Day 165 - 12th Sept - Sandy Stream to Pleasant Pond Lean To - 17.1 miles

An early start - cloudy and cold. The 'Fall' season is starting to make itself felt - lots of red leaves starting to appear in the forest. We follow an easy trail to Pierce Pond Lean To right on the lake. A cabin nearby offers '12 pancake' breakfasts. A pity we midded that! It is already 11.00am - we would never have made it to here last night even if we had known about the pancakes.

We follow the stream down with good rapids and waterfalls until it reaches the Kennebc Rivr at 1.00pm. This is a canoe crossing. Hikers are under strict instructions to wait for the canoe to take them across the river. Hikers have been drowned trying to wade this river. We have to sit and wait for the 'ferry' which does not start again until 2pm, so we hunker down out of the wind and have some lunch and wait patiently. The canoe is paddled by the operator and we just sit in it with packs. After we cross the river there are lots of no camping signs. We dind a trail magic box. I eat two chocolate donuts and take an apple and packet of peanuts for later. We keep going over an easy path for the next 6 miles to the shelter.

This campsite is  classifed as one of our worst experiences on the trail - There were no good campsites at the shelter - all had a slope on them, except for a small flat area next to the path leading down to the lake. We started setting up our tent on this grassy spot about 40 m from the shelter. I eat an apple and as I go to take a bite, I notice a bad smell - familiar - human shit smell - and notice brown smudges on my fingers which are holding the apple. Closer examination - yes it is human faeces - on my hand. YUK. Capital YUK.
The tent poles had touched a pile of faeces. And yes you guessed it - I had threaded a pole with shit on it through the tent sleeve. Now this shelter did have a privy. But a few days before we arrived, a person staying at the shelter had preferred to do a dump on the only flat grassy spot instead of visiting the privy. We set up tent right in someone's poo! They were too lazy to walk the distance to the toilet and just find the flat spot - perfect for the tent. YUK!