Date: 2013-09-27
From: Abol Bridge ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Abol Pines campsite

To: Baxter State Park ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ the Birches
Miles today: 9.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Warmest night in a long time; so I didn't even zip my sleeping bagIt was a beautiful day, & tomorrow is supposed to be even better. 70-degree & sunny days feel like a blessing, considering that some hikers earlier in the week couldn't go up the Mtn because of bad weather.I got up earlier than the others in the shelter, thinking I might get breakfast at the Abol Bridge restaurant. Nope. It doesn't open till 11:00. So I got my water & began hiking.I began by making some very good time on the first part of the Trail from Abol Bridge. Near the beginning, I saw a bit of poison ivy (not common in New England, especially in Maine) & also the first quaking aspens ¢ a characteristic arctic tree. It was very easy trail, following the West Branch Penobscot River for several miles (logging trucks can be heard following the other side). Then the AT follows Nesowadnehunk Stream pretty much the rest of the way. At one point, we got to ford the stream (a major logging stream in former times). I looked upstream for a possible dry crossing. Not finding any, I started to wade across this fairly swift stream with lots of slippery boulders. With all my experience (Orbeton Stream), do you think I took precautions in case of a spill? No.  Dumb! Did I zip my wallet pocket? No. Did I secure stuff in the outer pockets of my pack ? No. Did I close my camera case? No. In wading a rocky stream, one foot has to be securely placed before moving the next, while maintaining balance. On the second step into this one, I stepped a little too far. Something slipped & I ended up pack first in the water. My water bottle started to float away, & I grabbed it while getting up. Of course, everything in my pants pockets & pack pockets got wet; but I made it successfully to the other shore from there. Then I discovered I had gotten water into my camera case & into the camera itself. Various efforts to dry it out have been unsuccessful so far; so I'll have to take my Katahdin pictures with my iPhone. After having lunch near the falls & drying some things out, I continued into Baxter State Park. Mt. Katahdin & some 200,000 acres around it were donated by former Maine governor Percival Baxter, along with a $7 million trust fund to operate it as a wilderness park, separate from other state parks & from the state budget. As I passed Daicey Pond, I was joined by Lune (another 72-year-old hiker), & we walked the rest of the way together. I got to the ranger station at Katahdin Stream campground and registered for the Birches, a set of shelters & campsites reserved for thru-hikers. Only then did I discover that it is a quarter mile away from the Trail & from the water source. I was number 550 registering as completing the trail. I went back down to the trailhead to see 10-12 hikers who had completed the climb today & were waiting to leave the park. it's kind of a weird feeling. Most of the people I've hiked with over these months have already finished ¢ some will do so in the next couple of weeks ¢ some never will. Yet these and the ones who will do it with me tomorrow are the only ones I get to see at the time congratulations are most in order. Some of those I saw included Bluegrass, Lonewolf, Aquaman, Homebrew, Wetbag, ET, & Olive Oyl. Even of these, some are people I had met in the South but may not have seen for months. I had met Olive Oyl in southern Virginia & not seen her again {except a couple of minutes near Waynesboro] till 2 weeks ago; similarly with Aquaman, whom I saw again in the White Mtns. Gravy & Honeysuckle hiked with me in New Jersey, then not again till we got to Maine. Lune was looking for a hiker named Simple to finish today ¢ he turned out to be someone I had only met once, for breakfast in Duncannon, PA. I got a picture of a group who had finished ¢ now let's see if I can remember all the names! I saw Gravy & Honeysuckle in separate cars & got to congratulate each of them (I even got hugs from Honeysuckle & her mother!). It was gratifying how many of them wanted me to thank Susan for helping them with rides & other things in recent weeks.I had enough water at the shelter to get thru the night, so I decided I'd eat supper, go to bed early, & have breakfast down by Katahdin Stream after I packed up in the morning. Now that I was dependent on my iPhone camera for pictures tomorrow, I started having trouble with my battery charger for the iPhone. At 27% charge, I won't be able to take a lot of pictures of my finale (& I didn't have much opportunity to work on this journal either). I had the small shelter to myself, since Grey Wolf & Red Tail had found a place down the hill. Corn Flake & Skeeter-Feeder stayed in the other shelter.