Day 200

Thursday, August 9, 2012:

Two Hundred day hikes, 3200 miles of Appalachian Trail - both milestones I passed today.  The math says that's 16 miles per hike, but I've rarely been able to hike that many miles in a day since I entered the White Mountains.  Today was an exception.  The trail was unusually easy, and despite dire weather predictions, the morning storms passed by to the north, so hiking conditions were good.  Even when it did rain for half an hour or so, it dried out again.  So I was able to hike nineteen miles - longest distance covered since July 7th.

The reason for the easy trail - no big mountains in this section between ME 17 and ME 4.  The featured items were all ponds.  First came Moxie Pond

then the significant lake they call Long Pond, complete with a little sandy beach,

then Sabbath Day Pond, with a shelter nearby but out of view of the water

and finally Little Swift River Pond (yes the canoe appears to be available to all) ...

... and here there was a privy literally on the AT.  I've now hiked all but 225 miles of the Appalachian Trail - everything south of here - and this (to my recollection) is the first and only privy that sports a white blaze:

I turned around at yet another water feature - a boreal bog that drains into Chandler Mill Stream - very pretty landscape:

The rain on the way back slowed me down only a little.  The sun came out afterward and dried everything out - me and the dripping branches.  The serious rain that was in the forecast hit an hour after I was finished hiking.  And it was serious.  You can see it here rolling in over Lake Mooselookmeguntic as the sun set.  The result was seven hours of heavy rain, then more showers.  Tomorrow may be a wash-out.

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The route of today's hike is plotted on the map below, and the title line is a link to additional photos:

AT Day 200 - Long Pond at EveryTrail
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