Date: 2004-07-25
From: 1/2 mile north of Bemis Stream, Maine

To: Tenting at Hall Mountain Lean-to
Miles today: 17.0

17 miles todayTenting at Hall Mountain Lean-toI woke up at 4:30am after a great nights sleep. I went out and got my food bag down out of the tree and made coffee and had a small breakfast. It was cool, the low 50s, and I didn't feel like walking yet, so I covered up with my quilt and went back to sleep until 7am. I got packed up and was walking by 7:15. In about 15 minutes, I ran into Pilgram Soul and Lulu. I had met them back when I was finishing my sobo thru hike in February. Pilgram Soul has lost 60 lbs. I got to Bemis Stream and had to ford it and get my shoes wet. I didn't want to get my feet wet that early, but I couldn't find any other way across. I started the climb up to the First Peak of Bemis Mountain. I caught up to Bob and Rabbit on the way up. I decided to go on up to the Second Peak and take a break. I ate some of the gorp that Mailar gave me and it was very good. Thanks Mailar. I hiked on to Bemis Mountain Lean-to and got more water and signed the register. I got there at 10:20. There was a little squirrel that was giving me heck for being there. I think there must have been some food laying around that he wanted. I hiked on up to the Third Peak, then down some before I hiked to the summit of Bemis Mountain. On the way down, I ran into Moonpie who started on March 1st. We talked for almost half an hour. She is already wondering what it will be like to be done. At least she has a job at Pinkham Notch when she's done. That will keep her closer to the hiking world. I hiked down fron there and then up to the summit of Old Blue Mountain. I've been walking through alot of mud again today, but this is the second day in a row that it hasn't rained. I think that might just be a record for Maine. It sems like it always rains here, at least the last two times I hiked through it. The first time we were having a drought year and I never got my feet wet. I was able to rock hop every stream. Singe and Spam were on top of the mountain. They are nobos, Singe a thru hiker and Spam started in Mass. I took a short break and ate some gorp before going down the deep decent. When I got down to South Arm Road, I sat down and ate an early dinner. I thought that if Bear came by, I would go to his hostel tonight and if he didn't, I would hike on. While I was eating, a young 10 year old hiker rock hopped across the stream. I asked him where he was hiking to and he said from Pinkham Notch to Katahdin. I remembered that SloeToe had his two sons out on a hike of that distance. I could hear someone on the other side of the stream and I yelled; "SlowToe, is that you?" He yelled back that it was and asked who I was. I yelled back that it was Stumpknocker. He yelled back; "Stumpknocker, I was warned that you were out here somewhere." He came across the stream pretty quick then. It was good to see him again and to meet his twin boys. His boys yogied some Doritos from me...he's teaching them well. I think their trail names were Magic and The Amazing Hunter. Their names were much longer than that, but I couldn't understand the whole names. They grabbed somemore Doritos and then started climbing the steep mountain that I had just come down. While I was talking to them, WoodRat heard me and came back across the stream and gave me a hug. Her and her boyfriend were only going to hike another 2 miles. Well, Bear never showed, so I hiked on. The climb was steep up Moody Mountain. On the way up, I ran into Condor, Squish and RockHound. I met Squish and RockHound down at Miss Janets back when Liteshoe and I did a section hike earlier this year. Squish said that Liteshoe signed his guestbook a couple weeks ago. She hasn't signed mine in a LONG time, although maybe it's better that way. She would probably just put another link to her website in my guestbook. (Transciber's comment:"You could drive a bread truck through THAT opening..."):http://www.trailjournals.com/liteshoe/Poor, pathetic thing is really getting worried, especially since my number of hits are closing in on her's fast. I hiked the rest of the way up, only to have a very steep 1000 feet decent. When I got to the bottom, I saw WoodRat and California way back in the woods stealth tenting. They didn't see me go by. I climbed Hall Mountain and had forgot how steep it was. By the time I got to Hall Mountain Lean-to, I was ready for a break. I saw LunchBox in the tenting area and walked back and everyone was there. Caveman, Giddy Up, Comando, Cobweb and LunchBox. It was good to see them all again, but I didn't think I would catch them until Gorham. They only walked 4 miles today though. They're getting this thru hiking thing down good. I wanted to stay up longer and sit around the camp fire they had going, but I was tired, so I went to bed. Another great day on the A.T.