Date: 2021-06-06
From: Little Bigelow Lean-to 

To: Pierce Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: few clouds

17.7 miles to Pierce Pond Lean-toMy birdie friends woke me up at 4:15 just as it was getting light enough to see. I¢m always thankful for their bright and cheerful songs. I left camp at 5:45 to head out to Pierce Pond campsite which is a typical stopping point the day before you have to take a canoe ferry across the Kennebec River. It operates from 9 to 11 am. The campsite is less than 4 miles from the river. So it should not take me more than 2 hours to hike there. I was eager to start hiking and see what hiking for a a day in Maine with out 4K mountains will be like. My legs felt tired this morning, I guess yesterday¢s traverse of the Bigelow range took its toll. The trail conditions were mostly smaller rocks and roots. Just tricky enough to slow me down so I wouldn¢t trip. It didn¢t take long to realize that I was in for a long day of ¢Silk Blazing¢. This is when the first hiker on the trail in the morning clears out the spider webs that extend across the trail. It¢s not too bad unless you hit one with spider at eye level. I now had to watch my feet and glance up for spider webs. If I see the webs in time I use my trekking poles to clear the path. The most disgusting thing is when you see the web just before you hit it with your face. I actually ate a large bug that flew into my mouth, disgusting. The mosquitoes and other annoying biting bugs were out looking for an easy meal of hiker blood. I knock on wood as I type this but so far my Picardin repellent and insect shield treated clothes have kept the bugs from biting. They still occasionally buzz my ears and try to fly around my glasses to get to my eyes. The trail went up and down a few rolling hills. It ran along the edges of multiple ponds. A very pretty day for viewing nature. I saw hundreds of toads and 4 garter snakes. I¢m still on the lookout for a moose. Tonight I should here the Loon¢s call. I had heard their call somewhere else and it wasn¢t as pretty as I expected. The big factor for hiking today was the hot and humid conditions. It felt like South Carolina to me. I made sure that I took more breaks, slowed down my pace and drank lots of fluids. I got to camp at 2:30. Even though I would never stop this early it was kind of nice to leisurely go about my camp chores. I have a picture perfect tent site just above the pond¢s shoreline. I¢m sitting on the bank of the pond right now as I write this. I can here the water rushing out of the pond¢s outlet, various birds singing, fish breaking the surface of the water as they snatch up bugs and of course the occasional mosquito buzzing around my head. Surprisingly they haven¢t been bad at camp. There is a chipmunk hanging around camp looking for food. I usually make sure that I hang my food bag up in a tree whenever I stray from camp. My food bag is made out of some tough material that is supposed to be bear resistant. After dinner I walked back to the shelter to see if I had any neighbors. There was a 72 years old gent who had been doing trail maintenance. He had a lot of interesting information on how the trail gets maintained. He also said that I was lucky because apparently the black fly season has already passed. I don¢t know much about them but people say they are like flying teeth out for a bite of your flesh. A few fly fishermen went out on their boats before sunset. I¢m pretty sure that all they caught were big bites. Today marks the 3rd day in a row that Maine didn¢t try kill or maim me. I could get used to this. Tomorrow I climb over 4 smallish mountains in the 2K foot range. I¢m sure that the climbs will be steep because of course this is New England a region that believes switchbacks are for whimps. Happy Trails, Silver StreakNote: I¢m finishing the last 346 miles that I have left from my 2019 thru hike attempt. The mileage includes a week that I hiked from Springer to the NOC.