follow the stream to Nahmakanta lake, after which we have a few bumps to get over. As long as we get that 'spectacular weather', it's all good. I look forward to getting stuff dry and possibly even clean-ish!Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?