Date: 2018-09-01
From: Moxie Bald Mountain Lean-to

To: Maine 15
Miles today: 17.9

DAY 179Another cold morning, fall is in the air. Chaco mentioned he was cold last night in his hammock, he and Calves were both sitting in the sun by the pond. I went to get water at the nearby stream and we sat at the picnic table and made our oatmeal, which we enjoyed with plenty of blueberries. In fact, there were more blueberries than oatmeal, which isn't a bad thing.Sat by the pond enjoying our tea and watching dozens of frogs sunning themselves along the shore. Occasionally we would see one snap up a bug as the waves rocked them gently back and forth. We were the last ones out of camp, and just as we were leaving a southbound section hiker arrived. She had camped nearby and decided to come to the shelter to cook her breakfast. Most of the camp was heading to Monson today, we debated whether we should nero into Monson or try to make it today.I know Mary isn't feeling well today because the terrain map looks mostly flat, but the many ups and downs had her dragging before lunch. As we walked along the West Branch of the Piscataquis River the trail would climb up a hundred feet or so and then head right back down to the river. We did this up and down multiple times, and at one point we decided to just stop at the river, soak our feet and have lunch.One should never resupply on a full stomach. When we were in Caratunk enjoying milkshakes and pulled pork our options were rice cakes or whole wheat pitas. We thought, rice cakes might be ok to put my spam and Mary's almond butter and jam on. We were wrong! The rice cakes were thin, tasteless and dry, containing only 23 calories a piece. The bag contained around 16 rice cakes, and after making our initial "sandwiches", we choked down all but the one rice cake that fell on the ground and the 2 remaining in the bag that we couldn't choke down even with our hiker hunger. I think if I had pulled an old pizza box out of the trash it would have been tastier and more nutritious to make our sandwiches with. At some point we decided it would probably be better for us to make Monson today and take a zero. We are hoping a day off from hiking will help us finally shake our colds. We tried to get a text out to April and Mary's mom, however there was no service. So, we couldn't let them know that we would be in Monson today. We decided we better get going if we were going to make it to Monson before dark. We figured if we couldn't get a text out at some point along the trail, maybe we could once we reached Maine 15 where we would need to be picked up.After fording the East Branch of the Piscataquis river we climbed up to the Shirley-Blanchard Road where we had originally talked about slackpacking. We decided to slackpack ourselves, so we gathered what we needed and then hung the extra pack and gear in a tree off trail. Shirley-Blanchard Road was very busy today with 4-wheeler traffic.Shortly after we started hiking again Mary was able to get a call out to April to let her know our plan. She said she'd head right out, but we told her it would still probably be 3 hours before we would make it to Maine 15. We moved a little faster with our loads lightened, but with our colds we were still dragging as we climbed Buck Hill just prior to Monson. Earlier April had called back to find the location of our gear so she can hopefully pick that up so we won't be trying to locate it in the dark. We took our selfie for the day at the view of Lake Hebron on the east slope of Buck Hill.We passed Franlinstein and Flyballs who had set up for the evening at a nice site near a small pond. When we arrived at Maine 15 April and Mary's mom were waiting. They had cold beer and food waiting for us when we arrived. And, they were able to locate our gear and pack hanging in the tree and had that with them as well.I know Mary wasn't feeling well, because when we passed a homemade ice cream shop April offered to stop, but Mary declined. There is a first time for everything, and this is the first time Mary has passed up a homemade ice cream stop.Once back at April's we showered and then enjoyed more food as there was a meal waiting for us. Off to bed in a real bed, hoping to get some sleep and shake our colds.