Date: 2013-10-03
From: White House Landing, Mahar Rd.

To: Rainbow Stream Lean-to
Miles today: 15.6

Omigoodness, my tummy hurt last night. I've hate jalapenos added to my burgers and pizzas, and my digestive system is revolting. They burned through my system like a blow torch. I wondered if I'd gotten giardia, but I really think it was just jalapenos and overeating.In the morning, we got up, packed up and headed to the breakfast room for coffee. Tom had packed in a pound of coffee that I'd sent him in Afghanistan. It was a special Maine brew that proceeds went to support Maine State Parks. I'd attached a note saying that maybe we could drink coffee together in Maine. I just hadn't meant for him to pack it in with him, but he said he was trying to be romantic. Sweet guy. So we had Linda brew it up for breakfast. It was delicious, I must say. Carrots and I sat around the breakfast table and shot the breeze with The Voice, Indy and Rabbit. Finally, we loaded into Bill's boat, and he water-taxi-ed us back across the lake. He ran the boat up onto the shore, and we formed a chain to unload our packs. We thanked Bill and gave him a push off. By 9:05, we were back on the AT.It was a bit of a late start, but we happily moosied along. The trail was pretty flat, but there were plenty of roots and rocks to keep us on our toes. The smooth, flat, "fast" trail was well-behind us. There were some muddy spots to pick around. My ankle with the wrap got sore quickly, and Carrot's toe needed retaping, so we stopped to fix both. I popped another blister and taped a piece of gauze smeared with Bacitracin to it. Please feet, hold together! We don't have much farther now.With Carrots with me, I didn't feel the need to push as hard or as fast. So we moosied along, rock hopping across rivers and skirting ponds and lakes. The falls leaves were starting to rain down from their branches at the urging of the wind. The ground is growing thick with leaves, and it makes it tricky to find flat areas to place your feet. Carrots picked up a stick and whittled the knobs off of it as he walked along. I'd never dare to try to hike and whittle at the same time, but he had it smoothed down in no time. We passed by a sandy, but very windy, beach on Nahmakanta Lake. There were white capped waves and leaves rustling loudly. We took a few photos, but pushed on to find a more protected place to have lunch. We decided to stop at Wadleigh Stream lean-to. I ate leftover pizza, and I cooked up a pot of cheesy pasta with Pintos for Carrots. Before we knew it, an hour had passed. It was already 2:00 pm, and we still had 8.1 miles to go to reach the shelter. We had a mile-long climb up Nesuntabunt Mountain, and there seemed to be hundreds and hundreds of stone steps. My ankle was hurting in the tight wrap, but I still managed to impress Tom with my "climbing" ability. Poor guy, his pack is sooooo heavy (he's carrying all the food in addition to all his gear), so it was at a slight disadvantage. His newly carved walking stick broke down to something that more closely resembled a wizard's wand. We talked about his work and the deployment. It made the day's hike fly, but I can't say that I noticed much of what was around us. We got a view of Katahdin. It was only 16 miles away by line of sight, but still 36.3 miles away by trail. We passed by Crescent Pond and scanned for moose. No luck. We also skirted Pollywog Gorge and almost took a wrong turn. Carrots got to see a nice variety of forests and trail, including a lovely hemlock forest with its soft, spongy, coppery floor. He likes it as much as I do.It was gettind dark when we finally got to Rainbow Stream Lean-to. We were both pretty tired. Carrots collected water and soaked his feet for a bit in the icy stream. I made dinner for us. It's so, so lovely to be able to share this bit of the hike with him. I know it's not really his cup of tea, but he's such a good sport. I feel incredibly lucky to have him. And what's really crazy is that tomorrow I will carry the last two pages of my guidebook. I usually carry the directions for the day that I'm on as well as the page of directions for the upcoming day. If all goes right, tomorrow night we'll sleep/camp at Abot Bridge. That seems pretty unreal.