Date: 2018-09-07
From: Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to

To: Whitehouse Landing
Miles today: 14.0

DAY 185Quick breakfast and back to the trail. We are meeting April & Bev at Jo-Mary Road for our final resupply, and we are anticipating some possible goodies as well. Mary left first as I had to go down to the stream to retrieve our water scoop I must have left there last night. As I headed out I came upon the school group that left just before me stopped on the trail. As I went by they tucked in right behind me.Trail was flat with good footing this morning and we made good time arriving at Jo-Mary Road early. Fortunately, April & Bev were already there waiting for us. They had our resupply as well as homemade oatmeal cookies (very yummy, thank you April!), homemade pizza (we raved about the pizza so much at the last resupply that April made a whole pizza to bring), cold drinks, and a variety of other snacks. Ball Flap, who camped just before Jo-Mary Road along with Bear Snack last night stopped to enjoy some trail magic. Apparently Bear Snack left early this morning, so he missed the trail magic. The school group soon arrived at the road to end their hike, and waited on the other side for their transportation. It is ironic that a school group can get picked up in the middle of the "100-mile wilderness". Not only that, but we saw two very large tour/coach buses go by. Yelp, Handstand, Luke, and Ewolf soon arrived and were able to enjoy trail magic with us. Handstand also made the announcement that she and Luke were going to get married on Katahdin, and asked if we could be a witness as they needed one more. We told them sure, we would love to as we planned to summit the same day. We did say we were not sure we could keep up with them and be on the summit at the same time as them.As we chatted and enjoyed cookies, pizza and more we discussed that maybe we shouldn't go to White House Landing as that would leave us with 40 miles to do in two days to summit on Monday. We thanked April and Bev and headed down the trail still not sure what our destination would be. Shortly after we left we decided that we had already missed out on a pancake breakfast at Harrison's Pierce Pond, and skipped swimming in a few nice pools, so we made the decision that we would stay at White House Landing and attempt to make 40 miles the following two days.It was a nice day, and when we passed a sandy beach on Lower Jo-Mary Lake Mary decided to enjoy a swim. I decided I would wait until White House Landing to swim. We were making really good time, and stopped to enjoy a dramatic view of Katahdin from the shore of Pemadumcook Lake. Soon we were at the dock for White House Landing. I put in a call and the owner said he would be right over in the boat to pick us up. It was amazing to suddenly be zooming along on the lake, and as we neared White House Landing we could see Yelp, Handstand, Luke & Ewolf on the shore waving to us. We got checked into our cabin, did our laundry outside in a wash tub, hung it to dry on a line, and then decided to go for a swim off the dock. It was starting to cool down, and when we got out we were certainly ready for a hot shower. We both grabbed showers and relaxed on the porch until it was time for dinner at 5:00.We each ordered our burgers and took a seat at a table with Bear Snack and some section hikers. There was a salad of fresh cucumbers and tomatoes from their garden. Because we decided to stay, but have to make a lot of miles tomorrow, we will forego breakfast in the morning and the owner has agreed to take us back to the trail early in the morning. Normally the owner shuttles people back after breakfast, which would mean we wouldn't get back on trail until at least 8:30. We decided this was a good compromise, we could enjoy ourselves here and still get back to the trail early. There was another couple staying here to celebrate their anniversary, and they had brought fireworks to shoot off as soon as it was dark. So, we got to sit on the porch of our cabin and enjoy a fireworks display before heading to bed. Glad to be inside tonight as it is very cold. Clear and cold, and the stars are beautiful.