Our friend Mike dropped us back at Northern Outdoors around 7:30 this morning. We met up with Bear Bell’s brother, Alex and his girlfriend, Leah. We stopped by a local gas station for a few breakfast sandwiches, then we all hit the trail together.
Alex and Leah hiked with us for about 7 miles. It was a nice section of trail through a pretty deciduous forest, then heading up to Pleasant Pond following a brook. Finally, the trail headed steeply one mile up to the summit of Pleasant Mountain where we all relaxed for a bit, and had our lunch before parting ways.
We continued on for another 11 miles or so to Moxie Bald Pond Lean-to, for a total of 18 miles today. Moxie Bald was a very pretty and open summit which gave us great views in all directions, and we were able to tell that the next day or so will be pretty flat, which is exciting.
As we cooked our dinner of macaroni and cheese mixed with stove top stuffing, we were entertained by a beaver swimming in the pond just off shore. It kept stopping to munch on the aquatic plants, and didn’t seem to pay us any attention. A second beaver followed a few minutes later. It was quite riveting dinnertime entertainment. Now all we need to see is a moose and our wildlife sightings will feel complete.
We’re only 9 days away from our planned summiting of Kathadin and it’s starting to sink in. I think I’m still more on the side of excited to finish, but it’ll be strange to be off the trail. We keep putting in longer days than planned which means we could finish a day or so earlier, which again… I think I’m excited for, but I guess I won’t really know how I’ll feel about finishing until we’re actually done.
