Miles 2036.0 | An early, fast-paced day through easy terrain and cold air led us to Harrison’s Pierce Pond Camp by mid-afternoon, where solitude on trail gave way to deep comfort. After hiking mostly alone at our own paces and passing clusters of flip-floppers, we were welcomed with hot showers, a private cabin, and classic New England clam chowder. The day ended quietly on the porch by the stream — cold air, rushing water, pine-scented breeze, and the rare luxury of rest after a long push north.
We got up early and pushed ourselves. Miles pushed 4mph for a good while. Eventually, I couldn’t keep up with him anymore and I let him go ahead. We’d been seeing more people lately, but we didn’t know any of them and neither we nor they attempted to make friends with each other. What I thought was another northbound bubble, turned out to be a bunch of flip-floppers. We passed a whole bunch of them on this day.
I plugged into my podcasts and sped through the day. Going my own pace felt good. I only stopped once. It was too cold to stop more than that. My legs had permanent goosebumps now. Breaks only happened when a perfect beam of direct sunlight broke through the trees. This stretch of trail was easy, though, and breaks weren’t really that necessary.
We made it to the camp by 3pm. Tim, the owner, showed us to a little cabin that he offered us to stay in for the night as a part of our surprise gift. He showed us to the showers and told us to make ourselves at home and he even offered to boil some water for us so that we could make dinner without having to get water or anything. We spread our sleeping bags out on the bed and took our showers. After showering we went up to the main cabin and looked through the photo albums he had. Photos going back into the 1930’s depicted the camps many patrons with their hunting and fishing prizes. The cabin looked exactly the same in those photos as it did the day we were there. We signed the log book and Tim gave us some clam chowder for dinner after his other guests had eaten. It was top notch, classic New England chowder. Miles had never had any before! After dinner we went back down to the cabin in the chilly evening air, chilly for summer that is, and sat on the front porch of the little cabin. It was right on the stream that connected the ponds. We sat and listened to the gushing water coming from the ponds, smelled the pine tree filled air, and laughed together about the crazy places we’d been along the way.