Date: 2014-09-20
From: Past Iron Mtn. road

To: stealth
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: few clouds

In which I feel like a character in a movie and my life seems surreal today.No need for coffee this morning! I had one cold river to cross, that'll wake you up. But I did have coffee anyway! A half mile after camp was the cold river with slippery rocks, no line to hold on to and no rocks to fully hop across. So that meant changing shoes into crocs for a walk across the river in some cold, eye opening water. Thankfully this river wasn't too deep, knee deep at the deepest and the current wasn't too swift. My toes were numb by the time I crossed this wide river. That was enough to wake me up and get me going because it was too cold to sit and linger. My feet even stayed cold for about another half hour into hiking. I did linger briefly as I changed back into my hiking shoes as a Ridge runner was there doing an informal survey of the hikers coming across. Chatted briefly and moved on.This morning's walk was pretty along the river. I was on a moose hunt again. Poop was everywhere along the trail. The forest was perfect...cool, piney, boggy. I expected to turn every corner and see a moose, but yet again they evaded me. I did see some bear scat on the trail but no bear either.I had 4 mountains to conquer today and the plan was to do them all before the weather came in. I'm happy to say that goal was accomplished, sort of. AWOL's guide said we would be offered a view of Katahdin from the N. side of White Cap, the 4th and final climb. Well, by the time I summited the mountain it was socked in clouds, the temperature never left the 30s, the wind was gusting and drops of rain were falling. Hence no view. The wind was blowing so strongly that it whipped the strap from my pack across my eye. I couldn't see briefly and was left with one really red, sore eye.I met a few more hikers I had been trailing. There seems to be about 10 of us traveling at the same pace all interspersed among the forest. The forest, by the way, was really beautiful and different. It was filled with beautiful pine trees and a pine needle floor and the ground was covered in all green. Everything was velvety green covered in moss, the rocks, the logs, the trees. I felt like I was in The Lord of the Rings. It was really cool and a little creepy at the same time especially when the trees were singing.We made it to the final shelter and decided to press on to the next river crossing in hopes of finding a stealth spot to camp. Well that didn't exactly happen. It was getting dark, the trail was about to go straight up a mountain and there were no stealth sites and crossing. So we just stopped, walked into the woods and set up camp in the middle of the woods. I've never done that on this trip yet, so that was cool...and a little creepy again. It's a day for creepy. But I don't have time to worry about that too much. I'm exhausted. Was stressing a little about setting up before dark, cooking and hanging my food. The darkness won out but it was a fun experience in the company of friends and another story to tell. My feet are throbbing and my body screaming at me. I'm glad to be snuggled in my tent ready for sleep.I felt like a character in a movie today walking through the green mossy forest hunting moose and bear trekking forever North.