Date: 2012-09-17
From: Pleasant River Camp Site

To: Stealth Site Near B Inlet Rd
Miles today: 14.4

Day 179: My watch alarm goes off at 6:00 this morning, and for the 2nd morning in a row, I almost sleep through it. Groggy-eyed, we both rise and get everything ready for the days hike. Our target destination today is a logging road on the other side of Whitecap Mt, 14.4 miles up the trail. The morning air is very cool, and once again, we begin our hike with fleece shirts and hats. Instead od putting our boots on this morning, we wear our crocs over bare feet since the crossing of the Pleasant River is only 5 minutes away. The crossing is easy, but the water is freezing. Nevertheless, it feels good on our feet. After crossing the river, we walk on a nice flat, smooth stretch for about a mile before the trail begins to slope gently up towards Whitecap Mt. Little by little, the trail gets steeper until we are ascending steadily. We reach the Carl Newhall Shelter at 10:15 and stop there for a break. We also decide here to push for the logging road on the other side of Whitecap. While we were at Shaws in Monson, we divided our 100 mile wilderness food into 2 parts. The first part we took with us for the first 3 days in the wilderness. The second part we packed in a box and left it at Shaws. They will deliver this cache of food to us later this afternoon where the trail meets the logging road. This saves us the discomfort of carrying a very heavy and bulky load of food all the way through the wilderness. At about 1:30, we reach the top of Whitecap, with a view to the south and west. We all stop there for a few minutes while Passionflower calls Shaws to confirm our food drop delivery time and location. Skirting around to the north side of Whitecap, the Holy Grail we have hiked all this way for comes into full view. There it is - Mt Katahdin, and it looks pretty close. Between us and Mt Katahdin, we get a good look at the generally flat terrain that we'll be walking through for the next few days. Several other hikers arrive at the viewpoint shortly after us and it is fun to watch the looks on their faces as they get their first glimpses of the mountain. We have all been on a sort of pilgrimage for past 6 months, and our Mecca has finally come into view. Everyone just pauses here and gazes at the mountain. Few words are spoken as we are just simply absorbed in the moment of being here. Finally, we pull ourselves away and begin the 3 mile descent down to the logging road. After some initial steep descending, the trail becomes pretty tame, and the last couple of miles go quickly. Reaching the logging road at about 4:15, the driver from Shaws is there waiting for us with our food boxes. We toy with the idea of hiking another 2 miles, but decide in the end that we've had enough for the day, and set up our tents on flat spots near the wood road. Sparky and I get a fire going and we all cook dinner by the fire. We even had the foresight while in Monson to add a couple of Steve's Whoopie Pies (the best Whoopie Pies in the world) to our food cache, which we devoured as soon we opened our box. Tomorrow, we are planning to hike at least 18 miles to the Antlers Campsite or beyond depending upon the weather, the terrain, and how we feel. Rain is supposed to move in tomorrow night, so we hope to get as many dry miles in tomorrow as we can. Only 5 more days and we will be done. Can you believe it? We sure can't.