Date: 2003-09-13
From: Crescent Pond

To: Rainbow Ledges
Miles today: 13.1

When it comes to fishing, Chicken has the determination greater than what it takes to walk from GA to ME. Even though she didn't catch anything in Crescent Pond last night, she got up early to keep trying. We were up around 6, and her line was in the water by 6:30. She wisely decided to wash clothes while everyone was still sleeping as to prevent them from holding anything against her about the foul taste of the water. Meanwhile, she kept a close eye on her bobber. I was down keeping her company when I saw a sizable fish feeding next to her dirty laundry water. As is swam about, I caught a glimpse of the pink glare on its belly and immediately whispered "it's a rainbow!" As Chicken stood up from her laundry, the fish, which for the time being we'll call "Breakfast," darted away only to come back seconds later. I whispered "we have to move slowly so as not to startle it," as we focused all of our efforts into catching "Breakfast." I slowly reeled in Snoopy, worm and all, until it was near Breakfast. Unfortunately, the worm was on the pond floor. Breakfast snooped out the sinkers and kept moving. I decided we'd have to rerig it to get the worm off the bottom. Chicken cut a fresh worm while I moved the bobber and sinkers. We were tense, but deliberate. My next fear was that the cast would scare him off. So, I tried to sling it far, but I failed. As the bobber hit the water, Breakfast was gone. I gave the pole to Chicken in disappointment. I really wanted her to reel it in. I decided to go on patrol and find this guy again. I was bummed. It was looking like Breakfast might end up being pop tarts. All of the sudden, I saw a flash a bit farther out than the worm. "There he is!" He slowly approached the worm, and I warned Chicken "get ready." And ready she was. He took one nibble, and as he came back for a second Chicken set the hook perfectly and as she reeled, she ran up the rock shore with a huge trout flopping like crazy. "Net....dammit, we need a net." I grabbed the first obvious thing before breakfast became the one that got away, Chicken's freshly washed shorts, drying on the rock. I grabbed the beast with both hands. We were ecstatic. Chicken grabbed the camera first - proof. Then I told her to run up and get our fishing line stringer, and hurry. She came back and we strung up the brook trout. I was wrong about it being a rainbow. I just wanted to shout with joy, but everybody else was still sleeping. We did get a loud high five in though. It had all finally paid off. The determination, Snoopy, the worms, the patience, we'd finally caught the big one. And in a remote, relatively isolated pond no less. Chicken got the line back in while I started working on a fire, there was no way this guy would fit in the frying pan. Luckily, we were carrying aluminum foil ever since we got Snoopy. As I got the fire going, the crew slowly got up one at a time and came down to find out about Breakfast. They all seemed excited. We took more pictures and measured it - one and two thirds of a piece of notebook paper, which we estimated at 18 inches!! I was wondering if I could even clean it with my inch and a half long pocket knife. It was a little tough, and messy, but we ended up with a good chunk of fish. Then Chicken quit fishing so she could oil, salt, and pepper Breakfast. Nineteen minutes later, and lots of flipping, we had some of the freshest cooked trout ever. It was delicious. Everybody had at least one taste. Both sides damn near filled us up.         We don't remember much of the first four miles of our hike because we were filled with happiness from catching the fish. The crew was waiting for us at Rainbow Stream Lean-to. It was a cool shelter which was featured in National Geographic years ago. It had log seats everywhere and it even had a totem pole. We all decided to hike a bit more before lunch. On our way, Chicken decided to take some unmarked side trail that she thought led to the dam of Rainbow Lake. I was hungry, so I pushed on. We all stopped at Rainbow Springs for lunch. It was a gorgeous day and we could see just a peek of Katahdin behind the mountains. Chicken pulled up 15 minutes later. She said the dam was awesome, with a spectacular view of Katahdin at the far end of the lake. Then she produced a cold Natty Ice, followed by 3 more. She'd found trail magic! Four guys, John, John, Eric, and Allen (one of which was covered in tattoos and went by the name of "Nips") were camping complete with six big coolers. How did they lug six coolers into the 100 miles wilderness, you ask? They had a pontoon plane which they landed on the lake. We all shared the beers.        We'd gotten word that the north en of Rainbow Lake was a spectacular spot to camp, but it would make for a big day tomorrow.   When we got there, we discovered it was quite a crappy spot. The crew left, but we stayed so Chicken could fish. Snappy stayed for a bit, but Puff had already left without taking water, so they wouldn't be able to stay on Rainbow Ledges with us. Chicken swam for a bit, and we also checked out a nearby beaver pond. We got a bunch of water, which isn't much anymore since Chicken's Platypus bladder got a hole, so that we could cook on the waterless Rainbow Ledges. We setup camp on the sunset side of the ledges. As we were cooking dinner, Buck came wandering up to our campsite. "What is Buck doing up here. Puff & Snappy must be up here." So, we went looking for them down the trail, when we bumped into two SOBO's (just Maine to Delaware Water Gap) who thought we were Buck's owners. They said they'd heard people calling for him. So, I ran for about 10 minutes with Buck, hoping I'd catch Puff & Snappy. I gave up and returned, we'd have to feed poor, starving Buck and keep him overnight. We were very low on food since we'd resupply tomorrow, but we managed to make some goulash of ramen, left-over macaroni, Ritz, peanut butter, and his favorite bagels. We ate a little ramen and a lot of chocolate, nutella, nutty bars, and brownies, which we couldn't give him. He was also really thirsty. So, I gave him the rest of the washing water and all of my purified water, which didn't leave us with much left over. We hung out with the SOBO's who didn't know a lick about going light. They'd carried over six quarts of water between the two of them, and although they watched Buck drink my water, they never offered any. The sunset was beautiful, but somewhat blocked by trees. We went to bed early so we could return Buck who would hike his last six miles tomorrow before he had to be picked up by the kennel operator (dogs aren't allowed in Baxter State Park) at 11 am.   -Flanders