Date: 2005-09-01
From: Katahdin Stream Campground

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

My birthday. To celebrate, I was planning on summiting Katahdin today and finishing this hike, but that was not to be. The remnants of Hurricane Katrina, now a tropical storm, dropped 8 14 inches of rain on us yesterday. All Trail heads to the top of Baxter Peak of Katahdin are closed and possibly will be tomorrow as well. The water here is tremendous coming off. It¢s just raging everywhere.We got up this morning, waiting for the report, and of course found out that it was going to be a Class 4 day. That means that all Trail heads are closed. The other four guys, Ten Bears, Roz, Trip and Matt, all decided to get a taxi and go into Millinocket, which I¢d considered. Now I¢ve changed my mind. So I¢ve started hitching out of the park; got a quick ride from a real nice couple, who were planning on hiking. I got a ride back to Abol Pond Trail, a shortcut back to Abol Bridge, and walked a mile and a half. I walked up the A.T to re-register for the Birches tonight again. Now, I'm going to go back to Abol Bridge and eat, hang out there for a little while, and resupply for 3 days, just to be safe this time. Then walk back to the Birches. Another 5 miles back. It's crazy, but this is what you have to do. Even the short mile and a half walk here down the Abol Pond Trail was insane. The Trail was a river, more like rapids, in some places above my knees. I guess I have to play the waiting game. It's almost over. Officially, I am a through hiker right now. I got my number, I am # 171 to come through here this year. I have done 2,175 miles, but the last 5 freaking miles I can't get up yet. I'll just have to be patient.5:35 pmIt¢s been an interesting day. I walked back to Abol Bridge; I think I mentioned that before; and the water was crotch deep. When I walked back, the water had definitely receded a couple feet. In the meantime, I sat a Abol Bridge for a couple of hours. I made sure that I ate a whole lot of the hot stuff that they had there. Had a few beers. Packed all kinds of stuff to come back to make sure I could hang out in Baxter State Park for a couple days if I had to. But it wasn¢t going to be necessary, I don¢t think, because the sun broke out early this morning and it¢s been sunny ever since. The water has receded rapidly. On the way back, there was considerable difference in the flow of the water.When I got back here I got into one of the day pavilions which is basically a roof over a picnic table. I started laying my stuff out and drying it out. That was about 11:00 this morning. I was waiting for Toby, the ranger, to get back here because I wanted to talk to him. One of the things that I did was to talk to the people that I ran into at Abol Bridge were Gravity and Danger Pea; the four section hikers, including the gal Christina, that I had met way back at White House Landing; King Alobar was still there; a couple other people. I relayed the messages about all the Trailheads being closed up to Katahdin. One of them actually called the Park and found out, mistakenly apparently, because that¢s not what Toby told me later, that the State Park Headquarters actually told them that not only were all the trailheads to Katahdin closed, but all of the Trails into Baxter State Park were closed. So, everybody basically gave up and decided to camp at Abol Bridge or to head into Millinocket. Very unfortunate because that was not the case from what I found out from Toby later. Toby, himself, is another whole story to talk about. Toby, the ranger at Baxter State Park, at Katahdin Stream, is a really nice guy; probably 25 years old; great smile, really personable, polite to the extreme. He reminds me of a movie star I can¢t quite place. He¢s just got that look. He¢s a good looking guy. He¢s extremely friendly. I think there¢s a screw loose in him or maybe a mean streak; I¢m not sure which one it is.I¢m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and think that he¢s just plain stupid. The first incident was yesterday. It was pouring rain. Everybody left the park. There were only five thru-hikers northbound and one south bounder. Basically, the Park was dead empty. Me, being the proper person in this case, decided I thought he was cool and I could go up and ask him. I walked up to him at 5 in the afternoon and said, ¢Toby, listen, it¢s five in the afternoon. In a couple of hours it¢s going to be dark and you¢ve got two dozen lean-tos that are dead empty. You¢ve got three of us packed into a tiny one. Would it hurt your feelings if, when it got dark if I moved into another one by myself, just for the night, to sleep in.¢ He said, ¢Sure you can do that. Just go ahead and pay me for it. 27 bucks¢ or whatever it is that it costs to rent one of them. I said, ¢You know I¢m just not going to do that.¢ So, I went back to the one that they had stuffed us into. That¢s myself, Ten Bears and Roz. Packed my stuff up and walked, the sign says a quarter of a mile, but that¢s just from the road; it¢s actually a half a mile walk up to Birches and stayed there by myself last night.Now, when I was at Abol Bridge today, Christina made a phone call home and found out that her mother-in-law died last night. Very unfortunate, but in the process of that she told me, ¢you just go ahead and get into Katahdin Stream. I¢ve got a reservation there for one of the lean-tos. You tell them my name and you stay in my lean-to that I¢ve already paid for." So, when I got back here this afternoon, stocked full with food and everything, I went up to Toby, the ranger here, I told him, ¢This girl, Christina, I can¢t pronounce her last name. It¢s Am¢¦. something, said I could stay in her shelter. She¢s not going to be here tonight.¢ He said, ¢Sure, that¢s fine, but you¢re going to have to spell her last name for me and you¢re going to have to tell me what shelter she¢s going to be in.¢ And I was like, ¢Dude, there¢s only going to be one Christina with the last name spelling Am¢¦.¢ He was going by the book, so I just finally said, ¢I¢m going to go to the Birches tonight.¢ He said ¢That¢s fine.¢In the process of all of that, I met a guy named Humpty Dumpty who was here to just see Gravity and Danger Pea summit. He invited me down to his place to hang out and drink beer. About a half hour ago, I was hanging out there with him and he told me that the ranger had told him to pass a message along to me that if I was staying at the Birches, I was welcome to come up and pay him to stay here whenever I wish to tonight, before dark. It¢s very annoying. Anyway, that¢s all the bitching for tonight. It¢s been a beautiful day of sun. The water has been receding rapidly. I¢m going to summit tomorrow. I don¢t think there¢s any doubt of it. There¢s no chance of rain tonight by anything I can see.By the rules of the Park, because yesterday was a Class 4 day, I am not allowed to start on the trail until 7:00, until I check in with Toby, and have him give me the okay that I can start up the mountain to the summit of Katahdin. At this point I am thinking that Toby can go stick a big hot dog up his butt, and I¢m going to get up early in the morning, summit, and come down. He can yell at me if he wishes at that point, and I will help him stuff the second hot dog.