Aug 7 th Big Pond

Aug 7

I fretted about finding enough water to go over Mary Smith Mt and the other mountains last evening and early this morning. I packed up and returned to the road and went to the first house. I went up to the front door, I could hear people talking inside, and rang the doorbell. A woman came to the door and saw that I was a hiker. I announced myself as Garth Fisher, from Janesville, WI that I was finishing off a hike of the FLT and was out of water. She responded that she was from Verona, WI, worked for WIS NPR and was here visiting her parents. She invited me in for coffee and said that water would be no problem. For the next hour we talked of NY, WIS, and her dad told me and later showed me things about his work history. He is 87 and at one time worked for GM setting up large shows in NY related to new car models. He also did pro/am golf. They told me the story about the man who built the stone fence behind the house. And, I learned that his wife had fed a fox in the back yard for years. She created the term Fox Box verses Doggie Bag. I left and hiked the Mt's with enough water and got to Little Pond Campground in the late afternoon. They had my food box but the campground was filled. One of the women working at the gate offered to take me to Big Pond where there was public camping as well as recreation. We drove up there and came across the FLT in the Big Pond parking lot. I hiked about a mile to the back of the pond and found a campsite for the night beside an old stone fence.