July 12

Slackpacked (hiked with just lunch and rain gear) over Baldpate with beautiful weather. I'd forgotten how steep that mountain is! I met my parents at a road crossing to pick up my camping gear and hiked in to Surplus Pond for a quiet night. I woke up to a moose feeding in the pond, followed by swimming across the width of the pond. All the Sobos had warned us about how horrible the trail was on Moody Mountain. Last spring one side of the mountain slid off, and they have temporarily re-routed the trail around the slide. I was expecting the worst, but it was actually only a couple hundred feet of detour. The trail is still steep and eroded in places, but not as horrendous as I had heard. Hiked over Old Blue and Bemis on Thursday. The trail is ROUGH. Rocks, roots, mud. They need to install more bog bridging on the ridgeline! Met my parents at route 17 and slackpacked 14 miles with Moonpie and Doozy to route 4 through the muddy bogs. They even managed to fall in up to their waists in one bog (thanks to faulty bog bridges, and a lack of bog bridges). One last night in a campground with my parents, and then I'm on my own for the high peaks of Maine. I'll meet up with Dad right before climbing Bigelow Mountain (Sunday), and he'll hike with me for about a week (to Monson).