Date: 2009-09-28
From: Nahmakanta Lake Campsite, ME

To: Hurd Brook Lean-To, ME
Miles today: 22.2
Weather: overcast clouds

What a night! I woke Bark up around midnight when I started to feel a wet sensation down at my feet. It had been raining for a few hours, but our tent has been such a safe haven I thought it couldn't be a leak. Boy was I wrong. When we finally dug our head lamps out, the light revealed a whole puddle of water under my thermarest. We finally figured out that the water was coming in through the seem on the floor of the tent! Oh no! Rain in the forecast for the next few days...oh dear. For the rest of the night we did what we could by putting our sham wow over the seem and then both pairs of our rain pants down in order to keep our sleeping bags dry. The rest of the night (or morning) was pretty restless- we were constantly checking for leaks and flooding. As soon as we could see, at 5:45am, we were up and out. The rain continued, but not for too much longer. By 7:00am the rain had let up, but we had prepared ourselves for a tough day of slippery rocks and roots and more rain in the forecast. We talked about having to make it to a shelter in order to stay dry for the night, but our only options were 10 miles or 22 miles...yikes. Bark and I hiked like normal and by about 8am we had made it to the shelter where Firecracker and Big Fish, Natty Bumpo and Many Names had stayed. We stopped and said hi, but stayed on course and soon caught up with Big Fish and Firecracker. It was perfect timing for some conversation while climbing 1,000 ft. and made it go by very quickly. We stayed pretty close for the rest of the morning, having some good talks off and on. The rain held off and there were even some patches of blue overhead! The trail was rooty and rocky as expected, but it was just one mile at a time and totally doable. Around noon we came to the 10 mile point and rolled into the shelter for lunch. With some patchy sun passing over we decided it might be a good idea to pull out our saturated tent and let it dry as much as possible. We took a nice long break with everyone and before we left Natty Bumpo and Many Names had passed us all by. The hiking couples were very encouraging to Bark and I as we debated over going another 11.5 miles or just stopping at the next campsite. Without even knowing it, we hiked right past the campsite we had planned on stopping at and then only had about 5.5 miles before the next shelter, so we figured we would go for it. There was a small mountain to get over before the shelter, but with a promised view of Katahdin and unexpected blue skies we had the motivation we needed to get to the top. It was a beautiful little mountain. Not above treeline, but still alpine vegetation all around. It was close to sunset so the rocks were well illuminated all around. It may have very well been our last vista in Maine. As we came up to the summit, we saw Firecracker and Big Fish sitting and looking out through some trees. We knew there was a view of Katahdin, but didn't know where. As we got closer we came to a break in the trees and there she was! Bigger and more beautiful than any mountain we have seen thus far! Katahdin is simply MASSIVE- it takes up the entire horizon. That day, Kitahdin had created its own little weather pattern at the summit. We sat down, took some pictures and talked about the past several months out here and how incredible it is to be looking at the finale. Well, the sun was setting and we had about 2.5 miles to go before we could call it a day. The 4 of us on the summit got our things together and headed down to the shelter, the last official "free" AT shelter. When we arrived Natty Bumpo, Many Names and Ox had already arrived and were getting their things put away. Bark and I managed to snag a spot in the shelter since our tent had been leaking last night. Big Fish and Ox got a fire going and dinners commenced. It has been such a great day of hiking, surprise pretty weather and fantastic company. It is days like today that I will miss the most when the journey is over.By the way, the 22.2 miles was just one way Bark and I felt we could really "stick it" to Maine and all of her rocks and roots before saying goodbye. Ha! Take that Maine!