Moose Mountain to Soaking Wet Tent spot

First... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! Hope it was a great day! Love you!

Sunrise this morning from inside my tent. Not a bad way to wake up. A little more climbing today. Up and over a mountain and then at mile seven came to one of those uniquely Appalachian Trail spots.

Bill Ackerly's home that is 1/10th of a mile off the trail. Ice creams bars, sodas, water, croquet and best of all, a visit with Bill. He is a semi-retired physician from Cambridge, Mass, with a quick wit. 

Sat on the porch with Pogano, Kickapoo, One-a-Day and Stark and enjoyed Bill's company. Then we headed to the yard for a round of croquet. 

Turns out, I really stink at croquet, but I did show a little better on the pogo stick.

After about an hour and a half, with full water bottles, we set out to climb Smarts Mountain. Rain was in the forecast, but it was still bright and sunny at that point. 

It is interesting how things have changed out here as we grow closer to the end (no disrespect intended for NH and Maine. We know you will kick our booties) 

At the start of this trek, I remember thinking how strange it was that for the next few months, I would be living in the woods and hiking every day. Now, it's become normal life. Our conversations have changed out here recently too. We still talk about what's ahead - the next town or the next mountain, but now, we also discuss the end. When we hope to finish, how we are going to get home and what we are going to do when we get there. Bittersweet. 

Anyway, the last part of the climb up to the firetower on top of Smart Mountain was pretty steep and rocky. Probably a good intro in to what the Whites have in store for us.

Got to the firetower and hoped to knock out about 5 more miles. Murphy and I started down quickly and it started thundering. No luck finding a flat spot for tents so we kept moving and then the rain started. We came upon Stark throwing his tent up and found a few spots nearby. Setting up a tent in the rain is not that fun. Or dry. Pretty much everything was soaked by the time it was up. Tossed my pack in and hoped for the best. It's pretty wet in here, but as the saying goes, "No rain, no Maine."

Rained steadily all night. Thank goodness for all the gear that keeps other gear dry! Once I got my air mattress up, dry clothes on and crawled in my dry sleeping bag, all was good.