16 miles today. Total miles so far: 316.
Up early after a reasonably good night of sleep. The campground had been quiet, with sites well spread out and rain keeping people away. I was hoping the trail leaving camp would be better than the previous overgrown section, and it definitely was. Still, when I had the option of taking a gravel road rather than mucky trail, I took it, cutting off a bit of distance but making the going easier. Then into another trail segment, which started off generally pleasant apart from the mosquitos. Then I came to a beaver dam. I've crossed several on this trail but this one looked very squishy. Long story short, I ended up knee deep in beaver water before toppling onto my back like some upended turtle. Without solid ground around, I struggled back to my feet, getting wetter and muddier and grosser in the process. My fall caused a small breach in the dam, with water running from the upper pond to a lower one. I'm sure the beavers were unhappy with my intrusion, but they should have built a firmer dam if they were going to put it right on the trail. The beaver water stank, and I was grateful for a stream just a bit up the trail where I could rinse off a bit.
As I neared camp, I finally had enough signal to get a couple of texts out, including arranging a shuttle into Merrill, the next trail town. With Memorial Day weekend, several people were unavailable, but the trail's local chapter coordinator found someone. I'd planned to get into town Monday, but I knew my time on trail was winding down and picked a Sunday shuttle time. While I'd initially thought about trying to break up the next section into a couple of smaller sections using shuttles, the fact is that I think I'm done hiking for now. My last camp would be at a pretty spot called Three Giant Pines, right along a river. And I meant to enjoy it.
