little rock pond shelter to governor clement shelter

miles: 20.1

woke up to the birds again this morning. they’re really good at chirping a bit before the sun comes up, even at a mountain lake where the sun comes up late.

packed my stuff up and had breakfast on the shore of little rock pond.

headed off, passing the lined off former tent sites, where someone had jumped the line and was tenting anyway. the ground looked so much softer.

climbed up into a fir forest where there was a rock garden. sadly, the light was not conducive to taking great photos, but i did ehat i could.

hiked down to bully brook.

i came across a chipmunk that was brave enough to let me take its photograph.

hiked up to airport lookout, then descended 1000’, crossed clarendon gorge and immediately ascended straight back up to almost the identical view at clarendon lookout.

shortly after crossing upper cold river rd, i came across a sign that it’s only 500 miles to katahdin.

i arrived at the shelter and set up camp. i washed in the river and had been journaling for some time when two hikers, lemon drop and chai showed up. while we were chatting and making dinner, a snake entered the shelter and slid into the fireplace. (this is one of the very few shelters with a fireplace.) it didn’t seem to care in the slightest that we were all there.

something that occurred to me today as i was hiking is that i haven’t heard any katydids yet this year. i thought they showed up in july with the cicadas. that being said i’ve only heard a handful of cicadas this year too.

some additional shots from today.