Date: 2009-09-04
From: Wilson Valley Lean-to

To: stealth
Miles today: 11.3

My pack felt no lighter today and the going was no easier. A little over four miles into my hike, I came to another river that required fording. Two older men were both crossing the other way. One was taking the more obvious route, in front of me, stepping on rocks with his boots on. The other was taking a path farther upstream and seemed to be having difficulty choosing which rocks to step on. I figured if these guys could make it across without having to take off their shoes, so could I! There was a guideline to hold on to aid in the crossing, so once the guys had made it across, I stepped out into the river, holding onto the rope with one hand, and choosing which rocks to step on. It was all fine until I got to the middle of the river and had to release the rope in order to step onto another rock- now leading away from the rope path. And to make things more precarious, water was rushing over all of the rocks, making them extremely slippery! I stood there looking around me, wondering why I was trying to make the decision of where to go now that I was standing in the middle of the river! I was stuck! I let go of the rope, started to wobble around, and then started to lean backward! I felt I was going in the water for sure (and I hadn¢t even put my camera away!). But my left foot fortuitously ended up placing itself on another rock! I was safe! Somehow, I made my way across the slick rocks unscathed. It was a close call, though, and I knew I got lucky!       I made my way along the river and up the hill toward the shelter, where I expected to get water. However, the stream was completely dried up! I should have filled up at the river, but there was no way I was going back now! I hunted around for any water in the area, but found none! How could this be after all the rain that had fallen in Maine?! My guidebook said there were two small streams ahead, but warned that they were intermittent. I needed water! I started the long climb up to Barren Ledges and took a nice break when I got there. I was exhausted! I called Erik to let him know how slow my progress was and told him that I was out of water and that I could either take the nearly half mile side path to Cloud Pond lean-to to get water from the pond or hope that the streams still had water. He urged me to stop at Cloud Pond. I told him I would decide when I got there, as I didn¢t want to expend the extra time and energy of traveling another mile.   When I arrived at the path, my mind went back and forth as to what to do. Finally, I decided to take it. Olive Oil had stayed there two nights ago and really liked it, and she said that the path to it was easy. Her words ended up being my deciding factor. I had envisioned a gently sloping, nicely-graded, smooth path, but instead found more rocks that were hard to step across, followed by bog bridges. I found nothing easy about it! However, when I finally got there, I found a beautiful, tranquil area, and all I wanted to do was stay there! I made my way up to the shelter, crawled inside and lied down. I was so tired! I decided to take out my sleeping pad and my sleeping bag liner to keep me warm and took a nap for only the second time on the trail! I really wanted to spend the night, but I felt like I had to keep moving or I would never get out of the wilderness! I had to make progress! Around 4pm, I decided I better get moving. First, I went down to the pond to fill up on water.   That turned out to be one of the best decisions I had made on the trail! I saw no streams ahead, and would have been in big trouble if I had not stopped at Cloud Pond! I climbed Fourth Mountain and wished I could set up my hammock there, but there were only small scrubby trees, and I did not have the choice. So I pressed on and on, through the forest and down the rocky steep descents. Then, I found a little flat area with some logs and decided that was the perfect spot to camp! I went about setting everything up, cooked and ate my dinner, and brushed my teeth as darkness fell. The sun was going down much earlier these days, making all of this work more of a race. I had only managed just over 11 miles today- barely a dent in this long section. Tomorrow, I would have to step it up!