Sept 17

Wild Kingdom

After a short climb this morning we all arrived at a road crossing on ME 17.  There was a nice bench beside the road, and amazing views to the west, overlooking Mooslookmeguntic Lake.  That name comes from the native Abnaki Indian language meaning "where moose feed".  The next section of the trail was easy, passing by several large ponds.  We stopped for a lunch break on a sandy beach at Long Pond.  We took off our shoes and waded in the water.  I was able to walk out into the water, about 50 feet off shore, and it was still only up to my knees.  The water was crystal clear.  On the far side of the pond, we could hear loons calling. All of a sudden, the tone of the loons changed to a tremolo.  Overhead, we saw a large bird circling the pond.  Atom Bomb had a golf scope.  We looked in the view finder, and saw that this large bird had a distinctly white head.  Probably a bald eagle!  This would account for the loons' alarm.  (Listen to the calls of loons at:   http://www.loon.org/voice-loon.php)  The eagle left, and everything went back to normal in loon world.  While we packed up after lunch, we noticed something swimming in the shallow water near shore.  We fished it out of the water with a stick.  It was all black, and resembled a slug in size.  A leech!  Immediately, we began searching our bodies for leeches, pulling the legs of our shorts up.  A sigh of relief.  No leeches.  We put the creature back into the water.  It immediately grew long and slender, like a ribbon, and pulsated its body back and forth, swimming away.  Just after that pond, we arrived at the lean-to at Sabbath Day Pond.  In the distance, we heard moose calling out, but when we went to the edge of the pond to try to see one, our investigation was unfruitful.  The hiking in the remainder of the afternoon was pleasant.  Another clear, beautiful day.  I passed by a privy, that was right beside the trail.  It even had a white blaze painted on the side of it.  A hundred yards past it was a campsite at Little Swift River Pond.  There was a muddy spring feeding the pond, where I filled up on water.  There were also a few canoes moored on the side of the pond.  Apache and I thought about taking one out onto the water, but they were in rough shape and didn't look very seaworthy.  The following section of the trail, leading to another pond, at Chandler Mill Stream, popped with the colors of fall.  Maple trees gave a leafy show of brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows.    In some instances, a single tree displayed leaves that were still green, along with the other three colors.  Absolutely beautiful.  We were walking right through the changing of the season.  Near dark, we arrived at South Pond, and our crew set up camp for the night.  We covered 13 miles today.  For Maine, I'd say that is a success.  I went to sleep, but woke up several times during the night, hearing the mystical sounds of the animals of the Maine woods.

Mooslookmeguntic Lake, Maine.