8-18-12

AT miles hiked today: 10
Total AT miles hiked: 1073.7

I am tenting at Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to. Bemis Mountain Lean-to was nice and pretty, with a good water source, though a little confusing to get back to the AT. This shelter is fine and beautiful, though you have to get water from the pond, which is not the best. I use my bandana and pre-filter pond water before I add the Aqua Mira drops, because ponds have all sorts of things floating and swimming in them.

Golden is trying to catch another hiker so she packed up and hiked out at 1am from Bemis shelter last night. That's pretty brave or motivated, and she left us a note in this shelter register saying she had gotten lost getting out of Bemis shelter but found her way and made it here safely. I didn't hear her go because I put in earplugs due to somebody snoring.

I only want to night hike if I have to. I don't like it to be the plan because it's a pain doing the night camp chores in the dark and then you get to bed late and then you get up late and your next day is messed up. Plus, I like seeing everything and having the chance to see good picture opportunities. I hiked alone must of today and loved it. I took pictures several times and forded a river by myself. Well, I rock hopped and slipped off one rock, dunking my foot in the water, but otherwise did fine, even with balancing on a log across the deeper section. The AWOL guide had a couple things out of order on the section today, but nothing too bad.

I had an offer from a friend who lives in Maine to try to get to a county fair in her area, so I spent some time stopping and checking to see if my phone had service on top of Bemis Mountain and then sending texts and voicemails, but it fell through. It sounded wonderful, though, and now I am seriously craving a caramel apple, the plain kind. That's my favorite fair food.

There was a nice bench with an amazing view of water for my lunch break. So I took more pictures, of course. Later, I caught up with Toe Knee and Dame Quixote and we hiked until we got to the beach at Sabbath Day Pond. Dame and I decided to swim when the sun came out from behind the clouds, though the breeze was chilly. The water was only hip deep for quite a distance and I didn't really want to get in deep water, so I just sat down and paddled around. It made me so happy and I also got to rinse out my smelly shirt and bra because I wore them to swim in and in the meantime I laid out my wet shoes and socks in the sun and wind to dry while I swam.

It was so beautiful there that we decided to stay, even though it was earlier than our normal stopping time. Chucky da Phish built a fire and we met Melo Dee (a flip flopper) and Hawk Eye. Standing Bear also stayed here. Dame and I heard Loons calling for the first time. That is a haunting and beautiful sound.