Date: 2005-07-09
From: Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to

To: White House Landing
Miles today: 13.8

Weather: Rain and nasty all dayLocation: White House LandingMileage: 13.8People: Dewd, Webb, Fat Agnes, Diesel and Mississippi Alan Animals: 0 Food: Pop-tarts and snickers all the way to white house, enormous 1lb burger and chips for dinnerI'll start off by telling you how Diesel and Mississippi are hiking with us again. Last time we saw them was in Gorham and we didn't know if we'd see them again before Katahdin. We had been leaving register entries for them to catch back up with us but doubted they would. Last night at about 9, Sippi and Diesel come rolling up to the shelter. They had been doing close to 30 mile days to catch up and they intended to keep on and summit Katahdin on Monday. We all had a good time hanging out for awhile last night and crammed in the shelter practially on top of one another. It started raining in the middle of the night and when we woke up it hadn't stopped. Dewd, Agnes and I only had planned to do the mileage to White House but Diesel and Sippi insisted on doing a 29. We said our good-lucks and good-byes this morning and they headed out. Dewd and I chilled in the shelter until 9:30 and headed out. We hit the shelter 11.5 miles away by 12:15 to meet Agnes for lunch and Diesel and Sippi were there as well. After some serious persuasion and propaganda to convince them to go to White House they left still undecided. Agnes, Dewd and I left about 20 minutes later to head to the dock. In order to get to White House you have to blow an air horn to get picked up in a boat by Bill the owner. When we arrived it was pouring down rain and I was pretty wet and cold. I blew the air horn and we stood on the dock and waited to get picked up. After about 15 minutes we got a little impatient and decided that in another 15 minutes we'd blow the horn again. It says on the sign to be patient because they could be in the middle of doing something. It was hard to be patient when shivering in the pouring rain and being eaten alive by mosquitos. My hands were starting to turn white and we decided to blow the horn again. Immediately after blowing we see a man across the lake getting into a boat and heading our way. When he got to the dock I apologized for blowing the horn twice. He looked at me funny and said that he hadn't heard it until just now. I was pretty mad that we stood there like idiots that whole time but relieved we were finally in a boat headed to hot showers and food. We got into the bunkhouse and there sat Webb, Sippi and Diesel. They are such pushovers, but I'm glad they are. We all got hot showers and then ate 1 lb. hamburgers that were unbelievable. Bill and Linda who run the hostel are really nice people who have been living out here for 15 years. After dinner we played a couple games of Scrabble and now we're passing out. Sippi and I had a huge dispute as to whether or not "fived" was a word. I tried to convince him that five is not a verb, as in "high-fived" someone. He wasn't convinced, but we didn't count the points. I'm pretty sure I'm right, but not completely sure. Diesel and Sippi changed their plans completely and are going to hike with us the remainder and summit on the 13th. This was good news because they are great company and we have some crazy times when we're all together. It's getting to be way past my bedtime, it's approaching 10pm so I'm off to bed."Good company in a journey makes the way seem the shorter." -Izaak Walton