Monson and heading south [Archive]

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09-06-2003, 22:12

Here is my trip report from Labor day weekend on the AT from Monson Maine to Moxie Pond Road heading south. I hope this does not bore you to death.

Day one.

First off we had to spot a vehicle at Moxie Pond road. We got a late start leaving to do all this. So by the time we got started on the Trail in Monson on the side trails along the North side of Lake Hebron it was 2:00.
There was a little overcast that had us worried, but we had been looking forward to this for a month. The only thing that would have stopped us was if it started raining hard. Thank God it didn’t. The overcast finally gave way to the sun after a couple hours of hiking.
We picked this hike for two reasons. One, was for the nice river walk it gives you while you are hiking. Two, Tink who was my hiking partner had just had total reconstructive foot surgery on her left foot last summer and need to start out with a nice easy hike. The end of the hike was Moxie Bald Mountain that we were concerned about. But we both figured that on the second day if she had not had a problem then she would be OK.
Well anyways to get on with the report. The day was nice until we started over Buck Hill. The wind picked up at that point and Tink had to put on her rain jacket to keep herself warm. Once we got down off the high point of the hill it was alright again. We ran into three thru-hikers, Recycled, Hot Dog, and Wench. We reached the East Branch of the Piscataquis River and were able to rock hope across with no problem. Very shortly after we started our walk along the Piscataquis River. The water was very low. I had done this trip before when the water was a lot higher. It was still a nice walk but it would have been better if the water was higher. We made it to Horseshoe Canyon lean-to by 3:00. That was 6 miles in three hours. I was amazed that Tink did this so quickly. She was pretty siked herself. We met the following six thru-hikers there: Don Quixote, Old Corpus, Aloha Ann, Mtn Dance, Cee Bee, and Coffee. We decided to move on since it was still early in the day. We went another mile and one half until Tink said her foot started bothering her a little. We hung both our Hennessy hammocks up, cooked some hot dogs and buns we very carefully packed in for the first night. They tasted pretty darn good if you ask me. We sat around relaxing and talking until about 8:30 with no bugs to bother us and finally went to our hammocks. Tink wrote in her journal while I fell asleep.

Day two.

Woke up very early but stayed in our hammocks for about 2 ½ hours before we finally got out. It got pretty darn chilly in the early morning hours and we were very slow at getting out of our sleeping bags. Once out we made our gourmet meal of oatmeal and dehydrated eggs. We were packed and on the trail by about 9:30. We walked for about ½ hour until we found a stream to filter out water in. So I filled my bladder and then realized the seam in my bladder had split. So we tried duct tape three or four times to try and get it to hold. But no matter what we did it seemed to leak. I was lucky to have another 4 liter platypus that I used for carrying water to camp at night for washing up and cleaning with. The tube and all screwed right on. So I used that. Of course I did not fill it full to the 4 liter that is carries. I only put 2 liters in it. We lost about ½ hour playing with this problem. But we were in no hurry anyways. This was a nice relaxing weekend for us. We were not out to do a marathon.
We reached the confluence of the West Branch and the Piscataquis River and we rock hopped across that with not problem at all. We then reached the “jeep road” that was list on the AT map. But the map says it is only 0.3 miles form the crossing. Let me tell you that the map is wrong. It is at least ½ mile if not more. But it was at easy walk. We talked to two hikers “Thirsty Boots” who thru-hiked last year and was just out from Gorham N.H. this years heading to Katahdin and a section hiker who was finally completing the trail by the name of “Tom”. Thirsty Boots told us he had seen some bear droppings with blueberries in it just a little ways back on the trail and had seen a big bull moose with a smaller one in the pond before Bald Mountain lean-to. So after we left I was looking for this bear dropping he had seen in the middle of the trail. I never saw it. But I had seen fox or some other dropping with blueberries in it. Maybe he did not know what bear dropping looks like. But I did see a good size bear print in the mud. It was a pretty clear print. I took a picture and uploaded it.
We reached Bald Mountain steam outlet and were able to cross it easily over the remnants of and old dam. On the other side we met and thru-hiker fishing buy the name of “Caddis”. He said he bought the fishing pole in N.H. to help him slow down because he was hiking so fast. He caught three very little perch while we were having our lunch and talking. We make some dehydrated chocolate cheese cake and shared it with him. It tasted more like chocolate pudding. But it was very rich and good. After Caddis left we sat around and laid in the sun for about one hour. We had time to waste because it was only 3:00 we were only 2 miles from Moxie Bald lean-to which was our destination for the night and we did not want to get there to early.
Along the way to Moxie Bald lean-to Tink notice a rock in the middle of the trail that had a natural white blaze in it. It had a white strip of quartz in the middle of it. I had to take a picture of it. I also uploaded it. We reached the lean-to at about 4:30. We set up our hammocks right on the shoreline of Bald Mountain Pond. It was a perfect setting for two perfect days of hiking. We had one thru-hiker come in while we were there but did not get to chat with him. He went and found a tent site and set up his tent and never came back out. Two section hikers came in with there dog (bummer). And set up came. They were two very nice women. Tink and I had a fire that night in the fire pit at the tent site. It was nice sitting out again with no bugs to bother us. We went to our hammocks at 9:00. The loons came out and started singing us to sleep. Tink fell asleep before me this night. She was out like a light.

