After another great breakfast at Shaw’s, the Gang of Four was back on the trail at 8:15 a.m., immediately disappearing into the 100 Mile Wilderness. With an inch of rain in the forecast for tonight, the goal was to cross the four streams that usually require fording before they got out of hand with a lot of storm runoff. An even more important priority was getting to a shelter before all that rain began. Both were accomplished, with GipC Girl, Spiceman, and Funnybone (now back on the trail and heading south) joining the Gang of Four in acting as sardines in a shelter designed for only six. The rain arrived just at dark, and proved to be a soaker…

We’d heard so much talk about the 100 Mile Wilderness that we had envisioned it as being something fundamentally different from anything we’d seen before. Maybe more boggy than what we’d seen? Maybe long stretches walking with our shoes underwater? But pretty much we found the 100-mile wilderness to be no different than other sections of the trail in Maine. Certainly we were surprised in the first day or two to pass several large groups of southbound section hikers doing the Wilderness as a separate entity.

We left Monson with a forecast for heavy rain in the afternoon and evening. As we had had some issues with a leaking tent in the last heavy rain, N was especially anxious to find a shelter for the night. Based on our performance over the last few days, the squiggly line that was the day’s elevation profile, and with our late start, the necessary 15.1 miles sounded very daunting.

The overcast, foggy weather in which we began seemed to indicate the weather forecast would be accurate, but it also prevented several otherwise photo opportunities from being a distraction in the early going. Then around Thompson Brook and Big Wilson Stream, for about a mile the trail was as flat and smooth as anything we’d seen since Springer. What an unexpected treat! And the anticipated fords at Little and Big Wilson Streams and Wilbur Brook were much easier than they would have been 24 hours later, post rain. We arrived at Long Pond Stream Lean-to with just enough time to spare before sunset

Arriving at the shelter (Long Pond Stream Lean-to), we found Spiceman and GipC Girl had stopped short of their intended campsite after running into Funnybone and getting a weather update. They had met Funnybone south of the shelter (he was back on the trail after a brief respite at home, and now doing a flip flop, fresh from his summiting of Katahdin), and he’d decided to backtrack as well. Six people in this small shelter would have been quite cozy, but we managed to squeeze in seven friendly hikers. Poor Blue Sky arrived just at dark and hurriedly had to set up his tent as the rain was setting in. He survived the very wet night, but not without some moisture issues.