Spent a generally lazy day doing laundry, exploring town, eating ice cream, and watching TV.   Walked to a place called The Cellar for some pizza and beer and capped the night off with an Irish Coffee at the Blarney Stone.

Dave

I still can't believe yesterday.  Jess literally made the exact mistake I made 2 years ago, but in reverse.  Thankfully she caught her mistake before she ended up all the way back down to Tirrell Pond.  We're getting a good chuckle out of it today, but one of the consequences of our adventure is that we lost another camera.  I had a cheap disposable in my pocket when I attempted that stream crossing.... of course when the water ended up being waist high and damn near carried me away, the camera got soaked and none of the pictures could be saved.  A bit disappointing as we have no record of the ridiculous conditions we faced, and furthermore, we had a deer run out onto the trail - maybe 15 yards in front of us - stop and just stare at us... for what seemed like 10 minutes.  I took several pictures before she eventually got bored with us and hopped off into the woods.

I'm really enjoying this full day off the trail.  Long Lake is a great place, and we have met some wonderful people.  I look forward to these dips into town almost as much as I do the hiking.

Woke at around 9am today and checked out of the Hotel around 1030.  The owner of the establishment offered us a ride to the trailhead but we needed to grab some supplies on the way out so we declined.  Luckily we were able to hitch a ride from a very nice lady who noticed us eating a healthy lunch of powdered donuts at the corner Stewart's.

The trail along Long Lake is quite easy and pleasant.  We made Kelly's Point in no time and I had one of the most enjoyable swims of the trip.  Warm, calm water, and plenty deep.  I had a blast jumping and diving off of the rocks.

We stopped at Plumley’s for lunch.  I managed to bust my finger up pretty good when I slipped on a wet rock going to pump water.  Unfreakingbelievable.  I am a klutz and a half.  Ate lunch without incident and readied ourselves for the 4+ miles to Shattuck Clearing.  We both started to tire on this stretch of the trail and it soon turned quite ugly with blow down and flooded sections.  After several hairy reroutes around some serious beaver activity, we reached Shattuck Clearing only to decide there was no real place to camp.  So we pushed on to Cold River which was just under a mile away.  I’m glad we did.  The lean-to was in a very nice spot and it’s a beautiful river.  And its name is no joke – that water is coooold.  But the lean-to was also home to some very brave mice.  One ran right up to the Snickers bar next to me and boldly tried to take a bite out of it.