Maine, wild and wonderful

We expected to be disconnected from the rest of the world while we are in Maine, but there are quite a few public libraries here! It's crazy, because when we get to the top of a mountain and catch a glimpse of the surrounding countryside, we hardly see any signs of civilization...just trees and ponds and endless mountains stretching in all directions. But there are quite a few small towns to stop in, Maine is, after all, "Vacationland." Today we are in Rangely, which was once rated the 50th best resort town in the US. I was extremely excited to find a Thai restaurant here, and just enjoyed a delicious yellow curry for lunch.

Yesterday, M and I surprised ourselves by doing a 17 mile day - our biggest day in a month. We stopped at the stunningly gorgeous Sabbath Day Pond Shelter, sitting near Long Pond, which had a sandy beach, and cool, clear water. We met a couple there who is completing the AT in sections, and had a lot of good advice for us. They maintain a section of the Cumberland Trail in Tennessee, a piece of which my sister and I helped to build a couple of years ago.

I saw a moose, briefly, on the trail this morning on the way into town, my first of the trip. I am glad he ran away though, because he was terrifyingly large.

Tomorrow we'll go up and over Saddleback Mountain, which is another 4,000+ footer, and goes above treeline for quite a ways. If the weather is clear, we may catch a glimpse of the Big One...our goal, Mt. Katahdin.