Date: 2004-09-09
From: Hurd Brook Shelter

To: Katahdin Stream (Millinocket)
Miles today: 14.0
Weather: moderate rain

it rained lightly last night and the precarious tenting spot i found seemed to drain well. i was high and dry inside my arapaho, with the usual condensation on the ceiling. the rain continued as i packed up my tent and retreated to the shelter for breakfast.we hiked to abol bridge campground in the rain. we were pretty dry (my definition of what "dry" means has been forever altered by my thru hiking experience) until we hit the road walk. the rain was heading right for us, causing us to cinch down our hoods to keep the rain from pelting us in the eyes.at the abol bridge campstore, the ladies downed 1/2 dozen doughnuts, a breakfast sandwich, and chocolate milk. i got the same except i had only one doughnut.the plan we hatched was to walk the 10 miles into katadhin stream and hitch to town. fauna and flora were nervous about getting a ride into millinocket on such a crappy day and also how to get back on saturday. there would not be many tourists on the mountain today to bring us to town. i had no reservations about either hitch, but recognized fauna and flora were reflections of me, and i was seeing i had some inner reservations about the plan.just recognizing that made things move. we talked to lauren and pablo from the other night and found they had a friend that was going to met them on saturday (you have to drive through millinocket to get to baxter park). lauren gave us her friend's number and we left her a message on voice mail. we felt confident we could get a ride. flora also called bandicoot who already summited and said he wanted to summit with them if possible. since we're going up on a weekend bandicoot was avalable. so it turned out he would give us a ride back into the park.we arrived at katahdin stream campground around 4pm and started looking for a ride out of the park. we talked to one couple - they weren't leaving today, but did ofer us food. flora walked up to a van and asked the driver if he'd give us a ride to millinocket. he said he would but we needed to wait an hour for his wife to return from hiking.with our ride to town set, we walked a quarter mile to "the birches" campsite, a set of shelters exclusively for long distance hikers. there we talked with thru hikers who attempted a summit today and were turned around by the weather. as we walked back, we ran into goose and bilbo - fresh from the summit. they were a motley looking crew - bleeding, torn clothing, and broken and bent leki poles. they said the summit was probably a class 3 day instead of a class 2 day. the wind was so strong, they had to crawl to the summit. they also said you could lean against a slab and pick up your feet and you would just be suspeneded there by the wind. freaky. better them than me.our hitch turned out to be more than we expected. there were also two children in the van we hadn't seen before. so, we were packed in really tight: targo, his wife, kristine(?), his sons, tomas and oliver, fauna, flora, and i.fauna and flora read tomas (3 y/o) a few children's books and sang every children's song they knew on the 20 mile trip into millinocket. i talked with targo and kristine about the trail.in town, targo asked if we would eat dinner with them and we decided on the chinese restaurant. we felt a little funny because we were smelly, but if they didn't mind being in the van with us, dinner would be ok.during dinner i learned targo is a programer like me. he works at microsoft in seattle. his current assignment is with the office software.after diner we were dropped at the appalachian trail lodge (atl), a cozy place for hikers to stay near baxter state park. we got two rooms on the 3rd floor, #8 and #9. these were hobbit-sized rooms with sub-6' ceilings. i had to keep my head low to move around.we set up the fans in the rooms to dry our shoes and tents. it was too late to do laundry so it was piled up for tomorrow morning. god, did it smell awful. hiker boots could be used as chemical weapons. it's not so noticable when i'm in a 3-sided structure, like a shelter.still on the hunt for calories, we asked a local where to get ice cream at this late hour. our side of town looked like hartford at 6pm. we were directed to the odd named, "scootic in". desert was on our minds and we ordered slices of chocolate cream pie, cheescake, and toll house pie, all with ice cream. to the amusement of the patrons at the bar, we passed all three slices back and forth, each taking a bite. we washed down our sugary feast with a katahdin red beer. it was an evening of good conections as we talked with many tonight. good times.at the atl tonight: mad hatter, flora, fauna, reaushanbeaux, bluebird (abol), and bearbag hanger (abol)