Date: 2019-08-22
From: Abol Bridge Campground

To: The Birches
Miles today: 9.8

Day 158Today I walked from Abol Bridge Campground to the Birches Campground and was here by 12. I had a nice breakfast at Abol and started walking at 7:45.  When I got to the Birches, I had to check in with the Ranger who was not here yet and we had to wait about one hour for him. The campground is about one half mile away from the ranger station so after checkin with the ranger I started walking tot he campground, and yes it started raining (we were driving during this rain storm and let me tell you it was hard, driving rain that I could barely see out of my windshield with the wipers on full blast!) By the time it took me to get here it was really raining hard, so I just went to a shelter and I am calling it home for the night. The forecast for tomorrow is really good. I just have to make it through the night. I still can not believe that it will all be over tomorrow.  i will be an official thru hiker of the Appaliachian Trail! I just hope that the family knows where I am and how to get here.  The Ranger said they should be here by 6 am before the park closes unless they have a day use pass . I am going to trust Lisa and assume that she got one and everything will be ok then. Mount Katahdin tomorrow, just 5.3 miles away. I really am looking forward to it. I can not believe it the last day and my pen runs out of ink! I do have a replacement cartridge though. I am sort of sad it will be over, but I will be home with running water, showers, a bed, and food plus all the people. Well I want to get to the ranger station early so that will be all for tonight.  (so now the rest of the story! We (my mom, sister, and my 2 boys left home at 5:30 and drove for 11 hours to get to Millinocket. We checked into the Cabin at Big Moose Inn got settled and the boys stayed behind with their 2 dogs while the girls went in search of our start point in the morning. Well, 8 miles to the park ranger station, pay $15 to enter, then another 8 miles to the Katahdin Stream Campground on a dirt road with speed limit of 10-one hour later we arrived.  We drive up to field and see some people sitting on the lawn.  Trish gets out and asks the people "Are you thru hikers?" of course they respond "Yes".  She then explains that we are looking for our father, she doesn't get to finish and they say "OH Grumper! He is in the shelter sleeping" The guy goes by the name of "Maine" started telling us a story of Grumper in the Mahoosuc Notch. At this point my mom and I are parking the truck and walking over to them. "Maine" tells us that Grumper is in the shelter sleeping and walks us over to the ranger station to help get us in in the morning (all the day passes were sold out ahead of time). We are told that if we get here by 6:30 we can wait and at 7 they release the unclaimed parking spots. So, we leave to find Grumper. As we turn around, "Maine's" son "Destroyer" is there and we get introduced to him.  He is a very excited 8 year old who walked the entire trail. We head for the the truck and "Destroyer" runs off. We end up giving "Maine" a ride in the bed of the truck-yes this is an acceptable way to travel here in Maine-to the Birches. as we are driving, who do we see walking, but Grumper! "Destroyer" ran to wake him up for us! So we give Grumper the option of staying in the shelter or staying in the cabin with us on a real bed, with real food, flushing toilets, etc. He jumps at the offer and starts to pack up. Off we go on the 1 hour 16 mile ride back to the cabin. We get there and proceed to go to dinner. While at dinner, Grumper explains that this is his 3rd dinner of the night!!! He made his first, then about 4 pm "Maine's" father brought in hamburgers from McDonalds for the thru hikers at camp-Grumper was sleeping and was going to miss it, but "Destroyer" felt bad, grabbed a burger and ran it all the way to Grumper so he could have one.  Grumper got out of bed, to eat it and to thank the people for sharing, who also brought blueberry cobbler--yummy it was I am told. After Grumper's 3rd dinner with us at the Cabin, we all went to bed anther early physically demanding day was ahead of all of us.The story that "Maine" told us was while his family -wife, 2 daughters, and son-were climbing through the Mahoosuc Notch they came upon this hiker who was going pretty slow, all bloody, and old. He was torn between slowing down to help him and moving on with his family. "Maine" ended up moving on, but before he did he was able to help Grumper. While they were finding their way, he heard something fall and Grumper mumble something, "Maine" turns to see what happened. Turns out that Grumper's water bottle fell down a crack and he couldn't get it. "Maine" came over with one of his kids, held them upside down so they could reach the bottle. While they were celebrating the completion of the hardest mile on the AT, they see Grumper exit all bloody and smiles exclaiming "That was the BEST PART!!")