Steve, Chris and Rick hit the trail at 7:30 am after breakfast. The terrain was a bit easier today. We hiked 2.5 hours before our first pack-off break and snack. We arrived at the Little Swift River Pond tent site at 2:30 pm. This is a beautiful campsite, situated on — you guessed it — Little Swift River Pond, with a nice view of the water. We had a few Kodak moments (hopefully some of you out there still know what that means), but we’re having trouble getting a data connection to send pictures.  It’s Maine.

Three more scout leaders from Troop 507 — Deb Miller, Mann Shoffner, and Matthew McPhee — along with our first boy scout, Quinn Shoffner, arrived about 15 minutes after us. They had hiked in from the other direction, our extraction point tomorrow afternoon. We refilled water bottles using our Sawyer Mini-Squeeze filters, set up camp and broke out our yummy freeze-dried dinners.  Hoping for an early-to-bed night to allow for an early start for tomorrow’s hike.