Date: 2017-08-17
To: The Birches
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: overcast clouds

8/17The Birches9.9 milesAn evil headache gripped the base of my skull as the effects of my fall came home to roost. No position I could find seemed to help. I felt feverish, stripping off layers of clothing to try to get comfortable. My stomach roiled with nausea. Despite the comfort of the bed, it was not a good night. But at least I killed that damned mosquito. I woke up at six and contemplated my day. I dug migraine medication out of my bag. If my head still felt bad after I'd been up a while, I would take it. I hoped that loosening my muscles up, as well as caffeine, would work instead. I twiddled my thumbs until the breakfast buffet was due to open. Then I twiddled some more, as it opened late. It was a disappointing breakfast with lukewarm reheated pancakes and disks of egg. The coffee cups were tiny foam cups. The juice cups were Dixie cups. I paid for more wifi. The forecast had gotten worse. Despite my desire, maybe even my need, to stay and recuperate, I decided that I had better pack up and go. I'd rather feel crappy going up Katahdin than go up in bad weather. When I got to the kiosk, only one person had registered for the Birches ahead of me. I was pretty surprised. The way people had been talking, I thought it would be full. Especially given the weather situation. The walk through the park passed quickly. I listened to music for a while until I looked at my phone and saw that it was for some reason draining the battery. I shut it down to deal with later. I stepped off the trail to have a private moment and narrowly missed being beaned by a pine cone. An angry chipmunk cussed at me the whole time I was there, even bluff charging me and shaking his tiny fists. But when I made a sudden movement, he backed off. He was crazy enough to threaten a predator a hundred times his size, but not stupid enough to follow through. At Katahdin Stream Campground I found the ranger away, so I went up to the shelter and made a hot lunch. I walked back to register and get water from the stream. The ranger gave me some advice about the hike. I told her about my original plan to descend at Roaring Brook, but that I'd have to hitchhike to do it now. She suggested the Abol Trail.  She said it had been largely relocated since I last hiked it. The top is still bad for half a mile, but after that it's on switchbacks. I may go down Abol Slide after all. Then it's only 2-3 miles back to KSC to pick up the gear I'll drop there in the morning. A thruhiker and a section hiker showed up. I talked about how my leg muscles aren't recovering like they used to, and burn on even small hills. Turns out I'm not the only one! This is comforting. Doesn't help the burn at all, but it's nice for my misery to have company. I saw more bear poop on the trail today than I have in my life. Almost completely composed of blueberries of course, but it gives one pause. There are bear cables at the shelter. Given that we are once again in a forest of tall trees with no lower branches, this is very helpful. I'll be hanging my toothpaste and even my towel. I used the towel to wipe out my pot after ginger chili noodle soup and I don't want to give a bear a hankering for Thai food. Unfortunately one of those brilliant orange sandwich crackers escaped from its package and lost structural integrity in my pack today. There are brilliant orange bits *everywhere*. In my fanny pack. ON my fanny pack. Inside my backpack. Somehow inside the lid of my arnica cream. I've tried to corral the bits but they're in the mud outside the shelter, adhering to the webbing parts of my gear, and generally creating what I imagine to be a glowing neon bear sign. I imagine that I'll sleep pretty well with that going on.