June 4, 2007 | Miles: 8.3
Start: Bemis Mountain Lean-to
End: Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to
Danielle:
After a night of snoring, we woke up to a chilly, wet morning. Ryan’s watch was reading 46 degrees in the shelter. So on with the raingear, and off we went, heading out at 7:45, last to leave, as usual… the hike up over Bemis Peaks 1 and 2 was up and over some rocky ridgeline, the blooming rhodora were nice purple highlights amidst the green and grey that dominated the rest of the landscape. However, the rocky ledges continued as we descended, and boy were they slick! We had a rough go of it, and it took us forever to navigate the slippery rocks. Ryan was not amused, and wanted to stop hiking once we reached Rt. 17. However, we finally got down off the Bemis peaks, and hit what Wingnut called a “ford.” We were relieved to find that the river was crossable on a nice log and with a few rock hops—much better than a ford on a cold day! That perked Ryan up a bit, as did the rest of the hike, which was much more mellow, winding along through some nice forest, adding Indian poke and wild oat to our list of flora seen on the way. We even had a bit of trail magic! Along one of the ponds, there was a small stream with orange sodas and a few PBRs left by a 2006 thru-hiker. We picked up a PBR to enjoy with dinner. Nothing like a cold PBR on a cold, rainy day :-) Toward the end of our hike, we hugged the shoreline of Long Pond, which had a nice beach, and then ended up at Sabbath Day Pond, with the shelter a bit removed from the pond’s edge. It was pretty early, but with no other shelters along the route, we decided to call it a day and hang out for the afternoon. Stickman and Faithful joined us, and we had another evening together, once again happy to be in the shelter and out of the rain, which picked up significantly overnight!
Ryan:
Well, another soggy day on the trail. In fact, the trail is underwater. Everything is soaked. It hasn’t really brought a full tilt rain, but the mist to almost rain has been constant. We started the day continuing along the Bemis Ridge, then with a thousand-foot descent to Bemis Stream. It sucked, and I was not a happy camper. I was sucking my thumb and wanted to be home with my woobie. Plus, I was dreading the advertised ford of Bemis Stream. I hate, hate, hate cold water. Needless to say, I was not a fun person to be around. Once again, Danielle put up with my whining, and convinced me we shouldn’t just pack it in at Route 17, which was a mile or so away. Anyway, we made it off the ridge and we reached the stream. Stickman and Faithful, after starting out from the shelter before us, were already there. Referring to the ridge, Stickman said very matter-of-factly, “That was kinda tough.” This guy’s attitude was light years ahead of mine. So, after an hour of pouting, I smacked myself around and got it together. Plus, the ford was super easy. One nicely placed downed tree and a simple rock hop later, we were on the other side. Actually, on many parts of the trail we got a lot wetter than on this ford. I was planning to have to take off the rain pant and don the Crocs, but it was really easy. Then we had the steep climb up to Route 17, and I was feeling good. I like climbing. I’m sick. The rest of the way was pretty mellow, but wet, wet, wet. June in Maine is very soggy. We passed a couple beautiful ponds, which I love hiking past. Really some of my favorite scenery. Best of all, we found cold beer in a stream left by a past thruhiker. PBR with dinner? Absolutely. I’ll definitely tote a beer to the shelter. I turned it into a mousehanger for the shelter. It’s nice to give back. We had a couple walking snacks since it was so rainy, and were eating lunch in the shelter by about 1:00. Then it was into the bag for a relaxing but chilly afternoon. Stickman and Faithful showed up about 2 hours after us, and we spent the night chatting about the Trail. I tried to convince Stickman to keep his wet t-shirt on. “Just throw a warm layer over it, and then sleep in it. It will be dry by morning. It works great. I’m doing it right now.” He wasn’t buying it.
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