9/14/12 – 2033 miles
We arrived in Caratunk, ME, today at 3 pm. It was nice trail for most of the way to town, although we still have to watch our step over the many roots that reach up to trip us.
We stopped for a brief time at Pierce Pond Lean-to to pay our respects to a young thruhiker who died there earlier this year. The hiker, by the name of Parkside, went out swimming after hiking all day, was stricken with leg cramps, and drowned before anyone could reach him. It is a nice shelter beside a beautiful lake, but haunting to think of the sad event that took place there.
The Kennebec River lays just before US 201, the road into Caratunk, and is also the site of a tragic drowning some years ago. Thruhikers used to ford the river until one day the plant that sits above the crossing spot released water, raising the level several feet, and overcoming a thruhiker trying to cross. Now there is a man with a canoe that ferries hikers across the river for free.