Date: 2022-08-20
From: Hurd Brook Lean To

To: Katahdin Stream Campground
Miles today: 13.4
Weather: broken clouds

¢Victory lies not in the might of armies but in the blades and  valor of a few¢-lord commander, Zephan wilisten, 88th Krieg siege regiment.41st millennium.3:57, Saturday morning, august 20th, 2022Brrrrrrring! The alarm broke the silence, sleep was now impossible, it was pitch black. Red lights illuminated the campsite as I roll over to my flashlight, I fumble around for a second and finally I turn the light on. Jasper close¢s his eyes tight. ¢Red lights¢ he hissed then added a please after a second. I switch to red and sit up trying to get the last of warmth from my sleeping bag. Pillow, sleeping bag, pad, and electrical devices are removed from the tent In five minutes, the light is still very dim,And we leave breakfast waiting for another hour. Once we pass the shelter we switched to white lights and start down the AT.  1 hr 15 min after the shelter, we reach the golden road at 5:48, the end of the hundred mile wilderness. Abol bridge is half a mile down the golden road where we wait for a spot at the birches. The birches is a shelter at the base of Katahdin, twelve thru hikers are aloud to stay at it, it¢s a first come first serve type of thing. After we get spots at the birches then we walk to the store and buy drinks and donuts. The hike to Katahdin stream campground was pretty uneventful but about halfway through me, dad and Baxter stopped at Daicey pond for an hour and use a canoe and swam. At KSC we set up tents and saw hey squirrel, Jay, Tina and tomato had finished yesterday and were leaving today.  Now the tent is bright the stream is quiet and we are discussing what the past in the last few days.Guest columnist Grayson L. Skogman¢¢¢I¢m sure if a Baxter State Park ranger was asked about the guiding principles of the park they¢d have a better answer than mine. To me it seems like a ¢Wilderness first, people third¢ type of place. There are strict rules on the number and type of guests allowed into the park each day. Many drive to the park gates only to be turned away when the day¢s guest quota is met. There is a daily quota on NOBO thru hikers, too. Twelve hikers per day are allowed to stay at The Birches Lean To. The Birches is near Katahdin Stream Campground and is for NOBOs only. It can only be reserved at a kiosk where the AT enters the park about a quarter-mile north of Abol Bridge on the Golden Road. A ranger arrives there at 7:00 in the morning and takes the names of the first 12 hikers. He radios those names to Katahdin Stream Campground and allows those hikers into the park. The others left off the list have limited options on getting into the park that day. Waiting for the next day¢s signup is the worst-case scenario. We wanted to avoid that scenario! Ensuring our place on the list meant getting there early. We got ourselves within 4 miles of there kiosk last night. This morning¢s job was to wake up as early as possible and cover those miles as quickly as possible. Hopefully the effort would pay off. At the worst, we¢d be behind person 12 but would get to talk to the ranger face to face if we could be there at 7:00.That¢s how 4am found us packing up camp t is morning. We were underneath our packs and behind read headlamps by 4:35 headed north towards the kiosk. Jasper, Baxter, and I found an extra gear and fell into a 3.5 mph pace. Joni and Grayson were never too far behind. We each had a PopTart pack and a Big Texas Cinnamon Roll close at hand for breakfast. Twilight