Miles: 9.9 (plus 0.4 sidetrip)
After such a long day yesterday and the fact that we were woken up at 1 am with rain splashing in our faces, we decided to sleep in till 6 am today. I can't believe during the first cople of days we slept until 8. That seems so late now. Having no electricity really does put your body in sync with nature's timing. You go to bed when it's dark and wake up when it's light, unless, of course, you didn't put on the raincover or bring in the laundry and it's pouring outside at 1 am. At that point, you make a really pitiful, sleepy face to your husband so he begrudgingly takes care of everything while you stay snuggled in your sleeping bag. Aren't guys awesome? :)
So, we started the day late, got some water and Kevin slipped into the stream while filtering. That set the tone for today.
After a downhill 5 miles (really kills the knees!), we had to ford the west branch of the Pleasant River. We didn't want to slip, so we decided to do it with our boots on. Very silly decision of us. The water wasn't flowing very quickly and while the rocks were slippery, they were small enough to manage without boots. On the other side, in mosquito hell, we took a long break to partially dry out our boots.
While sitting there, we saw a family of five cross the river, pop into the woods for all of 15 minutes, come back out and ford the river back over. They had forgotten the fly dope and the mosquitoes were just too much. Don't blame them. I took a side trail out to a parking lot for dayhikers (Gulf Hagas area is quite popular). After "borrowing" some TP from the privy (we didn't bring enough and this was my favor to Kevin for sleeping during last night's storm), I saw on the trailhead bulletin board that insect repellent is a REQUIRED ITEM. First time I've seen is listed as required. Just shows you how much the bugs love Maine. And I love Maine. But I don't love the bugs...
After the river fording, we climbed up Chairback Mountain. We were just about to walk onto a semi-open ledge when the clouds, rain and lightening decided to join our party. So, we walked back into the wooded area and sat it out - as if we weren't wet enough by then. Rained this morning, got wet in a river, rained this afternoon.
After things cleared up, we walked out and could see the peak of Chairback. It sure was tall! And it had voices! We heard a distant "Hey!" calling to us and realized that it was Mike and Terry yelling at us from the peak. Pretty funny. We climbed up and up - rock climbing in one particularly nasty spot - until we made it to the top. The view was outstanding. We could see White Cap, along with the three other mountains we did yesterday. We sat up there, chilling, drying out our feet and snacking on some gorp while looking out. Made it to the lean-to and had dinner with Mike and Terry, where Mike told us a great story of how his grandparents met. (Grandfather was a hobo in the Depression and Grandmother was the daughter of the Railmaster that told him to get off the train.) It wasn't a bad way to end a stinky day.
- Squishy Bobo