Date: 2008-10-04
From: Stealth site .1 past Potaywadjo Spring Lean-to, ME

To: Stealth site @ Crescent Pond, ME
Miles today: 14.0

Had a great nite¢s sleep and stayed toasty warm with that fleece bag liner. It was in the low 40¢s this morning, but I suspect it could have dropped into the 30¢s. It¢s hard to tell sometimes when my thermometer so easily picks up radiated heat from my body. I was all packed up and started hiking at 7:45 a.m. In just minutes, I¢d crossed a dirt road and found myself at Pemadumcook Lake. I saw a side path and went to check it out. Wow, this thing was like a freakin ocean, with giant piece of drift wood on the rocky shoreline. I sat there on a rock by myself for several minutes and then noticed 2 deer way out on a rocky outcropping that extended into the water. They just stood there looking at me, and I just sat there looking at them. See, it¢s a much bigger deal to see deer here in Maine than it is in Virginia. They are much more wild in the northeast¢¦you just don¢t see them as often, so it was a cool moment. I looked over to my left and swore I was looking at the bottom half of Mt. Katahdin, with clouds over the top half. I wasn¢t 100% for sure though.I had the pleasure of meeting Root-C and Rocky from CO. Rocky is so named beause he got 2 kidney stones in Virginia this year, had to have surgery, spent 2 weeks off the trail, but now he and Root-C are here, ready to summit on the 7th like me. It was great talking to them. We were all discussing whether we thought the mountain we were looking at was Katahdin or not. I finally left and wouldn¢t you know it, 5 feet further up the trail was a sign saying, ¢View of Katahdin¢ and it was pointing to the path I¢d just come from¢¦so it WAS my first confirmed view of Mt. Katahdin!!!! WOW!!! Am I really here? The trail followed Nahmakanta Stream for miles and miles, which is very beautiful as well.   It¢s a sort of natural distraction to always have the sound and motion of water rushing next to you. I stopped at this one little spot around 10 a.m. for a break and to eat a snack. I got to meet two more wonderful people, Flip and Flop from OR. We probably talked for like 30 minutes about how we have all become experts of sorts, at backpacking and living out here. They, like me, can¢t wait to just be regular backpackers again and have a deep appreciation for the fact they have each other to share this with, so that at least one person in their world back home ¢gets it¢ when they re-enter. They are planning on summiting on the 6th. I moved on, but I did feel like I was going at a snail¢s pace today. The trail was very rocky and rooty, so it was the kind that was slowing me down a bit. It was cool again, overcast and maybe in the low 50¢s, but was windy. Days without a lot of markers to help me keep track of where I am are psychologically difficult for me, especially when the terrain is sort of the same. I reached Antler¢s Campsite and knew it was about 3 more miles to the road and then a few tenths to Nahmakanta Lake. I got to the road finally and found Smiley there. He hiked 1500 miles this year, got all the way to MA and injured his foot, which ended his hike. His girlfriend is Homeward Bound, so he¢s up here doing some magic and meeting her and her dad each nite.I realized after I¢d eaten breakfast, by the time I was packed up, I was hungry again, so I took a few nutri-grain bars and a rice krispie treat. He also gave me a coke!! So my plan was to find a pretty spot near water and eat lunch with my coke. I headed on to Nahmakanta Lake, which is just gorgeous, but the wind was whipping of that water like mad. I kept going around, and you essentially hike around half the lake, and it¢s a long lake. I ended up on a beach and just had to stop and eat there, it was so beautiful. So I put my layers on and sat down on a dead log. I was looking at the mountains all around, changing foliage, and the waves sounded like the ocean. Oh¢¦.and getting to this lake meant getting out my FINAL map and topo!!!!! When I got these maps 2 years ago from my mom for Christmas, I wrote on this top of the map, ¢THE LAST SET!!!¢ I finally get to enjoy my own note.Well, it started spitting rain a bit during lunch, so I grabbed my stuff and went back into the woods to try to find a place sheltered from the freezing wind. I did this with little success, but I at least had Smiley¢s coke to enjoy.   I finished lunch and headed on around 1:30 p.m., and the trail climbs up, around, down, and you go over 3 beaches, which were all gorgeous. I went 2 more miles to Wadleigh Lean-to where I met Love Boat (OH) and Stubs (NJ). They wanted to hike further, but (uh oh¢¦here goes) as ground dwellers, they didn¢t feel comfortable taking the chance on not finding a place to put their tents. I headed on and it was around and had to climb one more mile over Nesuntabunt mountain, where you supposedly get another view of Katahdin, but honestly, I wasn¢t that hopeful considering it was sort of overcast now. The climb went pretty quickly, however, there was one place where it was poorly blazed and I got lost for about 15 minutes. So listen up folks¢¦.when you climb Nesuntabunt, about half way up you come to a stream (that is not in the guidebook as a water source by the way). You can see the trail goes across the stream, but as soon as you cross it, you should turn left and follow it up. You¢ll see a blaze if you look up the mountain. But¢¦what I (and enough other people did to wear a path into the land did) was go across the stream and go straight and then curve right. You eventually get to a place where you can see there¢s no worn path and no blazes. Oh man¢¦I¢m standing there getting pissy and I look over and see another hiker standing there too. I yelled over, ¢Hey¢¦where¢s the AT?