September 19 - Pleasant Pond Lean-to (Day 184 – milepoint 2014.4)

Paka Bear found the Bible, rocks, and trash in his pack this morning and vowed revenge…

Landshark and Spice, who didn’t make it to the river yesterday, forded this morning at a much lower and more reasonable water level, and we all set out to find a restaurant for breakfast before hiking. We got a ride with Steve, “The Canoe Ferrier,” in the back of his pick-up truck. He took us to Northern Outdoors, a rafting company / outdoor resort / restaurant / bar.

As we ate breakfast, our waitress, Annette, informed us that we didn’t have to be river or overnight guests to be able to use the
facilities.

“Facilities?” we asked, “what facilities?”

Swimming pool, hot tub, basketball court, paddleball court, pool, foosball, and more.

Needless to say, a full day of hiking was no longer in the day’s equation. We almost sprung for a cabin for the night but decided we should move on.

“Gluttony control,” I declared.

“What’s gluttony?” asked Chewy.

Hiked with Landshark today, who tells some great stories. When we got to the shelter, I mentioned how nice it was to hike along and exchange stories with Shark.

Cosmo lit up and said, “Did he tell you the furniture-moving story about when the dresser drawer opened and all the dirty magazines fell out in front of the whole family?”

” Yep,” I replied.

Paka: “I love that one.”

Spice: “Did he tell you any of his pole vaulting stories?”

“Yeah, I heard those back in Pennsylvania.”

Gonna be missing these guys soon.

Aquaholic