Date: 2019-08-05
To: Rattle River Shelter
Miles today: 1.9
Weather: fog

Woke at the usual 5:15 and had breakfast at the Appalachian Trail Cafe on Millinocket's deserted main street. UNICEF, Adventure Boy, T, Fireball, ET and Spider, Dreamer and his wife all joined in. ET and Spider made it to Baxter Peak just minutes before noon when Dreamer, who had been waiting on them out of concern, planned to leave. He then followed us across the Knife Edge. UNICEF and I signed a ceiling tile for the AT class of 2019. Back at the hostel I packed up and said goodbyes. UNICEF is headed to Portland, Maine to stay with family friends for a few days, then to his father's place in Texas for awhile. His father, who's hardly ever been outside his Texas hometown, is using a small inheritance to take them both on a world cruise in a few months. After that UNICEF may return to Boulder for work and possibly save up to attend a prestigious concept design school in Singapore. He's eager to get into drawing now that the trail is done. He does nothing by half-measures. I board the shuttle to Monson with OleMan and three hikers starting the 100 Mile Wilderness. One was a 2006 thruhiker who recalled taking a relaxed 10 days to really enjoy the Wilderness. OleMan gave me some background on Baxter Park's fraught relationship with the ATC. The current thruhiker permitting went in after Scott Jurek broke the fastest hike record in 2011 and flouted Baxter's warnings by popping champagne at the peak in front of a TV crew. Not only did it violate the spirit and letter of Baxter Park's wilderness mandate (specified in Percival Baxter's deed), but the alcohol on the rocks attracted bears and bees to the summit during that dry summer and created a real nuisance.OleMan and his wife Navigator took over the Appalachian Trail Lodge in 2006 at the end of his thruhike. They had worked at Hiker Hostel in Georgia for years and were looking for an affordable big red barn near the trail in Virginia to start their own hostel. The real estate market was too pricey then, but the elderly Millinocket hostel owner liked them and made them a deal they couldn't refuse. They fixed up the dilapidated home and cafe and they became instant successes. One of their innovations was dropping off food for hikers in the Wilderness. This enabled southbounders in particular to head out without needing to pack out ten days of food. OleMan told me the SOBO retention rate through the Wilderness jumped from 20% to 85% after that.After dropping off the hikers at the beginning of the Wilderness we went to Shaw's for my car. OleMan's daughter Hippy Chick runs the place with her husband Poet. OleMan walked in and with a big smile picked up his two-year-old granddaughter who was waiting at the door to the gear shop and eating a frozen fruit pop. This is a family that loves what they do and does it together.I walked over to the AT visitor center to see who else had passed through. Spruce Lee and Shiitake - who was off-trail for awhile with a knee problem - wrote that they plan to summit on the 7th. So glad to see they made it. I searched for Fast Lane but he wasn't listed. He's not the type to advertise I guess, but I'm certain he already passed through. The staffer gave me a map to Gulf Hagas in the Wilderness which I contemplated dayhiking. I had planned to walk it as a side trip last week but the first two days hiking the Chairbacks were tough enough without the extra six miles!Back at the car I pondered what to do. With limited service I'd texted all the hikers I knew who were still out there but I hadn't heard back, so I didn't know how to find them. Hiking Gulf Hagas and maybe doing trail magic in the Wilderness was attractive but I expected the people I knew had already passed that point. Then a heavily-burdened hiker walked by from Shaw's so I called him over and offered him a ride. He was a dark-bearded, intense guy with a twinkle in his eye named Prometheus who had thrued in 2010 and had started in Vermont this year. His pack was full of beer and liquor to provide trail magic to other hikers as he hiked the Wilderness. I dropped him and his ginormous pack at the trailhead several miles north of town.From there I headed north to Greenville thinking I'd meander west to New Hampshire. But that just took me further into the remote North Woods. I found a small public beach and took a swim in Moosehead Lake, and picked up plenty of Moxie at a rare supermarket for the family back home.New plan: Head for Franconia Notch in the Whites. I learned that Tin Can, a kid I met in Fontana before the Smokies and who is headed for the Peace Corps, will be hitting it tomorrow. Scrub-a-Dub and Go-Gurt may also be in that stretch. I'll stop in Gorham for the night on the way there.Rural western Maine is beautiful and, except for all the evergreens, reminds me a bit of backcountry Pennsylvania. I speed up between towns then slow down through places like Skowhegan, Farmington, and Bethel. I pass roads leading to AT highlights like Caratunk, Stratton, Rangeley, Andover, and Grafton Notch. I wish I could revisit them all! In Gorham I grab fast food for dinner. I haven't been particularly hungry today. My fellow hikers put away huge breakfasts while I nibbled on an egg sandwich. A Big Mac is plenty now. If I'd been hiking for a few weeks though it would just be the warm up act.At the Rattle River trailhead outside town I meet thruhiker Tricon, who's taking the day off to do trail magic. A sixtyish thruhiker named Sped is just parting. He started March 7th but I don't remember seeing him down south. He's concerned about rain. My forecast (wonder of wonders I have service!) shows yet another clear day tomorrow. It's been a fantastic week for weather.Walking up the trail southbound towards the first shelter where I intend to spend the night, I greet a thruhiker and a guy with a daypack. I do a double take, as does the daypacker. It's Mudturkey! I last saw him in North Carolina before he left trail due to shin splints. He returned after a few weeks and is doing great now. He's slackpacking the Carter range, a 20-mile strenuous section from Pinkham Notch which I had dayhiked as well (with full pack, in case I had to tent). Anyway, what a coincidence to bump into Mudturkey at this random trailhead I picked!The Rattle River shelter is only two miles from the road, by the river. The walk through the forest is easy, cool and buggy. Like walking on air after Katahdin! The shelter is, not surprisingly, empty. Any northbounder reaching it would likely continue on to Gorham. I use the evening to catch up on my journal.