Date: 2004-10-09
From: abol pines camping area

To: rainbow stream lean-to
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: overcast clouds

"old faces and new faces"i slept soundly last night, lulled to sleep by the sound of the river and the diesel drum of logging trucks crossing abol bridge. morning seemed to come entirely too soon. i was slow to rise this morning, somewhat sore from yesterday¢s hike. by the time i¢d broken camp and walked back up to the camp store, the sky was completely overcast. i wanted to get some shots of mount katahdin, so i decided to wait around for a while to see if the clouds would lift. after dropping my pack by the picnic table again, i went inside and purchased a chocolate milk and a blaze orange hunter¢s hat. the hat has a picture of a moose on it with the words ¢maine moose hunt¢ above the picture and ¢2002" below the picture. the ¢2002" was blacked out with a marker and i was able to get the hat at half price. moose season is in full swing up here and i¢m not trying to get shot. back outside, i took a seat at one of the picnic tables and talked with mr t and scorch- both very nice girls (yes, mr t is a girl).poptart showed up after a while and we sat and talked. mr t, flint, and scorch decided that it was time to begin their last fifteen miles of the trail. they left and i continued to wait for the clouds to break. i finally decided that i should start hiking at 10:00. i wasn¢t able to get my shots of katahdin, but there is plenty more trail out there to be photographed.the three miles to the hurd brook shelter slid right by. i was photographing the area around the shelter when i looked up to see a northbound hiker headed towards me.¢back for round three, huh?¢ i said to wu-li. i recognized him from meeting him last year when he was doing his anniversary hike of his original thru-hike in 2002. he said that he was back for round three and that he was right on schedule to summit katahdin on the same day that he had the past two years. i reintroduced myself to wu-li and then he remembered who i was. he took a break at the shelter and we talked while i packed up my gear.the sun finally broke through the clouds and was shining bright as i made my way across the open slope of rainbow ledges. i was happy to finally get my view of katahdin. a nice lakeside walk filled the rest of the afternoon. i struggled through the rock and root ridden final two miles of the day.by the time i crossed the logs to the rainbow stream lean-to, i was completely exhausted for the second day in a row. why in the world didn¢t i do any kind of physical or mental training before i came out here? i could have at least done like my grandmother, the bisz, does and taken steps two at a time. or, i could have done some sit ups or some jumping jacks. anything to get into any kind of shape would have been better than this. simple arithmetic even would have helped. at least, it would have helped with the mental part of this game.so, there was another southbound hiker at the shelter this evening. his name is shane from pennsylvania. we actually emailed before we came out here. i didn¢t expect to actually catch up to him. especially not this soon in my hike. he was supposed to be starting the trail on the 2nd or 3rd. he did start the trail then, but he hurt his knee coming down katahdin and has been moving rather slow since then. shane seems like a good guy. he wears all cotton clothes, though, and that kind of worries me. everyone knows that you should never wear cotton clothes when you¢re backpacking. cotton = a bad idea. cotton doesn¢t dry when it gets wet.yukon jack, terrapin, goofy, and kiwi were the four northbounders at the shelter. i enjoy them a lot. terrapin, goofy, and kiwi seem like the kind of guys i would be hiking with if i were heading north this time of year. we had great conversation around a warm campfire tonight. one of the big topics of conversation this evening was the fact that there is a picture of this shelter on this year¢s ATC data book. of course, it eventually came out that i took the picture that¢s on the cover of the thru-hiker¢s handbook. i always feel a little awkward telling people that. i don¢t like being the center of attention. oh well. soon enough shane and i will be the only hikers left out here and then i won¢t have to worry about that.