Date: 2008-06-12
From: Katahdin suggestions

To: 100-mile Wilderness Thoughts
Miles today: 0.0

Here are some thoughts I'll throw out at you regarding the 100-mile Wilderness as I viewed/experienced them - going southbound.Leaving Baxter State Park there's a great opportunity to supply at the Abol Campground Store. Actually, it's your only opportunity to do so at this point. So they can pretty well charge what they want. Still, a pretty well stocked, but small grocery store. Water faucet, pay phone and picnic tables outside. They sell beer. They have a large number of used paperbacks - they were either free or almost free.If there is one thing you will need, it's some type of insect repellent. If you don't already have it (you probably will, though) then get some at this store. Even Northbounders - who only have one more hiking day to Katahdin will really, really want the repellant during the summer. The combination of mosquitos, black flies, etc. can be absolutely terrible. Both of my SOBO's started in July and the bugs were terrible. You can try the bug nets and maybe they will work for you (but you are going to be pretty hot inside them). If you can pass through this entire area without any protection during the summer, then you are one heck of a masochist.Okay, after Abol you head into the wilderness. The sign recommends a 10-day trip. A lot of hikers do it in around 6-7 days. I'm somewhere in the middle. But the point to be made is this: you don't have to start out with that much food. Heading south, after around 30 miles, you have the option to take a side trail to White House Landing hostel. So you are only about 30% through (Northbounders are 70% finished). They have a small store - but enough to get you to either end of the Wilderness.I don't mean to push White House Landing. I just like the idea of breaking up the amount of food I have to carry at one time. (Actually, further on through the Wilderness are some logging roads where you can get a hitch (hopefully) into a town (a number of miles away).I also think it's kinda neat to sound the air horn and get the boat ride to the hostel. And they serve both breakfast and lunch/dinner. Their specials are home-made pizza and giant hamburgers. They serve pancakes for breakfast and claim they are "all you can eat". But I thought that was kinda misleading because they only made so many pancakes and if you asked for more they would have to go make more - kind of a intimidation "thing" (or maybe it just felt that way to me).You don't have to pay and spend the night just to resupply. But if you just buy supplies you will probably have to wait for a return boat ride until another hiker shows up on the other side of the lake. That's the trade-off.The way I figured out how many days (and food) I would need to get through the Wilderness was this - See how long (# of days) it takes you to hike from Abol to White House Landing. That will be approximately one-third of your Wilderness miles. At that point you will still need about twice the amount of food as you have used up (again, this is going southbound). Your overall pace should remain pretty constant unless you begin to run low on food as you approach Monson and decide to hoof it into town.