Date: 2005-07-19
From: 1 mile south of Poplar Ridge Lean-to, ME

To: Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to, ME
Miles today: 19.1
Weather: broken clouds

19.1 miles todaySabbath Day Pond Lean-to, Maine I had my coffee and breakfast and was hiking at 6am. I had a short way to get to the summit of Saddleback Junior Mountain. Calling it "junior" is misleading because it's still a pretty good climb. It was clear out this morning, but still very humid. I could look across and see my next 2 climbs, The Horn and Saddleback Mountain. The Horn was still covered in a cloud, but Saddleback was clear. The clouds that had covered The Horn were gone by the time I got to it's summit. There was a nice wind blowing on the summit and no one around, so I took advantage of the wind and dried all my clothes out. It only took about half an hour. It felt great to have some dry clothes on, but they didn't stay dry long. I hiked down that mountain, then up Saddleback and by the time I got to the top, I was soaked again. On my way down that mountain, I ran into the first nobo of the day by the name of Iceman. There seems to be alot of hikers this year that know of me. Maybe it's the smiley faces I leave in the registers. ;-))) I hiked on and ran into two more hikers that knew me from Moosie and Goldilocks. Their names were Gunther and Pig Pen. We talked about 10 minutes before hiking on. They wanted me to say hello to Mrs Moosie too. I hiked on to Piazza Rock Lean-to and took a break and signed the register. I was only a couple miles from Hwy 4 that goes into Rangley. It was still only about 11am, so I decided to hitch the 9 miles into town, get a hamburger and hitch back. When I got to the road crossing, the 3rd car picked me up. He was a land surveyor who was heading into town. He dropped me off at the general store and I sent in my journal entrries and checked my email before heading to Sarges Bar and Grill for lunch. I had a salad and cheeseburger. The food was fine, but the waitress sucked and I told her so. She said she was sorry...I have to agree. I left her a whole dollar to help her pay her bills. I was still thirsty after my one small coke I had with lunch, so I walked about half a mile to the IGA and got a quart of chocolate milk...umm umm good!! I walked across the street and the first car picked me up. He was the local principal of the school. He was interested in hiking and said he tries to pick up hikers whenever he can. I was back on the trail walking by 1:20pm. I had about 5 miles to Little Swift River Pond Campsite (long name, huh?) I met a lady on the 7 year section hike plan named Two Hats. She was a very pleasant lady in her 60s and hoping to finish the trail this year. When I got to the campsite, there was four hikers there...Castaway, a nobo, Agua and Mr Natural, sobos and Superfeet, a hiker I met in the Wilderness who finished, but came back out to hike somemore. I got my water filled at the spring and they wanted me to hang around, but I still wanted to walk some today. It started raining just as I was leaving. It felt great!! Nice and cool, but the thunder and lightning started soon afterwards. I didn't care for walking with lightning so close, but that rain felt so good after these last two humid days. The rain lasted for 40 minutes and was coming down hard all that time. I was walking through a river on the trail, but I was happy. When I got to the pond near the lean-to, I saw a cow moose in the pond about 100 yards away swimming. She looked like she was just out there playing. I watched her until she got close to shore, then I hiked the last bit of trail to the lean-to. Wing It had hiked in just after me. It turns out she knows Goldilocks, so we talked a while. It started getting busy here with a group of young hikers that came in. Wing It and I set ours tents up on a platform since the ground was a mess from the rain. I ate dinner, went down to the pond and cleaned up a little, then crawled into my tent for the evening.