Date: 2005-07-30
From: South Arm Road Campsite

To: Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 17.1
Weather: scattered clouds

Miles hiked today : 17.117.0 AT miles + 0.1 mile of side trailI woke up this morning at 5:35 a.m., packed, ate breakfast, and hiked out alone for the first time since naked hiking day. Just beyond the campsite was a tricky rock hop ford of Black Brook, which I managed to cross without getting wet. I proceeded to climb 2,180 feet up Old Blue Mountain, packed a few wild raspberries along the way, and arrived at 8:35 a.m. I stopped for a 15 minute rest, snack, and water break, during which Michael caught up to me, though he quickly outdistanced me once I began hiking again.Continuing on, I had a minor descent followed by a brief climb up to the west summit of Bemis Mountain, at which I arrived at 11:00 a.m. I stopped for a 10 minute rest and water break before continuing on to Bemis Mountain Lean-to. I arrived at the lean-to at 12:10 p.m. and stayed for an 1 hour lunch break.The Bemis Mountain Lean-to is situated in the midst of a number of peaks, all part of the Bemis Range. It wasn't easily possible to tell one peak from another because the trail twisted back and forth along rock walkways in an alpine forest. At 1:50 p.m., I reached a sign notifying me that had I reached the second peak and soon after, I spotted wild blueberries! I bypassed the first few plants but after 5 minutes, I decided that they were too good to pass up. I sat down and took 5 minutes to pick about 50 blueberries. I ate them immediately and could have spent much more time picking and eating, but I wanted to keep moving. Besides a few wild blueberries on Mount Cube and a few wild raspberries scattered here and there, this was the first time I'd been able to pick and eat fruit on this hike.After swirling around the Bemis Range, the trail descended to Bemis Stream. I arrived at Bemis Stream at 3:05 p.m. and was faced with a simple rock hop ford of two channels of stream. On the far side of the stream, I took a 15 minute rest and water break before continuing on. Leaving the stream, I had a steep 710 foot climb up to ME17 followed by a more gradual 330 foot climb up and over Spruce Mountain. After Spruce Mountain, I descended slightly to Moxie Pond, passing it at 4:30 p.m. and, at 4:50 p.m., I happened upon a lemonade stand in the middle of the trail.There was a group of trail angels with a table setup with a sign reading "Lemonade 5 cents or free." Present were Otter, her husband Long-tailed Duck, as well as their daughter Micki, her husband Rick, and their children, Zack and Mack. They fed us crackers with shrimp dip, raspberry pie, watermelon, 3 types of cheese, and lemondade.A group of us sat and talked with the trail angels for awhile and I learned that they'd been doing trail magic for 3 years. At one point, Haiku, a hiker I'd recent met, brought out his guitar and began playing songs. The trail angels were making requests and before long, they offered to bring us dinner at the beach 0.3 mile before the shelter. The amazing part was that they were going to be bringing lobster!The 5 of us present were very excited and high tailed it to Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to to drop off our packs. I arrived at 6:10 p.m. and spent 25 minutes setting up my sleeping gear and grabbing gear to filter water and cook a noodle packet. While preparing my gear, Sean showed up and I told him about the dinner, as he'd missed the lemonade stand.I walked back to the beach and filtered 2 liters of water. Before long, Otter, Long-tailed Duck, Micki, and her boys showed up, though Rick had stayed back at the campsite. It turned out that I didn't need to bring a noodle packet, as they had brought more than lobsters. There was corn on the cob, chips, hot dogs, and cookies. The lobsters had been caught by Long-tailed Duck, who catches roughly 45,000 pounds of lobster per year. Wow! Otter brought me a lobster and taught me how to get the meat out of the different body parts. Before all was said and done, I had 3 lobsters to myself and considered myself very fortunate.Before, during, and after dinner, Haiku was playing songs and we were singing along. The setting sun over Long Pond was beautiful and the company was great. I'd be hard pressed to describe a more fitting end to a long hiking day over excellent terrain.I returned to the lean-to at 9:10 p.m., finding it somewhat difficult to walk the 0.3 mile in the dusk, despite the fact that I had my headlamp. I made it back without incident and crawled into my sleeping bag to journal. Michael and Sean have a maildrop to pick up Monday morning in Rangely, so we're hiking 9.4 miles tomorrow and will try to stealth camp in Rangely to avoid the cost of a hostel.Bedtime at 10:20 p.m.