Date: 2016-08-13
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

To: Tom Leonard Shelter
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I was up at 5:30, packed up and went downstairs for coffee and blueberry pancakes at 6:30. Ate with the other hikers and got ready to go with Mexican Buddha belting out a few more songs. It was humid and nothing dried over night. My shoes were still soaking wet. I tried to tape my left heal but the tape wasn't sticking very well. I was off and walking at 7:30 over a nice patch of trail that followed the lake initially and would transition to rolling ups and downs passing through patches of forest and farm pasture. It was warm and muggy at 7 and got worse 1-2 hours into the day with temperatures reaching 90-100 degrees. In addition, my backpack felt heavy still and was rubbing on the sore swollen spot on my lower back as well as the sore on my left shoulder. Salt from my sweat was getting into the sores and it was a constant irritation. I was miserable and my heal hurt so much I couldn't stand it. To make matters worse, my camera lens had fogged up inside the lens and I wasn't able to take any photos. I was worried that the lens was ruined. 7 miles into the day I put my camp shoe on my left foot, a light weight Merrell sneaker not designed for hiking. It was a relief for my heal though and allowed me to walk somewhat pain free, just with very little support on that foot. With my foot feeling better, my day started looking up. Passing Benedict Pond I noticed that the heat of the day cleared up my camera lens somewhat and took a few photos as another blue heron uncomfortable with my presence, stretched out it's wings, took off and flew to the other side of the Pond. A few miles later, I crossed Blue Hill Rd and found a cooler with fresh water and watermelon slices. I devoured a slice, filled up with water, wrote a short note of thanks in the cooler log and moved on. I was a sweaty mess, but heard that there was a danger of thunder showers from 4:30 on. Not wanting to get caught in the rain, I pushed myself through the day. Crossing paths with a few Nobos, I learned that there was a cooler of cold Pepsi and beer at the next road a few miles away. Reaching the cooler I drank a Pepsi, thought what the heck and drank a beer too. That cooled me off some a reduced the misery index by a few notches - what started out as a miserable day was looking up. Feeling pretty good, I picked up my pace and got to the Wilcox North Shelter at 3:30. There is the Wilcox South Slelter 1 1/2 miles south and halfway there I saw my first black bear. I was walking fast following the trail as it curved around the side of a mild hill, I heard a rustle, looked up to see a side view of a 200 lb bear 30' away. It was me before I saw it and was just starting to run back up over the hill to my right. In a few seconds there was a bear butt disappearing over the hill. I passed Wilcox south at 4 and decided to press on to the Tom Leonard Shelter, just past the Gorge, 7 miles out. I washed down a few nuts with some Nuun and was off. I passed the Gorge, a beautiful rocky area off to the left of the trail at 6 or so and got to the shelter at 6:30. What started out as a miserable day turned out to be outstanding in spite of the heat and humidity. At the shelter I talked to a Nobo there (who was tenting), pulled water from a spring down a steep ravine, made dinner and was in bed at 8:30. Shortly after that there was thunder and lightning and the sky's open up with heavy winds and rain. With that, the Nobo moved into the shelter, the temperature cooled and I slept pretty well.