Journey Day 324 | AT Day 147

Crossing the Kennebec River in Maine.

8/22/86

Up real early. No see-um attacks resume. Quickly down the bank of the Kennebec River. Watch a southbound hiker ford in the mist with no problem. Follow Dave Carmier from Guilford, ME, across. My adrenaline finds no channel. Turns out to be little more than cold wade until the last section, slightly deeper. I meet a group nervous about the ford. I'm so confident now! Hike up the road and wait for the Caratunk post office to open. Call home.

Get mail, eat, then hike a long road walk up past Pleasant Pond, find Dave at the lean-to. Weird roadside spot. Eat, read register entry about Russell Miller's 188ish miles in 33ish hours. Another Cookie Lady, but no cookies. Push on, meet hikers coming down as I climb Pleasant Pond Mountain. Few views from the summit. Follow a trail relocation yet to be finished over the summit, eat many blueberries. Lost several times, follow orange ribbons along ledges over Moxie Pond, hike down to the road. Meet fishermen who show me the spring. Carry on up across the stream, passing on a cable wire crossing. Talk quickly with a couple at the baseball-bat-bottomed, beaver-ponded Joe's Hole Lean-to. Hike on to a creekside spot. Eat and crash to the great sounds of water rushing in my head.