Date: 2011-07-19
From: Katahdin

To: Monson, ME
Miles today: 114.4
Weather: scattered clouds

So this is my first journal entry and I'm about 25 days into my hike, so I'm trying to play catch up with my journal and will be grouping my entries for the next few posts to get caught up, sorry if they are slightly skimpy on information!100 Mile "Wilderness"Started my hike up Katahdin on July 9th with Nate, my fiance, on the Abol Slide trail. My mother and my aunt Sharon waited at the bottom at our Abol camp, aka: Base Camp 1. At the top we had no views, lots of wind and I got really cold, and very dehydrated... first lesson learned... drink more water!July 10th we scooted over to Katahdin Stream Campground where Ranger Bruce weighed my pack (full water) and came in around 45lbs... oops, well he gave me a hard time and put me in sour mood for the first few miles out. My mom hike with me and Nate until Daicey Pond where we went through our packs and ditched some things we decided were too heavy. It was really hard to say goodbye to my mom, because she has always wanted to hike the trail and has never had the chance, I think I cried for about the whole first mile. Towards Little Niagra Falls I ran into a fellow Batsie who was leading a camp trip through the 100 mile "wilderness". I wish I hadn't been such a mess to see her, but I couldn't pull myself out of the funk. A few miles later we ran into our first to be hiking friends, S'myguess and Keeps, who we would end up hiking with all the way through Caratunk and for me into the Bigelows where they then passed me. We stayed with them and Jared and Tim (some more good friends) at the Hurd Brook lean-to that night.July 11th was a disaster! Nate got a migrane, I cried because I felt like our hike was over if his body couldn't take it... some how Nate started to feel better, took a migrane med and then it seemed like he was on crack... flicking my poles, saying he could go for miles! It was a complete turn around from his migrane defeated self and somehow we made it to Rainbow Stream lean-to where we had just enough time to cook dinner and get in our tent. That night we got poured on, t-storms... crazy.July 12th we hiked over Nesuntabunt Mountain, I swear the trail goes around the mountain like 3 times before you get to the top, I couldn't believe there was a trail down the other side that didn't intersect with the one we came up! We saw a bald eagle at the top, flying below us on the lake, and we really met Tim and Emily for the first time, great couple. That night we slept on the beach just past Wadleigh Stream lean-to with Tim, Emily, and our two new friends Andy (Frogcatcher) and Eric (trail name changes a lot), who I didn't know we would be hiking with for a while also.July 13th Nate and I booked it in the morning becuase we wanted to get to White House landing for a burger at lunch, we made it there and then found out someone had given us money for the trip and realized we could have one night of luxery... and stayed. I'm glad we did too because we would have run out of food in the "wilderness" if we hadn't. We went for a canoe trip up the lake and relaxed, washed clothes, and had some great company that night with Tim, Emily, and Tim and Jared. We all slept in the bunkhouse and got totally freaked out when before bed we heard a thunk on the other side of the bunkhouse... who knew hikers were so skiddish being inside when most nights only a 2mm peice of fabric protects us from the outside! Tim and Jared decided that the stairs in the bunkhouse that lead to no where was actually where they kept the dead hikers, so they set up a "booby" trap of cans so we could heard the zombie hikers come down the stairs and fight them off in the night. Luckily, the zombie hikers didn't bother us that night and Tim and Jared took down the trap in the morning. July 14th we hiked a 14! We were so proud! We hiked into Cooper Brook Falls lean-to to find that we were again with Frogcatcher and Eric! There was also a slight creeper there... The Roaming Dude... he told us that he wanted to be a vampire and suck our blood... and a few other disturbing things like the fact that he uses tampons as gauze pads when he gets a cut... haha, I was just a little offended... it makes sense, it absorbs blood, but really?!!!!!????!!!! REALLY!!!???????? Needless to say, I took our money in the tent that night and didn't really sleep.July 15th I don't know why I agreeded, but did an interview for the Roaming Dude... its on youtube somewhere... I'm scared to watch it. http://www.youtube.com/theroamingdude#p/u/5/czK_xJQzngo Hahaha... I just found it... pretty funny. We hiked away from the Roaming Dude that day... haven't seen him since... And that night we stayed at the Logan Brook lean-to with Frogcatcher, Eric, S'myguess, and Keeps.July 16th only went about 7 miles to Carl A. Newhall lean-to... Nate was tired.. forced him to take a nap... it was really windy that night.July 17th we should have done those first five miles yesterday... but oh well... we got to the river crossing and thought we had enough water to get up Chairback mountain... and realized after that the spring part way up was dry, the pond was too far away, and then the spring at the top of the mountain was a swamp... so we hiked on another 1.5 miles to get to a stream where I downed a liter of water and we decied we really didn't have enough food to make it out on our schedual... so we hiked on another 1.5 miles to a stealth camp between Third and Fourth Mountain so we could push on another 16 the next day.... it was my first time stealth camping.July 18th we made it the 16 miles and only because a trail friend (Trey) helped us out with an extra meal, and we were able to eat well for lunch... yum Ramen noodles ... We made it to Little Wilson Falls campsite pretty late and about an hour later Jared walked by saying he was only 3 miles from Monson... and we told him he was actually 7, discouraged and tired he stopped for the night and we gave him some of our extra diner (thanks to Trey) because he too was out of food. July 19th we made it to Monson by 1pm, relaxed, ate, cleaned our clothes and bodies... gross... July 20th (First Zero) - Stayed at Shaws (Awesome AYCE B-fast!)