170: Cararunk

Day 170

October 1st

Pierce Pond Lean-to to Stealth Site

Miles Hiked: 16

AT Milage: 2052.8

This morning I waited until the last possible moment to get out of my sleeping bag. I knew I needed to be at Harrison’s at 7am for breakfast so I waited until after 6:30am to rip off the band aid and put on my ice cold clothes and start moving as quickly as possible. Doc and I hiked to the hunting camp where we ate an amazing breakfast with the company of Godspeed, Tim Harrison and his friend. My breakfast consisted of “patriotic pancakes” that had apples, blue berries, and Raspberries in them along with eggs and sausage. The hunting cabin was pretty old, large, and hand built. It had a neat charm and historic feeling about it. There was a large woodstove I spent some time standing by and enjoying the heat. We left around 8:30 in order to make sure that we made it to the ferry on time. It is only open 9-11am and there was four miles between it and Harrison’s place. I could have stayed there all day hanging out by the warm wood stove.

The next four miles were pretty flat and we arrived at the river around 10:30. The Ferry operator saw us standing on the bank of the river and paddled the canoe over to pick us up. We put on life jackets, signed a wavier and paddled over to the other side. Had the ferry not been available and I had to walk across the river, it’s likely the water would have came up to my neck. There is a reason there is now a free ferry service to cross the river. It would not be a fun crossing! After the river we crossed a major road where we went into a very small and rural town. There was a hiker hostel called “The Cararunk House” where we ran into a few other hikers. I got a large and delicious chocolate milkshake and did a two day resupply to Monson. The hostel had one of the best resupplies I’ve ever seen that wasn’t from a major grocery store. There were lots of options and everything was fairly priced unlike some gear stores I’ve seen along the trail. There was another wood stove at the house and I stood by it for a long time as well, not wanting to leave and go back out in the cold. I waited until close to 2pm to leave. I was just being lazy and didn’t want to hike.

When I went back to the trail, I eventually caught up with Doc and we hiked a total of 12ish more miles before setting up camp in a stealth spot blanketed with pine needles. While we were hiking both of us were falling down and slipping left and right. At one point I lost my phone and had to backtrack to retrieve it and Doc broke a trekking pole. Maine seems to be beating us up a lot. At least the terrain has flattened out for now!

Happy Trails!