Date: 2008-09-29
From: .1 past Logan Brook Lean-to, ME

To: .3 past Mountain View Pond, ME
Miles today: 5.7

A balmy warm nite, I was so cozy and Incessant got hot. It was misting when we turned in and foggy the 2 times I got up to water the leaves. I didn't even sleep with my down jacket, which is a first in a long time. We were up by 6:30 a.m. and it was overcast, everything was still soaked and gross. This is sort of one of the most miserable kinds of situations. We knew the weather was supposed to clear out starting today, but that did nothing for our totally soaked hiking clothing, which now was both cold and wet. We discovered we both have a slight sadistic side in that the morning's entertainment was standing there watching the other one put on those cold wet clothes, and then laughing at each other. I know I'll miss a lot about this life, but this is not one of those things. Then squishing my foot into drenched shoes...ahhh...sometimes I wish I were a water-based animal. It was going to be hard for me to stay warm, so I used 2 hand warmers, and put them in my camisole against my ribs. It helped some. We were hiking by 8:30 a.m. I can tell Incessant is starting to find her flow out here with camp stuff. She was ready earlier and there's a sort of smooth motion to packing up when you find the flow. (She¢s calling this her crash course in hiking the AT, and by the way, she has no desire to do the whole trail, just short parts with me¢¦.lucky her¢¦ picked a nice ¢part¢ huh?). First was completing the descent of White Cap Mtn., for about 2 miles. So I don't know what suddenly makes all the leaves change color, but oh my gosh...I have never seen anything like this today. It was breathtaking to see the deep reds, yellows, oranges, and greens. I couldn't stop taking pics. We hiked on thru sometimes muddy wet leafy trail, and made it to East Branch Lean-to by 11:.30 a.m. I was starving of course and devoured my lunch. 3 other hikers were there, Jersey Girl (NJ), Yazzie and Chipmunk (IL). We all talked for a bit, but eventually they all hiked on. We left the shelter around noon and within minutes came upon the extremely swift running and deep east branch of the Pleasant River. We waited for the other 3 to cross and hike on so we could navigate what would prove to be the most difficult and dangerous ford of my entire hike, without an audience.This river was not that incredibly wide, but that was also what made it so deep, it was a narrow channel, and because of all of the rain, it was running high and fast. You could not see the bottom, but could see the shadow of some rocks under the surface, but had no idea how deep the pockets or holes between them were. I put all of my electronics in double ziplocks inside my foodbag, which is a dry sack. If there was going to be a ford I fell in on, it was going to be this one, because let¢s face it, I¢m only 5¢ 5 1/2¢, and the river was coming up to mid-thigh on the men who had just crossed. I unzipped my legs and changed into my crocs. As per advice from some of you and other hikers I talked to in the Whites, I wore my pack, but kept it unbuckled, so if I did fall in, it wouldn¢t hold me under. Incessant prepared as well, and she followed me to the river¢s edge. You couldn¢t easily go up the bank of this river, so the choices of where to cross were limited. I decided for me, the safest route was one where I could always hang on to or have contact with a rock that was above water or close to the surface. I carried both my hiking poles in order to probe the water and check for holes and depths. I first rock hopped from the first 2 boulders, but after that I tried to step onto a third boulder and it just wasn¢t happening. It was wet and slick, so I sat down on the second boulder to lower my center of gravity, which with a loose pack on your back, was all thrown off. I tried putting my feet down, but couldn¢t feel the bottom immediately below me and the water was rushing strongly over my thighs, so I used my poles to find something to step on within my reach. I did find a rock for my left foot, but the problem was after I committed to this step, I had nothing to really hang onto and my poles were going almost all the way under. I sort of got stuck here for a few minutes, trying to probe for alternate routes. I knew if I could make this step and one more, I¢d be able to lean over and touch a rock that was a few inches under the swift waters, which was better than nothing. It took me a bit, but I figured out a way, but this was definitely the most scary part of the ford. The water was up to my mid-thigh, but the speed of it was enough to knock me over if I wasn¢t totally concentrating on balance. One step, two steps¢¦grabbed the rock¢¦whew. Now, it was one more tough area and I could lean and sort of fall forward to a large boulder against the bank of the other side. I managed this and then it was scaling the bank (which had slower water) for about 6 feet to some boulders I could get up on and get out of the water. This did involve forcing myself through some tree branches and wedging my left foot with opposing force to be able step to a boulder in front of me, but guess what¢¦I finally made it! Wow¢¦.what an experience! I¢d heard that all the sobo¢s and nobo¢s going through the wilderness when I was in the Whites when all that rain endlessly fell, had crazy fords and some of the rivers were impassable. You all have my respect if you went through those. This was my last ford of the hike¢¦.what a doozy.So now it¢s Incessant¢s turn. I¢ll admit, I was a bit concerned, mainly because of her tweeky knee. Her clothes were almost dry from the crazy rain we¢d been in, and she really didn¢t want to get them all completely soaked again because warmth is always an issue, so she decided the easiest way to do this was to basically store her lower body clothing and wade across¢¦ahem¢¦¢au naturel¢ from the waist down¢¦which would also allow her to avoid rock hopping with her pack. Now you all have to imagine how hard I was laughing, because I just KNEW other hikers were going to show up and she¢d be there¢¦well¢¦you know (because it seems every single time she changes clothes out here, some guy hikes by¢¦and we die laughing), but as luck would have it¢¦not one other hiker showed. We actually discussed this option prior to us fording and discussed the LNT impacts, but then common sense told me if most of your body is going to be submerged in the water anyways, you¢re actually having less of an impact by not submerging your disgusting hiking clothing.   