I got started early to beat the heat of the day, I think I started hiking at 6:20. I was at the next tent site around 7:30 and found Beast, when she didn’t show up at the lean to that’s where I assumed she had gone. We talked about a strategy for the day and both had the same thoughts, best to aim for Mountain View Pond or the small mountain just after it. We could hike on, but then we’d have to change our food drop or make tomorrow a really short day with a lot of waiting around.
Cool, so I continued on to West Peak and Hay mountain, which were easier than I thought. After that I climbed up White Cap, which has great views, cell singnal, and is the last decent size mountain before Katahdin. I got up there around 11, much faster than I expected. I hung around and ate lunch, uploaded my blog and texted Betty a bit.
Cell signal was important because we needed to confirm our food drop, which we did once Beast caught up. I hung around up top for over an hour, the views were fantastic even if it’s a little hazy (not sure of it’s the weather or because of the fires).
Eventually I decided it was time to move, so we moved. Got water at the next lean to, hung out a little. Wandered some more, ate some blueberries. The blueberries were delicious, but if you stop too long the mosquitoes find you, so it was a battle between my love of blueberries and my hate of mosquitoes. Just as we hit the next lean to it started to thunder and rain, so we hid there for a little. Two couples came to the lean to while we were there and I realized that others might be headed to the pond too, which has limited camping, so I got my ass in gear and went to claim a spot.
When I got to Mountain View pond I saw a first site which was taken by a lady I talked to a bit at the top. I asked if there were other sites, but she didn’t know.
I found a side trail leading around the far side of the pond and saure enough there was space for a couple tents and a hammock!
The view was awesome, the pond is shallow and maybe not great for swimming, but really cool and there were a ton of blueberries growing all around.
We were still harvesting blueberries when we heard the first thunder and realized we needed to get out stuff in order. A few minutes later the wind picked up and it started to rain.
The worst of the storm seems to have gone north of us, then it cleared up and the sun even came out a little and we got an actual sunset!
