Date: 2013-07-16
From: West Carry Pond Shelter

To: Stafford Notch Campsite
Miles today: 12.0

July 16th, day 10. West carry pond shelter to Stafford notch campsite. 12 miles.Hot day, quiet nightSlept in and moseyed off to a late 7 40 start. The hiking was at a pleasant slow pace that felt glacial but kept me with no foot pain. The morning was flat and in the afternoon there was a pleasant climb up little bigelow mountain. All in all an easy hiking day. Only problem was the temps felt up in the 90s again, so there was plenty of sweating and overheating tempered by long breaks in the shade.At 4 30 we pulled into the campsite in the saddle between the two ridgelines. Tomorrow we'll start with a big 1800 foot climb up Avery then we'll ride that ridge line all morning before dropping down to flat for the afternoon hike into Stratton. Shouldn't be too tough, just 10 miles which will put us in town with plenty of time left for chores, especially with a bit earlier start to beat some of the heat. The knee didn't hurt at all today, even the few times I did lock it out. Another easy day and I should be good to ramp up the miles through the end of Maine.At the site live simply got a nice little campfire going and all of us hung around. The crowd was myself, woody, m dot, breeze, a girl my age who just finished up with the army, pastor John an older gentleman who as a lawyer argued a case before the supreme court, peter, who like me doesn't filter his water, and live simply and uni, a pair of friends from Texas. Its a real nice group, all full sobo thrus except me and pastor John who is just out for a section. to make it all even better, live simply has the bitchingest mountain man beard and hair I've seen so far, though he started working on it way before hiking the trail.For uncomfortable moments there was when woody and m dot called an awkward amount of attention to where I got my education as we were all sitting around the fire. They made it out to be elite or special or something but it honestly just felt like school. To me carnegie Mellon was just like any other university with a mix of smart kids and dumb kids getting educated.I'm just looking forward to getting to Stratton, getting a greasy gas station dinner, and resupplying. I had gotten so sick of oatmeal (especially since the stuff I have now is plain unflavored oatmeal) I stopped eating it for a while, but as my food bag has emptied out desperate times have called for desperate measures. I found if I crumble up the oatmeal creme pies and add them to the oatmeal it adds enough of a brown sugary taste to make it okay. I'll say it again, I can't wait til resupply tomorrow. Somehow woody is able to function on incredibly little food. I don't know how he does it, my stomach rumbles would sound like a thunderstorm rolling in if I was on his diet. He's a machine. he's also a lying/sorry telling/joking machine so I don't know what to believe. The other day he tried to tell me the duck looking bird we saw was a hooded merganser and I figured he was totally making that up, but my spellchecker seemed to recognize it so maybe it is a real bird. oh well, the rest of what he says is still chock full of crap. He also got a foot muddy while I went a third day without a misstep so I giggled at him about that.bear bags are up tonight as we're by a water source at the lowest saddle in the long ridgeline, so there is a higher chance of a bear wandering through. most sobos haven't bear bagged yet, and if they have it hadn't been very good. Its been fun watching woody help them out, though in the process a few trees may have been pulled down..gotta get some sleep before the early hike then town afternoon tomorrow. Goodnight!