June 16
End: Long Pond Stream Lean-to
Miles: 24.1
Total: 3945.5
I got up and left as the other hikers were preparing a campfire for breakfast. The only thing on my mind was getting to Monson before the post office there closed, which would be early since it was a Saturday. I had a food drop waiting.
As I walked through the woods I started to have a bit of a bad feeling. My data book showed Monson as being two miles off of the trail, but didn’t mention what road went there at that point. The signs on the trail indicated it was just a side trail. Sure enough, I soon arrived at a side trail to Monson. Instead of walking the two miles, I pressed on to Maine 15, where I would have to hitch to town to get there in time.
I was very lucky at the road. As I got to the pavement a truck flashed by, and I stuck out my thumb. Seeing my thumb from his rear-view mirror, the truck stopped and gave me a ride to town.
In town, I went over to Shaw’s, where I picked up a package with some socks since I had lost all the clothes I wasn’t wearing sometime just before or in Stratton. It was there that I met Iceman and Samus. Viking was inside Shaw’s and I didn’t see him. I moved on and went to a local barbecue joint.
I had a fantastic sausage sub, recharged my phone, then tried to hitch back to the trail. It took about a half an hour, but I got picked up by a girl and her family. She was Southbound on the trail and had just finished the Hundred Mile Wilderness, where I was going.
They dropped me off and I walked past the sign warning me that there was no food for a hundred miles. That might seem scarier if I hadn’t carried food for over a hundred miles several times before. I walked for a few miles, passing a hostel and a cooler. When I first saw the cooler I thought it was the first trail magic I had seen in a long time. Actually, there was a cash box in the cooler and prices for everything.
Disappointed, I hiked on and passed a few ponds and the first lean-to in the wilderness before stopping to do some journaling. As I sat there Iceman and Viking caught up with me, and we all moved up to a decent view just ahead before sitting down.
I wanted to hang out with them because they were the last northbound hikers I would see. We eventually got up and hiked on. Their original plan was to go far and perhaps into the night, but as we took longer and longer to cover ground, they settled for Long Pond Stream Lean-to.
We had to do a ford or two before we got there, but we rolled in before dark. There were South bounders there, and we talked for a bit during dinner before I went to bed.