Sept 27

Not a creature was stirring....well, maybe a mouse

The resort offers a free shuttle back to the trail for hikers.  We were up early, ate breakfast, and were on the van.  Impressively, we didn't get sucked in to staying there another day, in spite of the wonderful amenities.  The trail heading north from town was a slight, gradual incline.  Barely noticeable.  The weather was perfect, bright and sunny with cool, crisp air.  In 2 hours I had made it 5.5 miles to the Pleasant Pond lean-to.  After a break for lunch, I headed up toward the top of Pleasant Pond Mountain.  It was a gain of about 900 feet, but an easy climb, with nice views and more brilliant fall colors.  The trail after the mountain was a gradual descent for the next 5 miles, bottoming out at Moxie Pond.  The trail briefly followed a dirt road around the far end of the pond, then dipped back into the woods again.  There was a stream crossing here, and I was determined not to stop to take my shoes off.  I managed to rock-hop to the other side with little trouble.  I hiked on for several more easy miles, to the Bald Mountain Brook lean-to.  Apache and I set up just before the shelter, at a campsite right alongside the brook.  The others headed up to the shelter.  We knocked out about 15 miles today.  Excellent, considering we had left the comforts of civilization just this morning.  Hiking in at dark, Yogi and BooBoo caught up to us, so that was good to see them again.  We got a fire going and started cooking dinner.  A mouse was running around the campsite the entire time.  I decided to hang my food in a tree, not from a bear, but from a mouse.  My stomach was upset most of the night.  Town food, and too much of it yesterday.  During the night, I woke up several times.  So did Apache.  That little mouse is getting ballsy.  At one point, it actually crawled down the line of Apache's hammock and was running around between his legs, inside his quilt.  I heard him yelling in complaint, and his headlamp came on, as he got up and shook out his hammock. A pretty amusing event, but at this point we just wanted the thing to leave us alone so we could get to sleep.

Fall on the trail approaching Pleasant Pond.