Date: 2023-08-11
From: Stealth Camping at 2058.1

To: Tent site at 2070.7
Miles today: 12.6

Hiking Day 138, ending elevation 1031 feetAs predicted last night, it rained, but it didn¢t just rain, it poured again in a steady, hard rain from midnight until about 5:30 this morning. It rained so much and so hard that the ground could not immediately absorb the water. Consequently, the ground around us flooded and by morning we had an inch of water at the bottom of the tent and our down sleeping bags were soaked. Kerry was sleeping deeply, so I rolled over and let him sleep. When we final got up, there was but one thing to do, pack up and move on. It took us awhile but with soaked and with heavy water-laden backpacks we were back on the trail by about 6:45 a.m.Within a mile, we came to our first challenging stream crossing, the inlet to Moxie Pond. I don¢t know if a stronger person than Kerry and I could have made it across, but the water was running high and very fast and after last night¢s rain it was even higher and faster. We decided to take our first ATC recommended detour of the day and walk down the road to a bridge, this added some unofficial mileage to the day but we were both happy to not risk our lives so early in the day.After that, predictably, the mud was worse and the water once again was cascading down the trail in lots of places. We forded several streams including one fast one that came up to our thighs. That one was particularly scary for Felix. I took the crossing first, leaving my pack on the other side, then came back across to help Felix whom Kerry had by the scruff of the neck to prevent him from being swept down stream. The current was very fast and keeping one¢s balance while helping a frightened canine was not easy. Kerry handed Felix off to me and we all made it to the far shore. Felix was happy, for sure!We had met three southbounders during the day who told us how dangerously high the East Branch of the Piscataquis River is. Two young people said the current was very strong and the water higher than their waists. The third person told us about yet another ATC sanctioned detour to avoid it. There was a younger couple ahead of us who also decided to take the detour, which we will also take tomorrow, unfortunately adding more miles to our day.Kerry fell again, when his foot slipped on one of those wet slippery rocks, There is nothing more uncomfortable than a wet muddy butt after a fall, I think it maybe worse than the actual pain caused by the fall.One good thing was that when we reached the summit of Moxie Bald, we had some lovely views but even better, there was a very strong wind and unbelievably, in about an hour we had dried out our sleeping bags, the tent and most of our clothes, it really helped lift our spirits: we didn¢t know how we were going to sleep with everything soaked.We saw lots of small brown toads, and lots of moose droppings. We ate the plentiful bog berries and for the first time near the trail I saw lots of pink fireweed.Tomorrow, we hope to head into Monson, we¢ve run out of food so we are highly motivated to get there as fast as we can!People we met today3 Trail maintainers and their Aussie shepherd. One of them was Bill, here all the way from Colorado.