Date: 2016-07-20
From: Mt Katahdin Summit

To: Bangor Airport
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: scattered clouds

A critique of my last days at the AT Lodge, run with a heavy hand by Ole Man. I was there for 5 nights. He first night was after coming out of the 100 mile wilderness broken and beat. The preceding day had been hot and humid and had weakened my trail legs to even he minor climbs in the northern part of the wilderness. My confidence was low; there was no way I was climbing Katahdin any time soon. My experience with the Lodge started while still out on the trail. I called at the top of the last mountain to arrange a shuttle into Millinocket. They wouldn't agree to it; told me to hitch hike. Bad start. After a bit if negotiation they told me to ask to use the satellite phone at the abol store and they could send someone sooner or later. That's what I did. An ice cream and a lobster roll later, about two hours after finishing the wilderness the shuttle showed up. No problem. I was elated to see it. Duffy the driver was very friendly and told me much about the area as we drove the 19 miles back into town. Evidently hitch hiking there was quite normal and most of the road traffic was hiking or camping folk who were amenable to it. I vowed to try it after my next hiking leg. Ole Man was as acerbic as he had been described by other hikers on the trail. It was immediately obvious that he wasn't listening to anything said to him. He had a niche business in housing and shuttling both Nobo and Sobo hikers and knew exactly what they needed at all times, even if the hikers thought differently. He showed me my room and ran down the dos and donts of the hostel. I was already feeling better, just being in the last town of the trail. A shower helped even more.Lying on the bed I suddenly realized my pack would no longer be needed; at least not fully loaded. The tent, sleeping bag, pad and lots more were staying at the lodge while I took two day hikes; the 9 mile flat hike thru the park and the 5.4 tough hike up Katahdin. But no more 30 lb pack! Very good feeling. Within an hour and after checking the weather I signed up for the daily shuttle to the park. From there Sobos either climbed Katahdin or started walking south. Nobo's could do the park hike or climb the mountain and be done. I was too do the easy hike from Katahdin Stream Campsite back to the abol store where I had been just hours before. On Saturday morning I tried out the AT Cafe, also run by the AT Lodge. I then packed into a full van and we headed to the park around 6:30am. This was a daily shuttle and seemed always full. Ole Man gave running commentary about the area and advice for the upcoming hikes. It was actually sort of useless to give advise on what the hiker needed to pack after the shuttle was in transit. Too late to change now. But then the most bizarre words came out of his mouth and many things became clear. He talked about how hikers needed to carry no more than a liter of water while I'm Maine. Mystery solved. He was the expert that had been helping Sobos lighten their load by not carrying water. I met many of them, dehydrated and pleading for help in finding water sites ahead of them. I heard them quote the exact words Ole Man said. It was him! Now many good hikers carry small quantities of water successfully. After learning how. How to plan ahead from the guide. How to recognize the effects of dehydration. How to rehydrate when reaching a water source. It's a skill to do it successfully. Along with the proclamation should come a tutorial on how to do it. Both parts need to be discussed. I did my easy hike that morning and did hitch back to town. It wasn't immediate but after about a half hour a guy took pity on me and took me home. It was fine and I now understand why the Lodge would advise hikers to try it, especially from abol where there is lots of traffic. That would be my last hike for awhile. The chance of thunderstorms for Sunday and Monday kept me at the lodge reading a book while many others chanced the mountain and lucked out. Ole Man happily shuttled them each day. Storms did occur but luckily not while hikers were on the mountain, at least not that I heard of. Meanwhile Ole Man and I talked about a variety of things whenever we met. He never recognized me, not even at the end. Thought I was a Sobo. Didn't know my name or trail name. Never gave me the impression of caring what my purpose there was and certainly had no worries for my safety or convenience. Trying to do schedule something with him was impossible. He would simply wave me off and say "After", meaning later which never came. His memory was too bad.The one thing he seemed great at was finding excess and cheating. Someone would walk casually by him and he would confront them about paying for some service or refraining from some unallowed activity. One poor hiker who had just returned from climbing the mountain, a great feeling, was met by Ole Man with the greeting "you need to pay for that shower". He stood there dumbfounded. Once while standing in my room, Ole Man pointed at my single overhead light as if to make sure I was going to turn it off when u left the room. Not a friendly man. The climate at the hostel was for the most part calm and friendly, at least between the guests. Around Ole Man though one needed to watch out because he seemed always on the verge of blowing up. In fact he evidently did to one hiker, in an email, who was a victim of a stolen food drop out by Jo Mary road. I sympathize with Ole Man being irritated by food being stolen but not with taking it out on the poor hiker who got there and found his food missing. This story was told me in Caratunk and after meeting the man I definitely appreciated the apparent truth of it. Taking a standard shuttle at the Lodge was ok. Trying to arrange anything out of the ordinary was difficult and could not be planned. Ole Man had his schedule and it didn't take into consideration anyone else's schedule. Once you understood that you could plan around him.