Day three.

We woke up early again. But we just layed in the hammocks being lazy. We had not problem staying warm this night at all. I think we got out of the hammocks at about 8:00. The two women section hikers came over and asked if we would heat some water for them because they left one of there fuel bottles at the car and were being cautious on fuel. So we did it without a problem and sat around and chatted for some time. Then we cooked out gourmet meal of oatmeal and dehydrated eggs again. Yum, Yum. LOL. We hit the trails this time at 10:00. Ran into two thru-hikers named Nick and Ambler. We climb Moxie Bald until we hit the bypass trail without a problem. But Tink’s foot was bothering her a little bit. So we decided not to risk climbing to the top and took the bypass trail. We figured it we did not want to press out luck on her first trip after her surgery. Made it to Bald Mountain lean-to by 11:00. Made out lunch and elevated Tink’s foot and just relaxed for some time.
About a mile from the lean-to we came upon a small pond and we could here some splashing through the tress before we got to the pond. I knew if was something big. I told Tink I thought it was a moose. So I got my camera out and we snuck up and sure enough it was a humongous bull moose. I lifted my camera to take a picture and my batteries were dead in the camera. I was ticked off. He spotted me by them. So he got out of the pond and went into the trees. I snuck back behind the trees and took my backpack off and got my other set of batteries. But the time I got to take a picture of him he was in the trees. But I got a pretty good picture and I did upload it also. Also while taking pictures of the moose a beaver came out of it’s home in it’s damn but I was to busy trying to get pictures of the moose to get one of the beaver. Seeing this humongous Bull Moose made the whole day if not the whole trip worth it.
We ran into two more thru-hikers on the way out named, Super Dave and Phoenix.
We crossed Joes’ Hole by rock hopping across and made it to the car at the end at 3:00. About a mile before the car Tink got a pretty good size blister on her foot. So we were lucky it was only a mile before the end of the trip.
To summarize this trip. It could not have been any better for Tink or I. We had a great time. I think this is one of the most relaxing backpacking trips I have ever been on. We experimented to some store bought dehydrated foods and they were actually pretty good. I would not do this on long extended trips though because they could be pretty expensive. Seeing all the wildlife we saw on this trip was great. It was an added bonus to the trip. We will definitely do this trip another time in the future. It was a nice easy three day trip. It could have been done pretty easily in two days seeing I have done it before in two days. But with a partner like Tink it was more fun to take our time and enjoy it and stretch it out to three days.
I hope you all don’t mind my grammar and spelling. I am definitely not an English major.