Date: 2005-08-10
From: White House Landing Hostel

To: Rainbow Stream Lean-to
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: scattered clouds

The morning started with an AYCE breakfast. We all ate our fill with pancakes as the filler. I would rather of had more eggs but they didn¢t have enough. I could only eat 5 pancakes and they weren't nearly as good as the lumberjack pancakes we had earlier. As soon as breakfast was done we all got a boat ride back to the other side of the lake to the trail head. The terrain continued to be mostly flat with some up's and down's. With the flat terrain I have been walking fast and making good time. The next thing I knew I was face first looking at the ground. I had caught a root with my foot and down I went. I was just glad nothing got hurt this close to finishing.About 11:30am I passed a pond and was tempted to head in but I kept going. I wanted to make the shelter for lunch. Just a little further there was another side trail with a great view. This time I couldn¢t resist and headed down for a swim. It felt great and was just what I needed.The one mountain wasn't much of a climb. On the other hand for the new SOBOs it¢s a big climb. I'm sure they would look at some of the climbs around Springer the same way. I thought they were big but looking back, I realize they weren¢t very difficult. A climb is a climb and none are easy with a pack on your back.Before I got to the shelter I could hear the thunder off in the distance and knew I was most likely going to get rained on. I was hopping to make the shelter before it happened and hurried on my way. I almost made it but about a mile and half before the shelter it started raining. I got here and the shelter was full. There was a group of section hikers and a couple of flip-flop thru-hikers, and six or so tents set up.This is where the new twist comes in. In the past I've always made it to a shelter or had my tent up before it rained. However, this time I had to pitch my tent in the rain. This was something I've thought about quite a bit and never did figure out how to do it and keep the inside of the tent dry. I did the best I could to get it up as fast as I could and put stuff away. Once everything was put away under the rain fly I dried the tent floor with my bandana. It didn't turn out too bad and eventually I got it dry enough to unroll my sleeping bag for the night. I just hope it¢s not raining when I'm ready to go.Snail, Stealth, and Ninja went ahead 3.8 miles to another campsite. The weather report calls for rain tomorrow and clearing some on Friday and then rain again Saturday. They are going to try and summit on Friday. It¢s just too many miles for me to try and do it on Friday. I don't have any more long days left in me.With all the rain and time consuming camp setup, I did not get dinner cooked. I just ate a snack and will cook tonight¢s dinner as lunch tomorrow or maybe even breakfast.Tomorrow will be a 15 mile day to reach the Abol Bridge. Here you sign in for the Birches Campsite for the next days use. That's an area where they let 12 thru-hikers camp so they can summit Katahdin the next day. If it¢s full you have to go to a campground and come back the next day to summit, plus pay the camp ground prices. I'm now down to 30.1 miles remaining. I can't believe it. WOW!