We had a short and easy hike today down towards the road. We passed by a few ponds and bogs and got there by 9:30am or so. We got an easy and quick hitch into town from some friendly locals. They gave us some good insider information about the town. Rangeley is about 9 miles from the trailhead and seems like a cool little tourist town. We got to our room at the Town and Lake Motel, checked in early, and then did our errands. We have a back door on our room that leads out to Lake Rangeley.

Google made this automatically awesome

Seems like a great zero day town.

Vital stats for Friday, August 29th :
Miles hiked today – 4.5
Mood – really enjoying these last zero days in cool towns
Physical state – resting up, feeling pretty run down at this point in the trip
Smell – moose in a fresh, clean lake
Song stuck in my head – Amnesia by Justin Timberlake

We had a few sprinkles of rain last night, but nothing bad. The weather was cold, windy, and overcast most of the day, with bits of sun poking through occasionally.

Morning light near Bemis Mountain

We hiked up the small climb to Bemis and Bemis Second Peak. The second Peak had cool views.

Bemis Mountain 2nd Peak

Most of the hiking was pretty easy for Maine (which is still pretty hard), with minor ups and downs, roots, and rocks to contend with, but no major obstacles. We climbed up and crossed route 17 at lunch, with spectacular views of Mooselookmeguntic Lake (no, I did not make that name up).

Maine has been so beautiful so far. Even on a day without any major mountains, there is amazing stuff seemingly everywhere. We took an afternoon snack at Maxie Pond, which had a little sandy beach.

Maxie Pond, bigger waves than Delaware Bay / Lewes

I waded out into it for a bit and it was freezing. It feels like fall up here already. Some leaves are turning red on some trees already, too.

We hiked to the campsite at Little Swift River Pond, but it’s a popular spot and thus was pretty full, so we hiked on for a bit longer and found a stealth site in the woods instead.

Tomorrow we have a short day to get to Rangeley. We are taking a zero there to rest from the super difficult mountains of western Maine. This should be our second last zero day. We also suspect this will be the last town of any decent size that we encounter on the trail.

Vital stats for Thursday, August 28th :
Miles hiked today – 17.5
Mood – good, ready for town tomorrow
Physical state – feet and knees feeling it from the constant rocks, roots, and elevation change
Smell – medium-sized moose
Song stuck in my head – Moments in a Life by Water & Bodies