Date: 2006-07-06
From: Antler's Campsite, Me

To: White House Landing, Me
Miles today: 5.9

5.9 miles todayShore CabinWhite House Landing, MeI woke up about 2 or 3 this morning and there were a bunch of frogs croaking and some loons calling in the distance. I liked the loons, but the frogs were too noisy, so I put my earplugs in and fell asleep again.I woke up at 3:50am and just layed in my tent which was set to look out over the lake. I could see first light beginning, so I just layed there and watched morning come.Frogcaller came over and started getting their breakfast ready about 5am.There were a couple loons calling from about 75 yards away while my coffee was brewing.I had my coffee and a couple fruit pies, then started packing up at 6am and was walking by 6:55am.Zulu walked out ahead of me and Mrs Gorp's pack was sitting in front of the privy when I walked by.I caught up to Frogcaller at 8am, then shortly after that, Mrs Gorp caught up to me. She showed me what Indian cucumber looked like.I found some and dug up the root and ate it and it tasted very good.It's nice hiking with an old pro like Mrs Gorp because I learn so much about backpacking and grazing along the way. :-)))I stopped by Potawadjo Spring Lean-to and signed the register, then got some water from the spring.It's a neat spring because the water looks like it's bubbling up through the sand and it's nice and cold.I got out to Padumcook Lake and saw Katahdin for the first time this year. It was beautiful!!!I got to the side trail to White House Landing and got into some deep mud right away and it lasted for a few hundred yards before I started to walk on dryer land.When I got up on the dryer land (still mud, but dryer), I saw a beautiful print of the front foot of a bear.I kept walking and caught up to Mrs Gorp and walked the last mile to the boat ramp with her.Just before we got to the boat ramp, we caught up to Kahuna and Hula Bug.Mrs Gorp was talking to them, but I hurried on because they said they had heard the boat come over.Bill was already at the dock and was talking to Zulu. Bill's son, Ben and the dog, Pooh Bear were there too.We waited on the others and then headed across the pond.I always love coming back to White House Landing. It's my favorite stop on all the AT.It's a converted logging camp from the early 1900's and pretty much out in the middle of nowhere on a beautiful lake.There's no electricity, but they do have good spring water and gas lights and best of all, they cook one pound hamburgers and delicious pizzas. :-)))We heard loons off and on all afternoon.I got a shower, then washed my clothes in an old bucket with a wash board, then ran them through a wringer and hung them up in the sun to dry.It was a nice, windy, cool, mostly sunny day. That kept the mosquitos down.I waited on Frogcaller to show up before I ate.She showed up soon enough and when she got across the pond, we all ordered hamburgers.I ate all of mine. :-))) It was good!!!A couple hikers came in that were doing a section and just wanted to resupply.I recognized one from walking last year as Roaming Goat and Mrs Gorp recognized the other from two years ago as Orlando.I tried taking a nap after they left, but just ended up laying on the porch swing for a while, then moved to the bench by the pond, then layed on the boat dock for a while.I never did get a nap though.At 5 pm, everyone went up and ordered pizzas. I shared one with Mrs Gorp and it was all we could do to finish it all.The six of us all sat at the same table and had a good time talking about food...and hiking. :-)))I was so stuffed after dinner that when Mrs Gorp asked if I wanted to help paddle a canoe, I said yes.I needed to move and I'm glad I did.We ended up paddling about three miles and saw some pretty neat stuff.Linda had told us to head to the bogs to see some moose, but she didn't say how far the bogs were.We rounded the first bend in the lake and I saw a bunch of driftwood floating near the shore. I headed the canoe that way to take a couple pictures and just as we were back paddling, I spotted four little critters running along on some of the driftwood.Turns out they were martens. They were bobbing up and down and around on the driftwood heading from 50 yards to the left of us to about 100 yards to the right of us before they dissappeared.We were just sitting there talking about how lucky we were to have seen that when another one came from the same area and follwed to where the others had gone.We got to watch that little bugger all the way.When they crossed closest to us, they were only about 15 yards away.We paddled on and pretty soon, we saw a bald eagle land and it watched a merganser duck and about 8 babies floating around.We headed the canoe toward the bald eagle until we got to close for his comfort and he flew away.While we were watching him fly around to our left, I started looking to the right for a moose and saw another bald eagle fly by on that side.We watched where the one eagle landed on the top of a tree, but kept paddling looking for the bogs.I saw what looked like it might be some bogs on the west end of the lake and as we got closer, I spotted one moose, then another.We headed towards the first moose and got to within about 40 yards of it. Turned out to be a young bull moose with about 8 to 10 inch antlers.We paddled around it a got a few pictures, but it was nervous and kept a close eye on us.We paddled around the bog to where the other moose was and also got to within about 40 yards.That one was a cow moose. We got a couple pictures and after watching it for a while, we started to head back.We could see Katahdin above the trees on the one side of the pond, but when we came around another bend, we could see all of Katahdin.I got a couple nice pictures of Mrs Gorp rowing the canoe with Katahdin in the background.We rounded another bend and I could see White House Landing on the other side of the pond.The wind was just right and I could here Zulu and Frogcaller making some sort of call when they spotted us.We got back and told them about everything we saw.Kahuna had given me his camera just in case we saw any moose. I gave it back to him with 3 or 4 shots of moose on it. :-)))We landed the canoe and it was getting dark and the bugs were starting to bite, so we went in for the night.What a great day!!!!