3 July Wadleigh Stream, ME to Rainbow Stream Lean-To, ME 8.1 Miles

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What a storm rolled through last night. We were thankful we had a roof over our heads, not just a tent. We slept in a bit and didn't roll out until 6:30. During breakfast we talked about how to do today’s walk. 8.1, 11.8 or 19.6 miles the middle one was a tent site. We chose to do a short day and then do 15.1 miles tomorrow to the vehicle. We have done two big mile day in a row. We can't make it there today so why kill ourselves. We hit the trail by 8 and took our time walking. The rain had left everything wet and we were soaked again. We had to climb Nesuntabunt Mtn right off. Almost 1,000' climbing in 1/2 mile. Going up the mountain in the mist of the clouds we felt like we were in Jurassic Park. The moss covered rocks and trees, the steep vertical cliffs covered with ferns and waterfalls were quite movie-set like.

We met a couple going south who told us the tent site was all mud so the first shelter was set. We rolled in here by 1:15PM to find a crowd of four folks laggered up. One of the guys in the group had cut his foot real badly and they were working out what to do. They had spent the night here and knew about where all the local dirt roads folks drive were. We had seen three guys in a pickup fishing within five miles of the shelter. After an hour or so they wrapped up his injury, divided up some of his weight and headed off to the next road to try and get a ride out to medical help. We again have the shelter to ourselves.

CC is fretting the start of tomorrows walk. The stream in front of the shelter has two logs running across to the other side. Water is sloshing over them as the level is higher than normal. She knows if she falls in there are MAJOR RAPIDS very close. Chances are it would be close getting out of her pack and to shore before being swept to likely death. We have video of the rapids you can see later, they are some of the worst we have ever seen. No one has fallen in we know of and she is worried about something that most likely won't happen, but that is just her. After we get across all will be well. It would be nice if there was at least a rope to hold on to. She has also told me she is tired of oatmeal for breakfast and once this section is done tomorrow, no more oatmeal! We will keep you posted on the new menu. We now have just one shelter companion, a young man headed south. Everyone says the next 15 miles is muddy, but we already know and expect this. The weather looks better and we pray there is no rain tonight. We pray the water level in the stream drops below the log level by morning. There will be video of the crossing regardless. Tomorrow we will have the "Hundred Mile Wilderness" complete.

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

For Photos and Video: http://odandccslongwalk.shutterfly.com/

OD and CC have been marking their path with a GPS using SPOT Satellite Messenger and can be tracked at the following link. It keeps track of their last 7 days: http://tinyurl.com/o2g53z

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