Day 3 - Wednesday, June 15

Linda

Walked a total of 12.1 miles today. Not as good as yesterday's 14.8. My feet were feeling pretty beat all day, and we walked through some awful swampy stretches. Early this morning we saw a bull moose, standing in the middle of a pond near Rainbow Lake, munching away on the lillypads. Didn't seem to pay too much attention to us. He probably didn't even notice us, since moose are known for their bad eyesight, and we were upwind from him, so our scent didn't give us away.

The trail seemed to go through every bog in Maine. Slogging through them really eats up the time, not to mention sapping the energy. At first we tried to stay dry, and relatively mud free by gingerly picking around the really bad spots. But before long we realized that the whole trail was one "really bad spot", and it was futile to try to go around. The best way is to just plow through, since we always ended up wet and muddy anyway, it just took longer the other way. Rainbow Lake made a pleasant diversion to the bog slogging. It is a long lake, and the trail follows it around to the end, so we could see it for quite a while. We kept hearing a float plane circle and land on the lake, then noticed a huge tent and camp was set up at the end of the lake. Must have been flying groups of fishermen in and dropping them off at the lake for a "wilderness fishing experience". When we walked by, one of the men snapped a few pictures. Guess he thought it was great to see four real live backpackers.

Finally made the 7+ miles to Rainbow Stream Lean-to for lunch. I was about dead. After lunch we rested for a couple hours before heading on. We had four large water crossings this afternoon Three were no big deal, but the last was a swift, cold river. Ronald said he'd wade across first, and I nervously watched from the shore as he picked his way slowly across with great difficulty. I was just about to muster up enough courage to attempt to cross myself, when we both discovered a nice, wide, flat, dry log about 50 yards upstream. What a relief! I was able to walk easily across the log. It's a good thing, too, I probably would've drowned otherwise. We walked the last 4 miles to Wadleigh Pond Lean-to, which is in pretty bad shape, but looked good anyway.

Ron

Shortly out of camp this morning, we saw our first moose in a pond. It was quite a distance away and up to its chest in water, but I was still impressed. The rest of the morning was spent walking along Rainbow Lake. We ate our big meal at Rainbow Spring shelter. Our meal of mash potatoes and a meat bar was pretty filling. Later we forded one large stream and I waded a river before discovering a crossing. The river was swift and about two feet deep. I nearly lost my balance a couple of times and I was really scared I would spill.

Trail markings ranged from poor to good. We lost the trail once near the outlet to Rainbow Lake, but picked it up later across a beaver pond. Linda's feet are hurting her and keep us back a little. We stopped short today to give her a rest. I still feel good. Bugs are not real problem except for the no-see-ums. Today was a long and filled with much bog walking.

(12.1 Miles - 34.3 Total)