Date: 2010-07-24
From: Abol Bridge Campsite

To: Baxter State Park, KSC
Miles today: 15.4

Saturday. The  Birches Lean To.  Shelter. 15.6 miles2. Report. I slept generally well last night. It started a light rain during the nite and I got up to fully deploy my rainfly. I wanted an early start and was up at 0400. I packed up everything. It rained just enough to get everything wet and to puddle up my ground cloth.  I hiked a short distance to the Baxter kiosk to sign in for one of the thru-hiker spots at the Birches. There was a SOBO there who couldn't find the campground so I helped him out my daily plan was he hike the Blueberry Ledges blue blaze trail to the Katahdin Stream Campground as quickly as I could. I was hoping to catch Redtail and Freedom in the sack and summit K with them. But this was a very neat trail. I could probably drive our Prius over the first mile. There were decent photo op of sunrise on K. Next I came upon a very pretty aspen grove. I next saw some ledges that really reminded me of country out west. And finally I came upon the blueberries. They were everywhere!!  I had about a cup at the first stop. Another cup at the second. Soon I dismissed them unless they were very large and/or were in bunches of at least three.  Then intold myself I'd never getto KSC if I kept stopping to eat blueberries. I must have repeated this admonition to myself 3 or 4 times. Finally injust hiked on without stopping but would pick berries as I hiked nthenrecord pick was 6 in one grasp.  I eventaully got to KSC but it was probably an hour later that incould have. I got checked in with the ranger, assigned the "B" Lean To in the Birches and filled out a daypack. I felt like I was hikin naked. If I carried one of these lightweight packs like Lucky, GPS or Lil Buddha, I could also hike 25-30 days consistently. The hike up K is abouna 3 mile climb in tree covered area, a 1 mile rock scramble and then a 1 mile flat climb. I was passingpeople thruout entire climb. He flat climb was a nice period for reflection. Thinking of the beauty of God's creation and watch over me; LL for supporting and encouraging me; all the trail angels and ground support teams who helped in so many ways; fellow hikers who shared a mile or more on the trail. It's all just so wonderful. When I started the climb it was cloudy, but blue skies. The clouds started rolling in about halfway up the rock scramble. It was near zero visibility at the summit, probably 100 ft. I saw a number of fellow hikers: Redtail, Freedom, Wigglesworth, Blue Moon Chris and Mike. Whenever a thru- hiker reached the summit, they received applause from the day hikers - a very nice recognition. I took the summit photo op and then started my descent.  The trail was well marked but seemed more difficult that I recalled climbing. I saw three hikers climbing up and asked to verify I was on the AT. They confirmed this and added a ps that I had passed them halfway up the mtn. It seemed to me like everyone else going down was going backwards. I was. cruising and had my iPod on loud.  I stopped at one knoll where a family was taking a break and asked the caber to take a picture for me. His English wasn't very good so I asked him in Russian if he spoke pa rycckii!!  They all got excited because they had recently moved here from Moscow. We chatted for awhile; their English was considerably better than my Russian. We soon parted and I continued cruising down. I hiked some with Chris, took the remaing photos on my SD card and then checked into my Lean To. Bidded farewell to  Redtail, Freedom and his Dad Tim, Mike and Chris. Got a fire started, fixed dinner and hung my gear out to dry. I was considering hiking the summit again tomorrow. But, the wx forecast is worse than today (supposed to star raining tonite) and my knee is real complaining. May just sleep in tomorrow. Life is Great!