Needless to say, there are no pictures of Incessant fording this river. And there aren¢t any of me either, mainly because safety was an issue. We both felt we needed to be ready to act if one of us got into trouble and didn¢t think taking pictures would aid in that readiness. I did, however, take pics of the river after we got across, and before we hiked on. You can¢t really tell how deep it was in the pics, but you all will just have to trust me. Man¢¦what an adventure. She¢s getting it all out here huh?This ford, waiting for others to cross, our preparation, getting across, getting dressed, footwear back on, and packs back on took us about 1 hour. Didn¢t quite figure that into our hiking time today. So at 1:30 p.m., we hiked on and started a .7 steep¢ish climb up to Mountain View Pond. On the way up this, I realized it was just going to be too much to ask Incessant to hike another 5 miles today, considering she was still pretty pooped from hiking 3 peaks yesterday, so we came up with another plan.I stopped and looked at the topos and consulted with her¢¦the issue was food now. We were rationing (safely, but it¢s still rationing) in order to allow the 2 extra days to get to White House Landing, and now what I figured out would basically be one more nite and 1/2 a day more, so we¢d need 1 more dinner and 1 more breakfast each. I knew in my mind what food we had left and knew this was totally feasible. I also like this idea because White House Landing doesn¢t come to ferry you to their place after dark, and if we changed to this new plan, we¢d be getting up and only hiking 3 miles tops in, which would give us more time there and no stress about getting there on time. I was liking this plan more and more. And to my liking (and Incessant¢s) this meant we could end our day today in 1.5 more miles, instead of 5. SCORE!! You all know by now, I love these shorter mileage days. I have SO much energy at the end of the day, it¢s awesome, and at this point, it¢s best for Incessant, who as of today, has hiked the hardest 53 miles of the 100 mile wilderness, and I am SO proud of her!So this lifted some pressure, and that¢s what it¢s about. We got to Mountain View Pond, came to a rock outlet and when I looked at this pond, my breath was taken away. The mountain right behind it was layered with the most colorful trees I¢ve seen in my life. A pristine pond, colors behind it, and I almost had to pinch myself because it was like something out of a movie with graphics. Incessant got there and I said, wait till you see this¢¦and she looked and gasped. It was awesome. As we¢re standing there, I saw some wildlife I never expected to see¢¦I believe it was a Northern Pond Weasel, which has a long skinny body, all dark in color, and it was hopping across the rocks and sort of sobo towards the trail. Too fast to get a pic, but still very cool nonetheless. At this point, I knew we could get water here, but the maps and guidebook showed a spring about .3 further, but you can¢t always trust these springs, so I told Incessant I¢d hike ahead, scout out a campsite and try to find the spring. I¢d prefer to get water from a spring than a pond, so I took off. It was really windy at the pond, otherwise there were some fantastic places to hang there. I hiked on and on and on and I¢m thinking, ¢really?¢ where the hell is this spring? I finally hiked what I estimated to be 1/2 a mile and gave up and turned around. I¢d seen a perfect campsite and hoped I¢d get back to it before Incessant hiked past it. On the way back I met a guy and girl with dreds (I asked about how hard it was to dred their hair¢¦I¢ve considered doing mine, but dreds are actually quite a lot of work) and then they said the spring was back there. Man¢¦I somehow hiked right past it!! I headed on and ran into Incessant who had gotten further, and I told her we needed to go back just a bit, and she knew the place I was thinking about. Sure enough, there was a spring, but the sign for it was only on the side of the tree that sobo¢s could see (now I know what sobo¢s feel like when everything is sort of set up for nobo¢s out here). I went down just a bit and this is a GREAT spring. Cold clear water coming right out of Mother Earth¢¦.wow. Way better than pond water. I filled our water tank and then noticed the campsite was literally feet down the trail. Duh¢¦I know by now that you can almost always count on there being a campsite near water.It was only 3:30 p.m. (YIPPY!!!) so this gave us a chance to hang some stuff up and try to dry it more. The sun never came out today and it was still damp, so things weren¢t drying very quickly. We got camp set up and then re-assigned our food to accommodate our new hiking plan. We would hike into White House Landing with absolutely no food, but that¢s usually what you try to do anyways. Good thing I have a tendency to overplan my food huh? Incessant¢s knee got super stiff tonight, and I know exactly how it feels, because mine started hurting on the top, but only after I started using knee bands for the bottom. And FYI, ever since entering the wilderness and doing lower mileage, my knees have felt like gold¢¦.no pain at all. I haven¢t been using my knee bands at all either, so that¢s good. And if anyone is wondering, we¢ve shifted some weight in our packs so that we can give her knee a break. I made dinner, Incessant did clean-up, and we talked about how the trail forces you to make decisions that are best for the moment. Sure, it would have been great if we knocked out 8 or even 10 miles today, but at what cost and for what purpose? You do what you can do and have to go with the belief (or some call it faith) that it¢s happening for a reason. We were both sure we were doing exactly what we needed, so we were both at peace with this decision. With that awesome conversation, and me personally being excited that we¢d have an early arrival to White House Landing, we crawled into our hammocks by 7:00 p.m. I was chilled at first but became super warm again. Gosh I love being in camp¢¦warm, dry, in my hammock. It get¢s no better than this folks. Incessant was snoring in minutes, which I was glad for. She didn¢t sleep the greatest last nite. Well¢¦one day closer. My eyes are involuntarily shutting now, so it¢s time to sleep. It¢s a tiny bit breezy, so I¢m so hoping the stuff we have hanging all over will dry some.   ~Certain