August 29 (Day 121)

I knew it was going to be a pretty warm day when I got up at 5 a.m. and it was already hotter than I expected.

I wanted to do a little over 20 miles today, and the hardest parts were right at the beginning. From the shelter I climbed straight down to a stream, then straight up Moody Mountain, then straight down to another stream, and then straight up to a ridgeline. During this second climb I passed four northbound hikers. All of them were slackpacking north to Route 17, where they would pick up their packs and then continue on to this shelter where I've stopped.

The first 12 miles took me six hours, which is longer than normal. But probably normal for Maine so far. I took a decent break then started the last 8½ miles. The terrain was easier, but I still went pretty slowly just because I was already tired.

At Route 17, about 4 miles from this shelter, I met the guy who was to meet the four other hikers with their packs. We chatted for a bit, and he gave me a glass of lemonade. Four miles later I was finally able to call it quits for the day. This shelter is right by the Sabbath Day Pond. It is a very beautiful spot. The only problem is that the only source of water is the pond itself. The water is actually very clean- and clear-looking, but I'd rather get my water from a moving source any day.

I've only got 9.2 miles to go in the morning to the road to get to Rangeley.

August 30 (Day 122)

Last night as I was getting ready to go to sleep, a woman and her father hiked in, followed shortly by another woman with a dog. The man was obviously hard of hearing, because his daughter had to speak very loudly all the time so that he could understand her. Also, the dog with the other woman liked to bark and growl at everything, so it took a little while for everything to get quiet enough to sleep.

In the morning I didn't do much about breakfast but just started walking. The terrain was fairly easy, but it was very marshy and muddy.

Once I got to the road, I had to hitchhike the 9 miles into town. The first several cars that passed wanted nothing to do with me. But, finally, a woman stopped and took me most of the way to town. She was turning off the main road to go somewhere else, but, supposedly, the town wasn't far.

After only another minute of walking, another car pulled over and offered to take me the rest of the way. It was an older lady with two small children, and she wanted to give me the history of this entire region during the five minutes I was in her car. She was nice, and I got out in the middle of town and headed straight to the diner for pancakes.

I walked back up to the grocery store, did my business there, and when I came out the sky was incredibly dark and there was a lot of lightning. I called the Gulf Pond Lodge (which is just a hostel), and the owner came and picked me up.

There are six other northbound thru-hikers here at the hostel for the night. There are also three dogs, two of which bark often. Even so, it's a nice bed and I went back into town for a pizza dinner.