West Carry Pond Lean-To, ME to Moxie Bald Lean-To, ME: Daily miles 32.8, Total miles 2046.4
Huge day. Slept well last night after getting to swim before bed. I didn’t sleep well this morning. The no-see-ums came out around 4AM and that was the end of my sleep. Crazy Legs was having the same problem and without conferring we both got up and moved on by 5AM. The mosquitoes were bad when I got out. This was the first time the bugs had even bothered me. We had to cross the Kenebec River after about 14 miles. This is the largest unbridged crossing on the trail. The ATC runs a ferry across because the current is swift and the dam upstream makes it a little dangerous. I wanted to ford it (some hikers do) but when I got there I realized it wasn’t going to happen. All the rain in the past 2 weeks left the river raging and I sat and waited for the canoe to come get me. We caught the first ferry of the day and at 8am. We already had a lot of miles in and got excited about the possibility of maybe making Monson tonight. We kept moving and made good ground but by the time we hit 30 miles for the day and had 20 to go to town we knew it wasn’t going to happen. My new shoes destroyed my feet. They are in pain all the time now and if I stop walking it is a real struggle to start. That and all the fords making them wet and softening the skin has left me in serious pain. So we stopped about 3PM and had some tea with a southbounder. We joked about doing 30 miles before tea time and I think it scared the southbounder, who was just a young kid. We moved on and did a few miles to the next shelter and called it a day and relaxed. With only a few miles to Monson I am really excited. Monson is the gateway to Katahdin.
