Date: 2008-08-08
From: Pierce Pond Lean-to ME

To: Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to ME
Miles today: 18.7

Day 173 Friday August 8 ¢ Bald Mountain Brook Lean-to ME - Miles Today: 18.7 Total Miles: 2039.7Tim Harrison, who owns a camp just up the trail, stopped in at the lean-to last night and told us there was a chance that the Kennebec River ferry would not be running this morning. He suggested we stop by his cabin in the morning to get an update. So this morning we stopped by his cabin and waited for an hour while he tried to call the ferry paddler. He could not reach him. So unfortunately we lost an hour of hiking time and did not learn anything. We decided to continue our 3-mile hike to the river to see if the ferry was running. It took longer than Tim suggested it would take as the river was swollen and had taken over the trail in some places. Plus I think his estimated time was aggressive. Not too many hikers can hike a pace of 3.3 mph, especially those that only stand 5¢3¢ tall. Ugh. We hate it when non thru-hikers, or tall people, give us unreasonable hiking time estimates.We got down to the river about 9:45 and looked across and saw the man, ranger Dave, who paddles the canoe sitting in his truck waiting for customers! Yeah! We had already made the decision that Grasshopper would be the second paddler, as Brakeman¢s shoulders are not the best. The river was running fast, but we were able to paddle across to the other side with just few a minor challenges. It was a hard paddle. We could not aim directly for the other side, due to the force of the river. We aimed considerably upstream and still were pushed past where we should have been. The ranger got out of the canoe and walked it along the shoreline to where we were to be let off. The current in the middle was running 5-6 mph and the flow was 11,000 cubic feet per second. Above the dam, it was running at 20,000 cubic feet per second. The rangers close the ferry service when the flow is 12,000 cubic feet per second. Whew, we made it safely and were on the other side at 10:00, although we now had a seasick Brakeman.We still had 15-miles to go today, so we said a quick thanks to the ranger and booked up the trail.   We debated about whether to pull into Caratunk, as we didn't think we could pull off 15 more miles after the ferry with such a late start, but we decided to go for it. We mentally beat ourselves up for letting Tim Harrison take control of our hike. We should never have hung around his cabin for an hour waiting to see if the ferry was running ¢ but the coffee was good. Then to top it off, he told us that an 18-mile day today wasn't possible. We pulled into the shelter about 5:45, after making great time. In addition to our normal trails filled with bogs, creeks, streams and everything else, we actually had some decent trail today. It wasn't too bad of a day despite the 18.7 miles. We¢re not feeling tired at all, so perhaps a day with better trail helped a lot. We had 4 fords today, of which only one was listed in our guidebook. The tremendous rains over the past weeks caused the 3 additional fords for us. Between the fords and the light rain we had until about 2:00, we were again soaked all day long. It's becoming the norm though, so it really doesn't matter. The sun never came out today. We're not quite sure what it looks like anymore. Grasshopper fell today so the score is now 20-18, but plan on Brakeman closing that gap soon. At the shelter with us today is a sobo, Stilts, and a couple middle age-ladies who have set their Black Diamond tent up in the shelter and have strung all their wet garments from nearly end to end. Grasshopper tried to share with them our experience of the Black Diamond tents not being totally waterproof, but they were not buying it. Of course, if you set a tent up in the shelter every night, I guess there¢s less of an issue.It's about 8:00 and we¢re sleeping in the shelter again. We have a new routine, which is quite delightful in this cold raining weather ¢ we eat our dinner while sitting in our sleeping bags in the shelter. I know ¢ a huge no-no, but what can I say. It feels great. It's about time to put the DEET on our faces and crawl into our sack. We have to put DEET on our faces to keep the mosquitoes at bay while we sleep. It doesn¢t always work. Brakeman had a mosquito trying to bite his eyelid the other night. Because of the shelter spacing, tomorrow we only have 13 miles to hike, but we get to go over Moxie Bald and do one more ford. Should be a good short day and we look forward to it. Goodnight.