Date: 2003-09-30
From: Pierce Pond Lean-to

To: Pleasant Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 9.7
Weather: scattered clouds

Just a typical day on the AT. For breakfast we had: 24 pancakes with fresh apples, blueberries, & rasberries; 4 eggs over easy; sausage (for Moo); glasses of pink grapefruit-pineapple juice. For lunch: cheeseburger and veggiburger with onion, lettuce & tomato; homemade chocolate chocolate (yup, that's 2 chocolates) chip cake; homemade chocolate chip cookies; diet coke. Gotta love the "wilderness" experience!Last night we woke up several times (nothing unusual, we always do when sleeping outdoors, maybe b/c we're on constant moose & bear alert or something) and were treated to a sky teeming with stars -- gorgeous. This morning a beautiful view of Pierce Pond greeted us. There were several boats trolling around on the water, getting in some early-morning fishing before breakfast at the Harrison Camp fishing lodge. We got up and dresed quickly so we could make it to the Camp by 7:30 sharp for our breakfast. Walked the 4/10 of a mile there and arrived a few minutes early and relaxed on the porch overlooking a river. Then got called into breakfast, and had the amazing breakfast described above. We dined with Happy Feet and all had happy bellies at the meal's end. Met Matt, who works there (and was in one of the trolling boats on the pond early this morning) and the Harrisons, who run the place. We then had a nice 3.5 mile walk along a stream, heading toward the Kennebec River. We've been hearing about that river for a while, because hikers are strongly warned NOT to ford the river but to take the ferry across b/c when the dam releases water, which it does unpredictably, "you cannot cross faster than the water rises!" Kind of scary, right? But when we got to the river, the water level was low enough that there were several sand bars poking through. We decided not to chance it though and took the "ferry" across -- which was actually a canoe paddled across by a raft guide from the Northern Outdoor Center, funded by the Maine AT Club. We had to sign waivers and wear life jackets. After all of the buildup, the ride itself took all of 3 minutes and we made it across without incident (not very dramatic, but we were happy to reach the opposite shore).We then walked another couple of tenths of a mile to the thriving metropolis of Caratunk, ME -- a town comprised of 34 houses. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in beauty. We stopped by the Caratunk House and had a great lunch of burgers made by Paul. Then strolled over to the post office in the sun and picked up packages. We got our last maildrop from 42's mom! The package came complete with homemade cake, yum. Mom & Harvey, thanks for all your help with our food drops, you're fantastic! We also got a terrific care package from Dimple Rock & Wrong Way Brown -- as fellow hikers, they knew exactly what to send, and we didn't need much more to resupply after getting their granola bars, power bars, toilet paper mini-rolls, minishampo, candy bars, Heet, wet ones, Lipton dinner, plastic bags, and chocolate chip cookies -- thank you Wrong Way & D-Rock!!! (We kind of scared ourselves when we realized how excited we got from the ziploc bags -- we were almost as happy to see them as to see the cookies -- we've been out here too long!)Hit the trail at 2:15 and had a pleasant 5.7 mile walk to the shelter. Got there to find Happy Feet already settled in. Had a great dinner of cake & cookies, followed by mashed potatoes and the care package Lipton dinner. Bullfrog and Bumblebee arrived in the middle of our meal. Good to see them again. And now we have a nice full shelter, which is good b/c it's supposed to go down into the 30's tonight, so the more body heat, the better. It's supposed to go back up to the 60's during the day though, so hopefully that will happen and we'll continue to have the great fall hiking weather we've been having -- just sun & crisp weather.