Date: 2004-06-15
From: Carl A. Newhall Lean-to

To: Mountain View Pond (camp)
Miles today: 12.7

Log entry 136Happy birthday Sophie the dogStart time- 0820End time- 1715Weather- Morning fog and even a little rain but clouds broke and the afternoon and evening have been clear and breezy.Breakfast- fudge rounds and cappuccino CIBLunch- pop tarts and snickers barsDinner- Lipton creamy chicken noodles with chickenTrail description- Some brief climbs up and over all of Whitecap mountain, but none all that brutal. The downhill to Logan brook lean-to would have been slower only with a parachute. The rest of the way down Whitecap was very knee friendly as was the rest of the day to the pond.People- Boy Wonder!!, the NOBO that has been on my tail for a while now. Very cool dude. With we could spend more time together. Some more overburdened SOBOs, My favorite questions they ask, ("Does it get flatter?")Animals- 3 snakes. Well, I didn't get to see them but Gina did. She apologized repeatedly that she scared all the snakes away before I could see themMoney- noneBiggest complaint- Das bugs are bad. Gina says my biggest complaint for the day should be that she scared all the snakes away. Nope, my biggest complaint is that the snakes did not scare Gina away.Narrative- Another night without waking up, even once. Though Gina swears that she got up to go to the bathroom, saw a rabbit came back and told me about it and I acknowledged her. Whatever.We were stirring by 0630 and shortly thereafter rain pattered softly on the roof. Both of us being in no hurry, we were soon met by a smiling scruffy face and greeted with, "Officer Taco?" I knew who it was right away.Boy Wonder. He left Springer March 1. He has to be done byJune 19 to get to work as a Lifeguard at Cape Cod. The Solemates mentioned in an earlier email that they got passed by him and our finish dates may coincide. We talked for a good bit, not as long as would have liked. He said most people he met described me as "tall and clean". I do my best.He also lamented about how people dog him for going so fast. We both agreed that those that preach "slow down and enjoy yourself" don't really have a clue what its like being "23 and a college athlete". It is not that hard for guys like us to do 25 miles, 30 in his case. Especially when you are by yourself. People also gave him grief about having a time constraint and have to be done by a certain date. What is so wrong about having a goal. Believe it or not, there are other things in life besides the Appalachian Trail. While the only award you get for finishing is work, a job. That¢s okay with me. Just because you do not like your job does not mean everyone else does too.Boy Wonder was hoping to pound out a couple 30s and summit on the 17th. Go do it man. Hike it like you mean it.I caught up with Gina who left Boy Wonder and I do chat somewhere up Gulf Hagas mountain. She did great all the way up to White Cap, where the clouds were breaking and the sun was out. Here was my first view of Katahdin. It was still in the clouds (the top 2 thousand feet or so, but you could easily make out the base. It was an eerie feeling. 2174 miles has been reduced to a single walk across a valley, all within eyesight. Down Whitecap we went, as we descended the clouds completely disappeared and we enjoyed a long lunch at Logan Brook lean-to. There I found a familiar name etched in the logs walls of the shelter, ¢Joe Slenk 96¢. Slenko is a good friend from work and he told me to look for his name in one of the shelters, he hiked the Wilderness in 96, upon graduation from high school.After lunch the trail took a dramatic turn. Flat city. You could hardly find a point on the trail that was higher than another. Gina and I zoomed. We zoomed right past East branch lean-to and up some unnamed hill. Soon we were at Mountain View Pond. A great little gem of a pool. We decided to call it quits there and tent on the north side of the pond, there are some great campsites there. We hung stuff to dry and waded in the pond a bit to rinse off. The water was already very warm and the bottom very murky. After getting some grime off we pumped water. Which is when we saw the leech.This thing was a monster. Gina saw it first. I thought it was a night crawler. It was swimming through the shallows of the pond, a good 4 inches in length. Yuck. We then cooked in our raingear and ate inside the tent. The bugs were nasty. I had good intentions to get caught up on journals, but I went to bed after only minutes of composing.