Date: 2013-09-29
From: Hurd Lean To

To: Katahdin Stream Campground
Miles today: 13.3

I woke up at midnight and wasn't able to fall asleep until 3:30am. I could hear my mom sniffling but I thought she had a runny nose. Come to find out later she was up at 12:30am till 3:30am too as she was having a hard time. She is very sad for this journey to end. We left the shelter early, around 6:45am, and wished Spider, Sriacha and Steady Eddie good luck, congratulations and would probably see them later. We just about ran down that trail. We were anxious to see Bluegrass and reunite him with Bella. I found Bluegrass¢s tent off the trail near a pond. I got to Bluegrass first so I could video record Bella's reaction. We could see Bella approaching but she then took a wrong turn. After seeing mom come down a different path she turn around and then headed towards his tent. Bella saw Bluegrass and sprinted down the trail. She couldn't stop jumping running in circles and wagging her tail. She was so glad to see him. He packed up and we all hiked to Abol Bridge. We crossed over the Abol Bridge and there she was, the beast of a mountain, Mt. Katahdin. It wasn¢t like any mountain I have seen before. It seemed like it was the only mountain around, very exposed. I could see the trail following the rock path up to the top. I could see the sharp edges of the Knife Edge trail. The mountain was massive and beautiful. We continued to walk just a little past Abol Bidge to a convenient store for breakfast and ice cream. For my ice cream selection, I chose Katahdin Krunch. It was amazing. It was vanilla ice cream with caramel and toffee crunches. Mom kept trying to tell us that we needed to get going and get our reservations in at The Birches (a thru-hiker campsite where you camp before you summit). I guess they can only hold about ten thru-hiker spots at this campsite and they get full pretty quickly. I on the other hand, knew that we didn¢t need to camp there, as we would probably be staying in the town of Millinocket, which is about 19 miles away. Then a man walked up to my mom and got really close to her back. She turned around and looked at him, gave him the evil eye, backed away, looked at him two more times and realized it was her brother, Jim! She jumped for joy. We felt blessed that he was able to come out here. We were so excited and couldn¢t believe that he came all the way to Millinocket, Maine to see us. Right away, we tried to convince him to summit with us and said probably not because he didn¢t want to hold us up but would think about it. First, we still have to finish 10 miles to get us to the bottom of Katahdin. So Jim took Bluegrass, Siracha, Spider¢s and our backpacks and Bella since she is not allowed in Baxter State Park. We told Jim to meet us in Baxter State Park around 2pm. The 10 miles was really nice. The trail was really clean i.e. didn¢t have too many roots and rocks. There was a stream to ford both times. This stream was much faster and deeper than any stream that we have previously forded. At the same time, Jim was having fun with Bella. I guess he took her to a park to play and to McDonalds where he got her two burgers and some water.We finished around 3pm at the staging area near Katahdin, an hour after we were suppose to meet Jim. Jim was not there. Oh no, did we get our meeting place mixed up? We didn't have any phone service, as usual. We walked around to different parking areas but to no avail. After about an hour, he finally drove up and needless to say, he was looking pretty mad. Come to find out Baxter State Park officials would not allow him in two hours ago because he had Bella in the car. He told them that he was just coming in to pick us up but they would not allow any pets. Again, he tried to tell them that he would not be getting her out of the car but they wouldn¢t hear of that. They were vigilant in their rules. It was ridiculous. They made him drive all the way back to Millinocket where he had to find someone to watch Bella. He would have left her in the motel but they didn¢t allow dogs either. He checked with a couple of other motels and they didn¢t allow dogs. He checked with the Hiker Hostel and they wouldn¢t take her because we weren¢t staying there but gave him a name of a local called Connie. He called her and she immediately came and picked up Bella. Needless to say, Jim did not have a very good experience with non-dog friendly Millinocket. After the four of us got back to Millinocket, the first thing to do is to check on Bella, eat and then retire to the motel to watch Sunday night football. Bella was doing well at Connie¢s house so we decided for her to stay with her for the night and we would pick her up tomorrow afternoon once we finished hiking Katahdin.It was so nice to have Jim here!Twix