Motel time is a resource to be fully utilized when the schedule allows. As in Swanton, I stayed until checkout time at 11, drying, reorganizing, writing and eating.
From the minute breakfast started until it closed, I was consuming protein and calories to replenish my hardworking body, the body that has lately been amazing me. They had hard-boiled eggs and yogurt and peanut butter and bagels and real Cabot butter. Overall, a real surprise to me is that I am craving “real” food more than sweets, except for the fabulous bakeries I’ve visited.
Today was a challenge to be met, more as I had anticipated the trip, even to the point of being dangerous. I left Sydney and Marji doing errands, with plans to camp together on Pensioner Pond, after several portages, ponds, and another section of the upstream Clyde.
Curve followed curve, as damselflies flitted among the grasses, and graceful trees stretched bank to bank, an arch to paddle beneath. A Google Earth image of this stretch would actually make a great maze, complete with dead ends.
Sadly, all good things must end and gradually I began to fight the current, the shallows, then the rocks, the rapids, my goal the Fontaine Rd. bridge. I almost made it. Only one curve separated me from seeing the bridge when I admitted not only was it too risky to continue…I might be swept off my feet…but also that I was exhausted and had not been resting. Just then, a mown lawn on the left, the sound of a lawn mower, and on the mower, Randy. From my heart , I said, “You have been a blessing to me today,” as I took out across his yard.
After that, I was just looking for a place of respite and soon. A quick stop at Scampy’s for snacks to go with dinner and then tiny Charleston Pond looked like heaven, with a welcoming loon.
It turns out that there is an NFCT campsite there at the start of the Great Falls portage, home for the night. (Pensioner Pond is further on, but it was getting late and I thought Sydney and Marji must be behind me). By the way, dinner was cider, chips, and Snickers bars…oh no!
TOTAL MILES: 295.6
Laurie Apgar Chandler 