Date: 2004-08-22
From: Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to

To: Nahmakanta Lake
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: few clouds

There were some older folks here. That's frequently disappointing because they tend to want to get up really early to give themselves plenty of time on the trail. The younger crowd can sleep right through their quiet preparations but not me. After faking sleep for a while I finally got up. It was still before 6am. Of course that should give me an early start and that's not totally bad.After a while, a bright light appeared through the trees low on the horizon. There was some debate but it really looked like the sun. Oh yes. Stuff was still wet but things were looking up. My start was a little after 7am. The hiking was easy. There was very little change in elevation. The trail crossed old logging roads and streams. It passed lots of beautiful lakes and ponds dotted with boulders and islands. The waters looked so blue reflecting the crisp sky and in such contrast to the grays of yesterday.By 11am my travels had brought me 11.4 miles to Potaywadjo Spring Shelter. This was a mighty nice log shelter with a corrugated fiberglass skylight in the roof that let in so much light. It was just great. The really crazy thing about this place and Antlers Campsite about 3 miles back were the privies. They were both log cabins complete with windows, window box planters and mirrors inside. They even had curtains. They had such a homey touch.A little lunch part one and I was back on the trail and in the zone.The Zone:A certain single mindedness had come over me. It was like wearing blinder. Nothing was going to keep me from that next step. Don't get me wrong, this was happiness, the ultimate high. This was being content, total fulfillment. This was a finely tuned machine that nothing could stop and it was just cruising down the trail.Eyes fixed on the trail just ahead of my boots caught sight of a trail diverging to the right. A quick glance to the right and then ahead without skipping a beat verified it was just another lake and the white blazes persisted dead ahead. Striding past the side trail, my peripheral vision glimpsed a sign on a tree. Two steps later the signs letters arranged themselves in my head, ¢Katahdin View¢. Without even a first thought or any real change in speed my feet brought me about and out that side trail to the shore of the lake.There it was. Oh my gosh. It was huge. It rose above all its surroundings the way the Grand Tetons rose above Jackson Hole. It was amazing. There were no foothills between here and there and no mountains around it. Pemadumcook Lake sits here at my toes at an elevation of 530 feet and everything for the next 50 trail miles from here to Katahdin looked flat. How could that be.My elation and delight were off the scale. I just had to stand there soaking it in. For how long, it's hard to say. It was tough to leave this sight but that was the only way to get there. My mood was great before and if it's possible it was even better now. My determination was just overwhelming. I was giddy.It was only noon thirty when the trail crossed Mahar Tote Road. Even though this is called the Hundred Mile Wilderness it frequently crossed dirt logging roads. Many are obviously in current use and in fairly good shape. They just rarely see any traffic and what traffic they do see is likely to be big private commercial logging trucks. The chances of getting a ride into anyplace is about zero. It's not like there is a town a few miles down the road either. No, these roads go on for endless miles before getting anywhere. So in that respect, it is wilderness. The Mahar Tote Road is however in a different class. It was overgrown with grass and plants. There is a bare dirt path leading down the middle to the right.According to the Handbook Mahar Tote Road would lead to White House Landing Wilderness Camp. The place was supposed to have a camp store, pizza and ice cream. Well who could pass that up. Sure it was 0.9 miles off the trail but there's no hurry and it's flat.An obstacle confronted me part way down the tote road. It was big, brown, tall, goofy looking and staring right at me. Sure enough a moose was standing right in the middle of the trail. It was polite enough to wait for me to get my camera out and snap a photo. No, I did not approach it and kept a good distance. It moved off into the woods and joined it's friends allowing me to continued down the road.Before the road reached the lake a rough trail, though well blazed, led to the right around the lake shore. It eventually came to a little dock and there, hanging in a tree was an air horn. A little note instructed to blow the air horn for a ride across the lake to White House Landing. At the sound of the horn a man, a dog and a boy got in a boat and motored across the lake to pick me up. Cool.These folks were great. The dads' voice betrayed his disappointment at learning I was coming for lunch. He had been working hard all morning on a carpentry project. His wife serves lunch to guests till 1pm and then the family