Date: 2011-08-28
From: Hurd Brook Lean-to

To: Appalachian Trail Lodge, Millinocket ME
Miles today: 3.2
Weather: heavy intensity rain

(In which I post entries without having summited and wait for Baxter State Park to reopen)I assume that I'll sleep like a log after my long day, but the shelter is full to capacity and I am pressed up against Rem, the designated snorer in the shelter. This, combined with the incredibly uncomfortable "baseball bat" style shelter floor (imagine rows of wooden baseball bats laid side-to-side) makes for my most fitful night in a shelter since the infamous Night of the Fleas.Matt and Jack wake up at 5:30, not long, it feels, after I have finally gotten to sleep. Surprisingly it has not yet started raining, but when Matt reports a few minutes later that the first sprinkles are beginning we all sit up and start packing our gear up. Hakuna Matata, Rem and I all take Matt up on his offer to drive us to Millinocket, and I hike with Matt and Jack while Hakuna and Rem hike ahead to stay warm. Matt turns out to be a patent lawyer in the tech field, and as we hike I describe my PhD thesis topic and startup ideas, and Matt gives his free advice (or at least free until I get the bill...)The rain begins to fall a bit more heavily as we hike, and by the time we catch up with Hakuna and Rem at Abol bridge we're all soaked. It feels painfully destructive to all pile into the leather interior of Matt's car, but he assures us that it's fine, this being the older car already broken in by similar such activities. We sit with our packs on our laps and try unsuccessfully not to drip too much.Matt drops us off at the AT Cafe in Millinocket and we leave our packs under the awning and head inside for breakfast. Filthy, dripping and smelly after 100 miles in the woods we are a conspicuous addition to the breakfast crowd, but luckily an establishment with AT in the name isn't one to turn away hikers for being hikerly. Already inside, in addition to the dozen locals, are Tinman, Wakarusa and Bald Eagle, who have all summited before the park closed.The waitress brings me hot chocolate and a cinnamon roll, which I wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't already been recommended to me as a post-summit treat, and after the all important business of food ordering is out of the way I chat with the completed thru-hikers. Dutch -- the last hiker to summit Before the park closed -- Jetpack, Eats, and Brazil Nut all show up, all having finished. Each offers us congratulations and we have to explain that we haven't actually finished and are just waiting out the storm.It's strange to be surrounded by but not a part of the celebration of the end, and part of me feels that I shouldn't be here in Millinocket or in this cafe yet, like I'm somehow skipping ahead and reading the epilogue to a book I haven't yet finished. But with the storm and park closure, enough of the decision has been taken out of my hands that my cinnamon roll tastes entirely deserved. Deserved and delicious, so much so that after I'm finished with my main breakfast of french toast, eggs and bacon I order a second cinnamon roll and devour it in less than a minute.With breakfast taken care of we move up Maslow's hierarchy to shelter and walk down the street to check into the bunk room of the AT Lodge. In addition to Wakarusa, Bald Eagle and Dutch, Big Ben is also staying at the hostel, having hiked a mind boggling 84 miles in 35 hours of non-stop hiking to conclude his hike. A shuttle crammed full of more soaked hikers arrive from the trail after having been turned away at the park. They are just in time to avoid the torrential onslaught of rain, which pours down on the roof and surges down the street.There is a stark contrast between the relaxed, euphoric hikers who have finished their hike and the wet, worried ones who haven't. Those who have summited seem complete in a way that makes it impossible to ignore that we are not, but none of them seem eager to move on, preferring instead to stay near the trail and bask in its warm afterglow a little longer. I feel simultaneous envy and pity for these hikers who were successful and as a result have found that their adventure is over.