Date: 2014-09-22
From: Carlo Col Shelter

To: Moxie Pond 
Miles today: 15.5

Astroguy was the first one up in the cabin. I got up a little after 6:00, packed up and we all went to the lodge for breakfast. I slept pretty well in the cabin, have I mentioned how well I like this place? Tim said we could come up a little early for coffee so we headed up the hill at 6:45. I went to the bathroom first and there was a tiny snake on the top step, He was so small he could hardly wiggle himself out of my way. Breakfast was amazing, 12 blueberry pancakes with apples, strawberries,powdered sugar, and eggs with sausage. Toots, J-Rex, Navigator, and Hog Driver were at breakfast too. We left just before 9:00 and had one interuption just up the trail. Someone had left their hot campfire and it had started burning up a tree beside it. They also left their dry wood stacked right beside it which was pretty stupid. We spent close to an hour putting out someone else's fire. As we walked up the trail the Red Squirrels were chattering at us and I imagined that they were thanking us for saving their forest habitat. Usually they are chattering angrily at us but today they didn't mind us being in their woods. At least we still made it to the river for the morning shuttle. Hillbilly Dave shuttles people across from 9:00 -11:00 in the morning and 2:00-4:-00 in the afternoon. The Kennebec River is too dangerous to ford because of a dam upstream can change the depth quickly. The ATC provides the canoe to get hikers across safely. When No Rush and I got to the road we had to walk about a mile to the Sterling Inn. We had a package sent there earlier. It was built in 1816 and started out as a carriage stop. They have 178 guest rooms, it is a huge place with a long wrap around porch. Eric is the owner now, he has run it for 2 1/2 years. He is very hiker friendly and I would have stayed if it wasn't early in the day. He was a former professor at Oklahoma State and really enjoys running the Inn. He has a nice resupply for hikers and Dirty Dan gave us a free ride back to the trail. Eric told us that the Caratunk Post Office will be cutting back to 2 hours a day in October. As a former postal employee I don't like to hear that and it will hurt hikers as well. We started hiking again at 12:00 after walking back down to the road from the parking area. We didn't want to skip any white blazes. We stopped at Pleasant Pond Lean-to at 2:30, a hike of 5.7 miles. Chip, Engineer, Delaware, and Sassafras were there, I was surprised that we had caught up with them. We decided that we had time to walk a few more miles so we left after taking a short break. We hiked up Pleasant Pond Mountain (2470 feet) although it really wasn't a pleasant hike up. It was cold on top but we had good cell phone reception so I was standing up there shivering while trying to send out pictures and messages. I saw 2 more snakes this afternoon right on the trail. We got to Moxie Pond about 6:00, didn't see the camping area so we set up camp just off of the road in some grass. By the time we got water, fixed dinner, set up our tents, and hung our bear bags it was 7:30. It gets dark at 7:00 now so we need to stop hiking by 6:00. I worked on my journal and set up a schedule to hike through the 100 mile- wilderness. We will try and finish it in 6 days but we still have 24.8 miles to get to Monson. Only 139.3 miles to go.