Date: 2005-08-28
From: East Branch Lean-to

To: White House Landing Wilderness Camp
Miles today: 21.9

Now that I'm getting so close to the finish, I have really gotten the bug to get done. Yesterday I did a 21 mile day, today I'm going a 22 mile day. I'm just short of the road to White House Landing, I'm probably 1/2 hour from there. I'll stop, eat, and probably stay there for the night. I'll haul out again in the morning, unless it rains. I have several day's cushion now. I may or may not stay, I don't know yet. I arn like hell today. I started walking at 6:00 and blasted off 22 miles. I'll be at Tote Road by 1:00. 22 miles in 7 hours is pretty good for an old man. Of course, it did help that this section is incredibly easy. Other than a couple of bumps and Litle Boardman Mountain, and another little bump, the Trail has been level for miles and miles. Right now I'm walking through some pretty serious roots. They couldn't have made this easier if they had paved it. This is what they talked about when they said that you can make big miles through 'The 100 Mile Wilderness'. Two 20 mile days, and tomorrow will probably be another 20 mile day. It's a beautiful area. Lots of lakes, waterfalls, rapids, and creeks. Something else I have been seeing here in the last few days is freshly fallen leaves. They are mostly maple, that are deep red and deep orange. It's like fall is trying to come and the trees are trying on their party dresses. I don't know when the first real freeze will be up here, but I imagine it's going to be soon. It can get chilly pretty quick. I would guess that the colors will really start turning fast then. I am headed toward White House Landing Wilderness Camp, reputed to have the biggest and best hamburgers on the Trail. It's a hunter's camp out in the middle of nowhere. It's 40 miles from everything else. They have to have generators and tote stuff in here. It's definitely a worthwhile stop from what I hear from everybody. When I did get to White House Landing and Tote Road, I thought it was only going to be 2/10's of a mile, but it ended up being a long, windy blue blaze just to the side of the lake. They blow an air horn and Bill comes across in his little boat to come and get you. Unfortunately, I was too late for lunch. They stopped serving at 1:00 and I got there at 1:30. When I got here, there were no hikers here, with the exception of one gal, named Christina. She showed me a room, gave me a towel and showed me where to shower and do my laundry. I took a quick shower and started to do my laundry just as it started to rain, so I made it just in time. I got a private room in a little cabin called a short cottage. There's not much room, but it's better than a tent. There's a beautiful lake, I'm sitting out here on a bench looking at it. This place and one house is the only thing for miles of shore. The fog is hanging low over the lake right now, but when it lifts, you can see mountians all around. I think to the right of me is a view of Katahdin. The lake is pretty shallow in most places. There are huge boulders sticking out of it here and there. There are boulders along the shore everywhere. Tinkerbell came in at 4:00 with Matt and Trip, and a coupel of section hikers. We all ended up eating dinner together.   At 5:00, we had dinner. I ordered the 1 pound hamburger, which was as advertised, this huge hamburger. I split a pink of Mint Chocolate Cookie with Christina and got a pint of Cherry Garcia for myself. I resupplied with some basic things like ramen noodles to make it the rest of the way to Abol Bridge, about 30 miles down the road. I had a few beers and Tinkerbells and I split a bottle of red wine and sat out here until well after dark chatting with Trip and Matt. That's it for today.