Kennebec River on the Appalachian Trail

 Forded the Kennebec River in Maine today.  Northbound hikers advised us to just ford it in the morning before they released water to drive timber downstream.  It got up to my crotch.

I wore my boots without socks to make the trip, and we exchanged cameras to photo each other as we did the trip.

 

This next screen capture is from the USGS Stream Gauge data base (online) where you can retrieve stream flow data.  You see on this date, the river was above normal flow (triangles), but from the pictures above, above normal was really not too deep for hikers.

 Today, the ATC advises not to do this and offers a free summer boat shuttle.

Pleasant Pond LT on AT

 On my second day out of Monson, Maine, made a 17-20 mile day to Pleasant Pond LT.  Sorry, don't have a photos and it seems the trail has been significantly relocated north from my route in 1974.  Compare these "snips" from USGS maps.

 The first is showing trail route in the 1956 "The Forks" 1:62500 map, while the second is 2021, the same name but 1:24000 scale.

So the approach was timed so I would be in position to ford the Kennebec River the next day.  More about that in a future post.