Klauks to Katahdin: Camps in Maine

Day: 160 (September 1)
Starting location: Safford Notch Campsite
Ending location: West Carry Pond Lean-to
State: ME
Miles today: 12.2
Miles total: 2,013.9

It is September! We have been hiking for over 5 months. Seriously, who does that? Well our trip will be coming to an end here shortly and it will definitely be bittersweet. We have done and seen so much but it will certainly be nice not to have to hike anymore. Kristen and I have spent every second of each day for 160 days and we haven't killed each other. I know it is a weird concept but I guess we actually like hanging out with each other.

Today we went over Little Bigelow Mountain. Little Bigelow is basically the last big mountain we have until we reach Mt. Katahdin. That is great news because southern Maine has beaten us up and we could really use a break. We got to camp around 5:30pm. The lean-to was right next to West Carry Pond. Before this trip I associated a pond to the man-made ponds in Sawgrass. Ponds in Maine are totally different. A pond in Maine is bigger than any lake you have ever seen. They are crystal clear, surrounded by mountains, and some even have sandy beaches.

We decided to have dinner on the shore of West Carry Pond. While we were cooking dinner we heard what sounded like a boat engine. The pond was in the middle of no where with no sign of life besides a few loons swimming off in the distance. But sure enough a couple with their dog pulled up in a jon boat with a small outboard engine. "Just making our nightly rounds," they said. We spoke to them for a while and they actually live in their "camp" year-round. A camp was a foreign concept to us until we got to Maine. In Maine a lot people have these camps which are basicly rustic cabins. They explained that the pond freezes over in the winter and becomes over 30 inches thick. During in the winter they get around by snowmobile and go into town every couple of weeks. I can imagine they have an iron furnace burning all winter long.