Day 23 - No Worries (24/7/2016)

A lazy morning was followed by a short hike to the road into Rangeley. I managed to hitch a ride almost immediately with a navy vet whose son had done the trail in 2001.

My goal today was just a quick resupply and some real food before hitting the trail again. One of the grocery staff told me about a cafe with good coffee and reliable wifi. I ordered a latte and a chocolate croissant, but before I could sit down, a friendly bearded fellow started up a chat. I turns out he was doing the trail too, but following yellow blazes on his BMW bike (yellow blazes are trail speak for road lines). We had a great conversation about nomadic life and lucky meetings, traded details, and then I went off to deal with blog and other digital needs.

As he was leaving he popped over and left me a pin with two worry dolls on it.

That was only the first cool thing to happen today.

[I just had to interrupt this because while writing it I just heard three very large, loud splashes in the pond I'm camped next to. I couldn't see anything, but I'd guess it was either a large animal (moose?) splashing into the pond, or a beaver felling trees. I'll take a closer look tomorrow if I can... Which is a nice segue into the second cool thing.]

When I got to my site this afternoon I found a canoe with a paddle and some PFDs! I finally got to be on the water again. I dropped my pack and took the least rickety looking canoe and spent 20 mins just wandering around (after relearning how to use a paddle).

I thought I'd have the site to myself, but then Legs and Timber showed up so they had a paddle, and we had dinner together.

Start: Piazza Rock
End: Little Swift River Pond
Distance: 6.6 miles + a detour into Rangeley

Day 18 - Avery Peak (19/7/2016)

I forgot Pouch's rain cover at the shelter this morning! Fortunately at our next campsite I met a nice pair of NOBOs who offered to retrieve it and mail it to me further down the track.

Rangely and Snakecharmer are an odd couple: she's around 70, he's the 15 year old son of her friend's. They've hiked together regularly for several years now. Rangely declared us (Pancake, Eskimo, Littlefoot and me) her favourite SOBOs and told me to email her when I get near Virginia so that she can make sure there's some trail magic there. :)

The climb to Avery Peak went really well, but it was the most windy thing I've done in a long time. The views were spectacular, and none of my injuries flared up so I'm very happy.

Start: Little Bigelow
End: Horns Pond
Distance: 9.9 miles (16 km)