¢ I looked further up and saw a blaze. Well, he was going south and was also confused on where to go, so we helped each other out. I¢ll admit, the section of trail L.L. Bean is responsible for is awesomely marked. The blazing got more sparse after that (basically from the trail that leads to White House Landing north is where I think a few more blazes could be added, especially at water crossings). So I got back on and kept climbing. I knew that except for Katahdin, this was the final steep climb, with only Rainbow Ledges awaiting me tomorrow. I reached the summit of Nesuntabunt (great name huh?) at 4:41 p.m.and dropped my pack to go to the viewpoint. Well, I could barely make out a hint of Katahdin, but the rest of the view? WOW!!! I could see the 2 lakes I¢d hiked around, colors of fall all over the place¢¦it was incredible really. I feel so fortunate to have been able to hike right in the midst of this foliage change. I have had the ultimate experience in that regard. Now it was .6 down, and I was absolutely beat. I was hoping to make it few miles further down to Pollywog Stream, but I cut the day short and found a great site at Crescent Pond, where I¢m so hoping to see a moose. I was really really tired today for some reason, so even flattish trail just wore me out. Crescent Pond is awesome, surrounded by my favorite pine trees, so the forest floor is that ¢clean¢ pine needle covered floor, but it was windy. There were also canoes and row boats all around the shore of the pond, but I didn¢t partake¢¦too tired and it was getting dark. I went down to the pond to get water for the nite and it was approaching dusk. Crossing my fingers¢¦holding my breath¢¦.and¢¦..nope. No moose again. Damn. I started cooking dinner and then got my bear bag rope out. I always throw it while my dinner is cooking. So while I¢m getting it out, a hiker comes by and goes, ¢Hey¢¦is there a flat spot for my tent up there?¢ I said, ¢I don¢t know¢¦I¢m a hammock hanger.¢ (Get ready..here it comes folks).Ok people, a few things about this topic. I am SO sorry that as ground dwellers, you all are completely limited in the stealth camping arena, but please PLEASE, can you all stop relying on us hangers to find YOUR stealth site too? This is not the first time this has happened to me, and I felt compelled to help end this co-dependency. LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!Well, the guy decided to hike on and find a different spot (I think he picked up on a vibe from me¢¦that I really didn¢t want company). But in all seriousness, I do have a perspective to discuss on this. Out here, everyone knows if you¢re into socializing or want the sure thing for tenting (or hanging), then shelters are the place to go. If you are out hiking and see a person camping totally by themselves, first¢¦nobody (including me) ¢owns¢ any part of these woods, however, there¢s probably a reason they are camping alone. For my situation, I have several reasons¢¦first I love camping alone, but the biggest reason is that I¢m such a light sleeper, that everytime you move around in your tent, belch, fart, snore, cough, sneeze, or get up to pee¢¦it wakes me up. So instead of hanging at shelters and asking everyone there to be quiet, I choose to take my finicky self to a private area so that I can get the sleep I need. I think of this as sort of like going into a nice restaurant where 1 person is sitting at a great table with a great view. You wouldn¢t just invite yourself to sit at their table, just because it looks good to you too. It¢s rude, and I sort of feel like inviting yourself to a person¢s campsite is rude too, but that¢s just me. Besides, there wasn¢t any flat ground where I was, so I¢m sure that¢s why he decided to hike on. Now, after this, I had perhaps one of my biggest pissy fits of this year¢s hike (so I was REALLY glad this guy wasn¢t around to see this).   Don¢t ask me why, but I could NOT throw my bearbag rope to save my life. This was reminiscent of the nite Persistent earned her name, where I sat there (laughing outloud of course) and watched her throw it¢¦throw it¢¦throw it¢¦throw it¢¦oh, for about 45 minutes maybe? I was livid this evening, cussing, the whole deal. There are just days when the pieces don¢t fit and today was one of them. No matter what I tried it wouldn¢t go. I was so pissed, my dinner was finished cooking and I let it sit there cooling off, because I was determined to get my rope hung NOW. I eventually gave myself 3 more attempts or my food was getting hung from my hammock tonight. Try #2 (with 1 more left) finally did the trick (this was after about 50 other throws though). It wasn¢t even that great, but I didn¢t care. So weird how you can do this nite after nite and suddenly it¢s like you had no experience. The moral of the story? You have off days out here too.I ate my dinner, and it was getting cold¢¦in the low 40¢s already at 6:30 p.m. I cleaned up my pot, hung my food and crawled in at 7 p.m. I¢m pissy, cold, and dreaming of a motel room and a hot hot shower. I¢ve got this fleece bag liner again, and my tarp close with pine needle duff built up. The wind is dying down a bit and I¢m exhausted. Tomorrow is a new (and hopefully) better day. Only 34.2 miles to go!!!!   ~Certain