Day 163 – August 17 – 17 miles -Black Brook Campsite to Sabbath Day Pond
Elevation Change: 9551 feet
The day began with a 2187 foot, 2.8 mile climb up to the top of Old Blue Mountain. During the climb we passed a nice view.
The top, however, was completely treed in.
After we went up and over Old Blue, we began our traverse across the peaks of Mt. Bemis.
There were several nice views on Bemis Mountain. It was another beautiful day to be out in the woods!
After hiking about 7 miles across the Bemis peaks, the trail went down into a valley, and then climbed up the other side.
As we were climbing out of the valley, we came to a hilly, grassy section that led us to a road crossing. At the road crossing was “The Height of the Land Overlook”. The overlook was technically a minute or two walk down the street, but the view from where we were standing was just as good.
It was a beautiful spot and we wanted to linger there, but the wind was howling across the lake below. It hadn’t slowed much by the time it got to us, and it was not warm.
After leaving the view, we went over a few small climbs, and then came to Long Pond. As we drew near to the pond I heard a strange sound.
It was a perfectly natural sound, but one that we hadn’t heard in a long time. It was the sound of waves crashing on the shore.
On the far side of Long Pond, was the Sabbath Day Pond Lean to. I don’t know why it wasn’t called Long pond lean-to. It was closer to Long Pond than Sabbath Day pond, and Long Pond was larger, but I guess Sabbath Day Lean-to sounds better.
Anyway, by the time we set up there, the wind that had been blowing since we left The Overlook, turned cold. We broke out the cold weather gear for the first time in a long time.
The weather report for tomorrow doesn’t look good. Cold and rainy. Thankfully we will be ending the day in the town of Rangeley.
Maine, so far, has been gorgeous, and we haven’t even gotten to the “good” parts yet. What a grand finale to an amazing adventure! Only 229.8 miles to go!
2017 Thru hike 