Got up early and packed to hike again. It wasn’t raining anymore, but everything was still wet. Gotta keep moving though.

So we left the Hurd Brook Lean-to and continued heading south. We hiked up to Rainbow Ledges where there was supposed to be an amazing view of Katahdin. But we only saw fog and clouds.  So we hiked on.

We hiked for 4.4 miles and took a break at the edge of a lake. What I found amazing was that there was a row boat at the edge of the water. I thought about borrowing it for a boat ride, but I kept thinking about the movie Southern Comfort. It is a movie from the 70’s I think, so it is dated, but I did not want to upset any locals like they did in that movie… So we hiked on.

We started noticing giant piles of moose turds on the trail. They became so numerous that Tink started counting the piles…  Every time I saw a new pile on the trail, I would say, “Hey, that’s Moose Turd Pie! How many is that Tink?”

Moose Turds!

If you haven’t heard Moose Turd Pie by Utah Philips, Google it!

We hiked on till we got to a campsite that we were planning on staying at. We were tired and trail worn. But when we got there the best spot was taken and the rest of the sites promised a very uncomfortable night.

The men at the big site offered to make room for us. However, they had a very big, loud, and angry dog that I did not want to share a campsite with. Off said he recognized the man and the dog. So we talked with the man and found out that he was the very same man with the dog that shook mud all over Off’s gear in the Hawk Mountain Shelter way back in GA… I thought that was hilarious. Off didn’t find the humor in the situation.

The man had to leave the trail but decided to hike the 100 Hundred Mile Wilderness Northbound. God is amazing at setting up Divine Appointments.

So we decided after some thought to hike on. We got back to the trail. At this point it was a muddy bog. 100 feet from the campsite I lost my balance avoiding a big puddle. I was able to grab a thick tree to keep myself out of the mud. But the tree did not want to hold my weight. It bent over right in the middle and eased me tenderly into the mud. I let go of the tree and it lazily raised itself to its normal position.  Then Gig and Off came over laughing and lifted me out of the mud. I stood there staring at that tree… “Your lucky I don’t have an axe…” I said. Then I headed South once again; listening to stifled giggles coming from behind me…

At dusk we got a place called Rainbow Deadwaters. As we walked in silence I heard some very loud splashing in the bog to my right. I knew it was something very big running in the water. However, I could not tell if it was running toward or away from us. I stopped in the middle of the trail and started speaking loudly to the others, in case it was a bear. Then through the woods I saw the shape of a moose. It was a female moose.

We had scared it into the water and it was standing there trying to decide what to do. So I took out my camera…

Moose!

We stood silently taking pictures and watching. It was amazing. Until the Moose decided we weren’t a threat and turned to come back to where we stood. “Ok, that’s enough let’s go,” I said turning back to the trail. We then walked briskly away from the moose. Still, It was Awesome!

Well we finally got to the shelter we were hiking too. There was a bridge to this particular shelter. And as usual, the water was way too high and moving to fast to swim in. The next picture is a stock picture of the shelter. We did not take one that night, it was too dark. But the water was up to the logs and running white when we had to cross it that night.

Rainbow Stream Lean-to

We hiked a total of 11.5 miles for the day.

Since we hiked so long on the 22nd and got in so late, I decided to let everyone sleep in on the 23rd. We all got up around one in the afternoon. The River was so loud we had to yell at times to hear each other.

We spent the day drying things out, eating, repacking, and sleeping. We planned on leaving early on the 24th.