Date: 2007-09-17
From: Rte 201

To: Carrying Place Rd
Miles today: 7.9

Monday, September 17, 2007Rte 201 to Carrying Place Rd (Main Logging Rd), 7.9 milesA comfy night in the cabin followed by a pancake, sausage and egg breakfast cooked by Tim. We share the breakfast table with NOBO¢s Figgy (AKA Twiggy, Piggy, Fergie, Dates. ¢Dates¢ is thanks to Memere.) and Stitch (AKA Fitch, Hitch, Stitches, Stretch, Stench), an artist and photographer. They are traveling ultralight. Stitch has made much of their gear using kits (patterns and ultralight materials) he purchased from www.thru-hiker.com, including their packs, jackets and quilt. Figgy and Stitch have a website www.bltadventure.blogspot.com. Go there and you will fall in love with Stitch¢s beautiful photos. They hope to summit with HeMan and SheRa, who are a day behind due to an encounter with bad weather on the summit of Saddleback.We decide to stay a second night at Harrison¢s. We leave the Cruiser there and take the Element to Rte 201.   A ton of driving today, setting and retrieving cars.15.3 miles on Bowtown Rd, Carry Pond Rd and Ridge Rd to the bridge. 54 degrees according to a thermometer in Moscow.Another 16-plus miles, I think, to the 201 trailhead. 10AM. At the trailhead parking lot, we meet Mala and his dog Tucker. Also a thruhiker whose name I don¢t get. Both he and Mala were at the Monson hiker feed put on yesterday and the day before by WhiteBlaze. Hello to 2 dayhikers, out with a perky little skipperkey dog named Nicky. Hey Dixie, are you having fun in Connecticut?We walk the AT down to the Kennebec. On the 201 side are Mala, Fishing Fred and Roni from Israel. While Steve Longley ferries Memere and Gray Feathers across, I get to talk to all 3! I met Mala at The Cabin a few days ago. I met Fred in Tennessee, hiking with Flash Hand, in 2005. Is Roni surprised that Gray Feathers, Memere and I all know him, vicariously, through Randy and Myra! Roni says it¢s true, as Randy says, that he lived for months on compressed honeybuns. I probably ate 15,000 of them, he says. I can¢t face another one.Steve says this will be his last year ferrying hikers across the Kennebec. He¢s done it for 20 years and it¢s time to put some work into his house and garden to take himself off the grid and become self-sustaining. Time to simplify, to consolidate, he says. A replacement ferryman is being lined up.This is my 4th year hiking long sections of the AT. Seems like more torches are being passed this year than in the other 3 combined.On the other side of the Kennebec, hello/goodbye, good wishes for a successful completion to Figgy and Stitch!Start walking, sun out, sparkling on the surface of Pierce Pond Stream to our left. Occasional puffs of wind, mostly blue sky. Woods coloring.Some abandoned tent caterpillar tents and one extraordinary sunlit strand of silk extending from high up in a cedar on one side of Pierce Pond Stream to the base of a cedar on the opposite shore. How do they do this?Conifer needles cushion the footpath. Now some roots and rocks. Typical Maine, except that there is very little mud and what there is is firm. A beautiful walk. Hemlock, spruce, fir, coloring maples. Tim had warned us about trying to cross Otter Pond Stream on the 3-log bridge. Someone has fallen from the bridge recently, breaking bones. When we reach the bridge, the water level in the stream is so low it¢s no problem at all to simply rock-step across, bypassing the 3-log bridge.We take a break to get water at Harrison¢s.   Memere says if ever I come back here, I¢d like to hike just these 3 miles, over and over again.Short stop at Pierce Pond Shelter.Hello to NOBO Kilgore Trout.Hello to SheRa, HeMan and Safari26. SheRa and HeMan are going to pass up Harrison¢s breakfast, trying to recoup some time, being out at the Kennebec tonight, and taking the first ferry in the AM. They are hoping to be at Katahdin Stream 3 hours behind Figgy and Stitch.Seeing cedar trees the whole hike.4:25 hello to NOBO¢s Pike, Jungle Jim and Yogi.Last 2-3 miles looks like new trail. Not a lot of roots. New bog bridges.Fresh bear scat.We spot our green ribbon at 4:50PM. We¢re out.32 miles to Caratunk to retrieve our other car. Supper at Thompson¢s in Bingham. I was hoping to have the same excellent oyster stew (just like my grandmother used to make) that I had last year, and in 2005, but they¢ve changed cooks. Today¢s stew doesn¢t measure up, at all. Too bad.