Date: 2005-07-06
From: Katahdin Stream Campground, ME

To: Rainbow Springs Tentsite, ME
Miles today: 21.1

21.1 miles todayRainbow Springs Tentsite, Maine Quincygirl and I were both slow getting up today. I finally got a good nights sleep after the last two late nights. I made coffee while laying in my tent and stayed under my quilt while I drank it. Quincygirl said she had a headache, so I made her a cup too. It had rained hard last night for a while with some thunder and lightening and then rained softer on anf off the rest of the night. I always sleep so good in my tent when it's raining. We finally packed up and started walking at 8:30am. It was a nice, cool morning, but there were some mosquitos chasing me and landing on my legs. I finally sprayed some Ben's on and they stopped bothering me. We got real lucky about 30 minutes into our walk. We came across a bull moose near the water's edge and when I got my camera out to take his picture, a yearling moose came walking out of the woods. That's 3 moose we've seen on the first 2 days on the trail. The pictures I took should be very nice. It was so beautiful with the two moose at the water's edge and the mountains on the other side of the lake with some clouds laying close on their slopes. We hiked on and took a nice break when we got to Big Niagara Falls. It was turning into a beautiful day even though rain was forcast. I think it got so nice out because I put my pack cover on before I left this morning. It never rains when I put my pack cover on in dry weather. ;-))) I ran into two nobo hikers who said they flipped from Pearisburg, Va. Their names were Tadpole and Otter. Right after I passed them, I lost the trail. I was walking along a stream and the trail just didn't seem right. We went back and found where an old walkboard bridge had washed out. We were able to get across by walking on some down trees and rock hopping. We spent most of the morning walking near the West Branch of the Penobscot River. Near Abol Bridge, I ran into a sobo hiker by the name of Jeremy. He was taping up his feet. I talked to him a while then hiked on. We got to Abol Bridge. It was good to see Linda again. She looks at me and says the same thing every year..."You've been here before." We got some hotdogs and sodas and talked to 2 other sobo hikers by the names of David and Jen. I think they were taking a couple days off because Jen stretched out here achillies yesterday. Nelson was also there. He was taking his grandkids camping. He's the guy that we saw on Katahdin yesterday climbing it for his 275th time. We talked for a while, then Quincygirl and I headed into the 100 mile wilderness at about 1:30pm. Quincygirl had the quote of the day when she looked at me in the wilderness. She said; "I might be pitiful, but you're pathetic." I don't believe that was a compliment. :-))  I wonder what she meant by that!! We hiked on and passed another sobo hiker that actually looked like she was really enjoying herself. Her name was Butterfly and her dog's name was Forest Flower. I dumped out the water from Abol Bridge Store and filled it up with some nice spring water just before we got to Hurd Brook Lean-to. I signed the register there and talked to Jeremy a while before heading on. When we got up to Rainbow Ledges, we layed ours tents out to dry and enjoyed the views. While I was turning my tent over, a spruce grouse came pretty close to me. I got out my camera and started taking a couple close up pictures when he went over by Quincygirl. I started taking pictures of the both of them close to each other when he started attacking her. He'd fly up and jump on her arm and I got the picture!! I don't have any idea why he was doing that, but Quincygirl said it bit her and it hurt. Ha!! She's way bigger than that little ol' spruce grouse, so I don't feel sorry for her at all. It was starting to get late and we still had over 5 miles to walk so we headed on. I just never get tired of walking in Maine. It is so beautiful that I could probably spend all my time walking up here. We got to Rainbow Springs Tentsite at 7:30 and set up our tents. We went down by the water and I ate a small snack. Quincygirl went swimming and made it sound so good that I had to try it. It was nice!! We got out, but decided to go back in and watch the sunset. That sounded like a good idea until I started shivering and the sun still had about 5 minutes, so we sat on shore and watched it set. It feels good to be clean and in my tent. It's dark out and I'm laying in here writing this and listening to a loon.