eats. He was hungry but said that was fine.Up at the main house there was a request to leave boots on the porch. Inside the place was perfect. It was rustic, utilitarian, yet homey. A cupboard on the wall acted as the camp store. That seemed a bit meek but honestly every kind of food a hiker might need was in there. It was amazing. There was a gas freezer with Ben & Jerry's inside. There was a pile of boxes waiting for the appropriate thru-hikers. There were tools on the walls and posts. There were wood stoves, kerosene lanterns and gas lamps. There was a kitchen and dining area. It was hard to tell what was here for decoration and atmosphere verses what was here for practical reasons. Chances were good it was all pretty practical.These folks live here year round. There is no road. They take a boat in summer or snow mobile in the winter to a landing at the other end of the lake. It's a 50 mile trip to the nearest civilization. They run this place as a wilderness resort and a thru-hiker hostel. They get wealthy clients from the cities looking for a wilderness retreat. They offered cabins, hiking, fishing, boating, swimming or just peace and quiet away from civilization. Most of their clients love it. Occasionally, there's one who find it a bit too much, especially when they wind up sharing the place with stinky thru-hikers. That's not to mention the privy. Oh, and there is no electricity here. It's great. They say they would rather loose a city client than a thru-hiker.Honestly, there are those who take issue with this tiny enclave of semi civilization out here in the ¢Wilderness¢. The place, however, has a history that predates the AT. In fact, in the early days of the AT, there were cabins through out the Hundred Mile Wilderness complete with actually bunk bed and wood stoves. So really this is just a piece of history. It's not like hikers don't have to go out of their way to find it. The walls had old photos and articles about the place. It made for fun perusal while waiting for my pizza to be made.That's right. She made my pizza from scratch. There were these huge brownies that just couldn't be avoided too. She dug up 4 AA batteries for my Steri-pen which had been out of commission for about a day now. This was a great place. The pizza was fabulous. She put plates of fruit and vegetables on the table too. This was a very healthy pizza and twice what my stomach could handle. She put the rest in a zip lock bag for my pack like she was a pro at this. My last act here was to pay the bill and grab a pint of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ben & Jerry's ice cream from the propane freezer for the trail. Alas, they had no Cherry Garcia. I thanked the Misses on the porch as her husband came to shuttle me back across the lake. He didn't take me back to the dock but instead took me all the way to the end of the tote road saving me more than a half mile walking. They don't do pickups there because it's too far for the air horn. What a crazy business. What a great break.After a short distance, at a beautiful spot on a stream, I stopped to eat the ice cream. Perfect. Even being that full on pizza there was room for a pint in the desert stomach. Amazing. It was about 2:30 and there were about 8 miles to go.The hiking was great this afternoon and by 5:15pm the trail had come to a nice beach at the south end of Nahmakanta Lake, a big lake. Rising Sun was hanging out in a hammock reading a book. M was just getting out of the water. Nobody and Alright were hangin' out too. There tents were all set on the beach. These guys were all planning on summiting on the 25th as was I. It was fun to talk about it. Life was good. This was the sunny end of the lake in the afternoon and the water was just too tempting. After a wonderful swim it was still just too early to quit for the day. M took a picture of me by the lake and that was really nice. The trail skirted around the lake and gave me lots of views of there camp. Each time it got smaller and smaller.It was a whole 2.2 miles to the north end of the lake and yet another 0.4 miles to the the next shelter. There was another beach on the north end of the lake and it called to me. Yeah, this would be home for the night. A 21.1 mile day with a stop for pizza and ice cream seemed pretty respectable. The beach was sloping and required a little leveling before pitching the tent. It would be easy enough to put the sand back in the morning leaving no trace.The beach made for a pretty unique camp. Someone had created a kind of odd driftwood bench. It wasn't exactly comfortable but it did the trick and it was fun. The bushes became my drying rack. Things were still wet from the rainy days. The vastness and remoteness of the lake were wondrous. The star scape that night was mighty fine complete with shooting stars. It seemed to be remote until the sounds of voices started coming across the water. The other end of the lake was visited by a dirt road and some folks had come up for a camp out somewhere on the far side between the 2 ends. It wasn't that loud and it was still distant. It was a good night.