Date: 2007-08-11
From: Moxie Pond inlet

To:  Caratunk
Miles today: 11.7

Mist over Moxie Pond>We crossed over the next bald, Pleasant Pond Mountain, in the morning with lovely views. We sat on the top for a while and ate a Snickers bar each. Snickers bars are what everyone eats on the trail and we picked some up out of the hikers' box at Shaw's. Think I can give them away. The rest of the day was basically all downhill to the road to Caratunk. We met a lot of people grunting up the other side of the bald. It is Saturday so people are out and about. Pleasant Pond was a clear pond, unlike so many we have seen which are dark with tannin, and there were quite a few houses dotted about. It is obviously a holiday spot for some lucky people.We are staying at the ferryman's place not far from the trail. He has a few services for hikers, including a bunk house, a small shop with supplies and a port-a-loo, but there are no shower facilities or anywhere to eat a meal. So he gave us a ride along the road to an establishment called Northern Outdoors. It is in the middle of nowhere (it seems to us) and is absolutely jumping with people. They do rafting and someone is walking around with a scuba tank so maybe the ponds provide opportunities for scuba diving. They were very hospitable and didn't charge us for using their showers. There was also a very welcome restaurant. Our next obstacle, the Kennebec River, runs along on the other side of the road. We had seen signs on the AT that no-one is to ford this on foot although it looks quite shallow, as there is a dam up higher and they release water without warning. The water level in the river can go up by a few feet when this happens and you would not want to be caught half way across. The ferryman runs a ferry service especially for hikers which we will take tomorrow. Apparently this crossing has caused much controversy over the years since there is a strange breed of hikers known as purists whose goal it is to put a foot on every inch of the trail - otherwise they do not feel as if they have really hiked it - thus the river must be crossed on foot. We are not purists and will take the boat even though we wonder if we'll have to get out and push as the river looks quite low. A Hiker Crossing the Kennebec on the FerryHere are some general impressions we've had of the trail so far. We are reasonably at home here after our NZ experience - roots and rocks abound in Maine, with some mud added in. It is a bit reminiscent of the Marchant Ridge in places and in other places a bit like going into the Tauherenikau Valley. This terrain is punctuated by granite domes a bit like the Bibbulmun in Australia, with the vegetation gradually taking over but still with quite large expanses of rock, which can be slippery if wet. There are pretty good views from the tops too. The altitude is approximately 700 meters so not too far. We have averaged about 700 meters climbing per day since starting, so there is a fair bit of climbing to do. Quite a lot of it is gentle uphill but then you get rock scrambles, especially as you get nearer the tops. There are lots of ponds in Maine, and mostly we've been able to swim at the end of the days. The water is mostly pretty dark with tannin, but today we saw a lovely pond with nice clear water so they are not all like that. The downside is bugs, including no-seeums, mossies and biting flies. It is good being at the end of the fly season, so there should be fewer bugs as we go south. Camp last night had lots of no-seeums, I think they live in the ground and just wait for food to come by. Seems our purpose in life is to feed the bugs.Wildlife is far more limited than we thought it would be. This morning we saw a couple of moose (meese?) in a rather swampy area - they saw us first and crashed about in their hurry to get away from us but we got a reasonable picture. I saw a little brown furry critter playing around on a log dam but no-one seems to know what it was. We have seen some garter snakes, in fact, it seems I may have stood on one! Then there are the mice! I got a good picture today as one of them was playing with us at a shelter that clearly it was the owner of! It tried to climb up my leg at one point, but most of the time contented itself with trying to get into my pack when it thought I wasn't looking. Squirrels and chipmunks abound too, but are not so much trouble unless at a shelter where they have learned that people have food. Fortunately our bear bags seem secure against the most determined critter. Other than frogs on the trail and some birds, but not too many, we haven't seen much else. There is a rather slimy slug that likes to camp out on the forest floor and get into our gear. Dave found one in his boot this morning and they are always wrapped around the control for the cooker or on your water bottle. Bears are yet to come . . . .The forest is very leafy, and green. There appears to be no nasties (we are yet to encounter poison oak and ivy), so no nettle or bush lawyer. There is a lot of dry fallen timber and the firs and spruce have lots of low branches so bush bashing is not so good. Also there are lots of large rocks underfoot most of the time so travel anywhere off the trail is quite hard work.There has been a heat wave since we started so temperatures have been unseasonally high with high humidity. Everyone is complaining about it. We keep expecting it to cool off but so far no luck. Daytime peaks have been about 26 degrees C but one day got to 36. It gets down to about 12-19 degrees at night, very pleasant.People are so far invariably friendly and helpful. Dave's $3 umbrella broke on first use and the owner of the general store in Monson (ex-aircraft mechanic) who had all the tools at his disposal, helped Dave to fix it for which we were extremely grateful. We have also found people are willing to run us about. Since this is a car-oriented society there are quite large distances involved if you want to get somewhere, and currently we are using the computer at the establishment along the road from where we are staying - to which we have just been ferried by someone staying at the other place. Computers have so far been free for anyone's use. In Monson, the librarian took her duties of looking after the interests of hikers very seriously and chased away the local children when a hiker came in. They had three computers there, not bad for a small town of 600, and the connection was pretty good too. She also insisted that I take a free paperback from the library.We have not been so keen on the shelters. They are small (max 6 or 8) and if full you have only 6 by 2 of space you can call your own. There is no space for your gear or for cooking. So far they have been infested with mice and other critters, not surprisingly of course. They are three-sided, with a very small overhang so if there is wind and rain it just blows in. The porcupines have munched the front of the boards of most of the the sleeping benches. Apparently they like sweat (salt) so they will eat any timber that has been in contact with hikers' sweaty bodies. Porcupines also like boots! And toilets, or "privies" as they call them. Each one has a sign exhorting hikers to shut the door firmly or the porcupines will eat the building! We haven't seen any of these ravenous beasts yet. Sunset in Caratunk - photo by JustJoe