Date: 2003-09-08
From: Mahar Tote Road, White House Landing (520ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ)

To: Rainbow Stream Lean-to (1025') 
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: clear sky

Aloha! Brrr... As I sit here in my tent I can feel the temperatures dropping. It's going to be another cold night. The last I heard this morning; there is the potential for a freeze tonight. Right now I'm thinking that for the first time in who knows how long, the weather person may actually be right. Brrrr¢¦!The days and nights have been spectacularly clear recently making for colder than normal sleeping conditions. No clouds to keep the temperatures up. Last night, even in the cabin, it was cold. I found another blanket, Gutsy used her sleeping bag, and Coffee closed all the windows and put on more clothes. And we were in a house! It's my understanding that it was such a cold and clear night that at 3:30a the stars couldn't have been brighter. This was observed by 2/3rds of the house occupants that met outside peeing. (Personally I think there was a star party they forgot to tell me about. Humph!) It's obvious, summer, such as it was and is, is over in Maine.It was a later than normal start this morning due to the later than normal breakfast hour at the White House Landing. Breakfast is served at 8.00a sharp. Due to two people eating that had forgotten to sign up for the breakfast, pickings were pretty slim for Coffee and me. No eggs, no bacon, and a little bit of potatoes were all that remained as we arrived. It wasn't until I asked for silverware that it became known that two individuals were eating our breakfast! Luckily the WHL also serves AYCE pancakes so we were fine. Pancakes are the things to get me going anyway. These were fat, filled with blueberries and puffy. All's well that ends well.Shortly before going to breakfast Gutsy let me know that she would be taking a zero day today. Her poor knee was not going to handle the 15.8-mile day planned. Nor tomorrow's 11 to fourteen. The pain just isn't going to allow her to do it. Instead, she is going to have the WHL shuttle her to Abol, the next tiny town stop, and meet us there for the final assault of Katahdin. She's determined to go UP with us if nothing else. As much as I would like her to summit with us, part of me thinks the best thing for her to do is to wait until we come down, celebrate with us and then seek good medical attention. It's my non-medical unasked for opinion that she has an injury vice the regular aches and pains the rest of us have. I sure hope she doesn't damage it more by climbing Katahdin - the hardest five miles on the trail. Any way it goes, we'll probably see her tomorrow. Sure hope so ¢ she¢s family.While paying the bill the foghorn across the lake could be heard indicating someone had arrived and was waiting. We were all really pleased to see CeeBee and Irene arrive. We only spoke for a moment since I was on the boat out but from what little I picked up, both are doing well and looking great. They must be doing pretty well; they did a 19.5-mile day yesterday! Awesome! It was good, if short, to see them again.My next surprise came as we reached the junction with the trail, Wench and Hotdog had just arrived. We had originally thought they wouldn't be back on the trail until today but everything finished up early and they were able to return yesterday. Excellent! They're a blast. For the next 30 minutes we stood chatting and taking pictures of what very well may the group summiting together, on, of all days, September 11th. Pictures were taken for posterity purposes.The rest of the day was spent first hiking as a group and then slowly breaking down to smaller groups or pairings based on speed and agility. Coffee took off pretty early, Tom and Thirsty Boots after lunch, don¢t know what happened to Walkabout and Carrot Slayer, and Wench, Hotdog and I meandered along together for the best part of the day. It was both fun and funny. This was the most time I've spent with them since meeting and I really enjoyed it. By the way, they both have journals on trail journals so be sure and sign their guest books. I'm guessing they're entertaining journals because they¢re certainly entertaining people.Today's terrain wasn't necessarily hard but it was tiring. Tiring to find that we were hiking around three sides of every lake or pond we passed, tiring stumbling over roots and rocks, and a tiring vertical climb in the middle of it. It did throw in a gorgeous view of Katahdin for the effort though. (I swear it¢s further away than the last one too!) Again, it wasn't bad it was just long and tiring. Particularly after our late start. Poor Wench and Hotdog had to be exhausted. They had originally planned to stop eight miles earlier than they did. My almost 16 mile day was almost a 22 miler for them! I sure am happy that they¢re stronger hikers than I am!There's good company scattered about the hill tonight. It's rather crowded actually. In the shelter you have Old Corpus, whom I didn't see all day, Wench, Hotdog and a new-to-me NOBO named Super Dave. Scattered around the hillside, on not the most even terrain, or the three Ohio Boys, Coffee, Walkabout and Carrot Slayer, Nick the Brit (new-to-me), Tom, Thirsty Boots, and me. Excluding the Ohio Boys who aren't summiting, these seem to be the people going for September 11th. Excellent!It's interesting to me that I'm now looking at climbing Katahdin on September 11th. It was never really planned, it's just happening. If things had gone as I had originally thought they would, I would have been to the top of Katahdin somewhere around the 20th of August. I'm bit late, huh. As days have passed, it didn't dawn on me until a couple of days back that that's the day I now seem programmed to summit. No particular attempt at making it on this date, just happenstance. Thinking about it, it seems quite appropriate. First, had things gone well in 2001, I would have been on the trail that tragic day. Second, because of that it seems a good day to finish. But most importantly, it's a monumental day for a monumental finish to my Grand Adventure. It seems fitting. I'm excited that this is the way it's now falling out. This will be a day to remember for a variety of reasons. It¢s doubtful it would ever be forgotten; not by me anyway, but it does make it a little more special than it already would have been. Or at least I think so.Okay, I am tired. I know there were numerous other things I wanted to tell you about, like how this lean-to appeared in the 1987 National Geographic article about the AT, but I'm too tired to think of what they were. So I'm going to bid you a goodnight and hunker down in bag for a long winter's (?) night. Maybe I'll think of them tomorrow night but don't hold your breath. Night!Blood, Sweat & Tears: too cool for even sweat on the UPs today.Aches & Pains: left ankle is a little stiff while the right knee is a bit sore. The Cumulative Tiredness Factor (CTF) is beginning to show on all of us. Meaning we're all very physically tired and the bodies need a rest. Mentally we're all raring to go!Moans & Groans: my nails and feet look horrid!... waah!Critter count: 1x mouse, 4x chipmunks, 4x red squirrel, 0x mooseCountdown: 30.1