Date: 2004-09-19
From: Hurd Brook Lean-to, ME

To: Day 140: The Birches, ME
Miles today: 13.3

Even though I only had 11.3-miles, on relatively flat terrain, to go on AT Day 140 to reach The Birches (the long-distance hiker¢s campsite adjacent to the Katahdin Stream Campsite in Baxter State Park), I still started to get up at 4:00 a.m. The truth is that I was getting excited and I had trouble sleeping. However, with the cold (upper 30¢s) and extended darkness, I took a lot of time and short naps while eating and packing so I didn¢t actually leave until 7:30 a.m. By this time it had warmed to the low 40¢s, but the overcast skies had started to produce a light rain ¢ not a particularly good omen for tomorrow¢s big climb! Luckily the rain didn¢t last long, but the sky never cleared and it never warmed above the upper-40¢s.Shortly before reaching the Golden Road, the first pavement we had seen for nearly 100-miles, and the Abol Bridge camp store, I was treated to two separate examples of trail magic. The first was left at the ¢100-mile wilderness sign¢ by two 2004 AT through hikers, Sweet Crista and Mainsail, and the second by a local resident and AT hiker, Don Quixote. At the first I drank some fruit drink and pocketed a granola bar for later, whereas at the second (less than 20-yards away) I pocketed a couple of prepackaged chocolate cake bars and by-passed the iced-soft drinks since I wasn¢t thirsty and it was still very cold.Shortly after crossing the Abol Bridge over the West Branch of the Penobscot River, I got a lovely view of the cloud-enshrouded Mount Katahdin. Shortly thereafter I entered Baxter State Park and signed the official register to reserve a campsite at The Birches while I talked about weather and hiking conditions with the park ranger. He assured me that the weather was supposed to improve by tomorrow. In rebuttal I remarked that the forecasts I had been hearing for the past several days had been way off ¢ most likely because we were experiencing some of the havoc caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ivan.At the Baxter State Park registry station I also met a mid-60¢s NOBO AT through hiker named Ponderer who was just leaving as I arrived, and as I got ready to leave myself up came King Olivar, a mid-20¢s NOBO AT through hiker who I hadn¢t seen for at least a week. Clearly I wasn¢t going to be alone on Mount Katahdin tomorrow; that is, assuming any of us made the climb¢¦ As I began an easy hike along the banks of Penobscot River, I soon caught and passed the injury-slowed Ponderer and then as I stopped to put on my rain jacket, pack cover and long gators I was in turn passed by Papa Bear and King Olivar.Although the day¢s hike was devoid of any challenging hill climbs, it did have two ¢interesting¢ river crossings, over the Lower and Upper Branch of the Nesowadnehunk Stream. In each case, the rushing and quite deep water was spanned by a long bouncy plank suspended between large boulders. I¢m glad that by now I had gotten relatively used to this sort of thing as I am not sure I would have had the courage to making these fords back in March.In addition to these and other rivers, the AT on this penultimate day of hiking was adorned with views of several really lovely ponds, the most notable of which were Daicey and Elbow as both afforded excellent views of Mount Katahdin. I was disappointed, however, that with all of these water sightings I failed to spot a moose ¢ especially when Papa Bear told me that he saw a mother and baby moose with Mount Katahdin in the background during his hike through this same area.Despite my late start for the day, the easy terrain allowed me to reach the Katahdin Stream Campground and its adjacent long-distance hiker¢s campsite, The Birches, by 1:30 p.m. The Baxter State Park Ranger was not in his headquarters when I arrived so I went on ahead and set up my tent and returned to the stream to filter my water for dinner and breakfast. When I returned from this chore (the stream was gloriously cold and clear), I found Papa Bear in one of the two Lean-tos talking to a women who I soon learned was the wife of another 2004 NOBO AT through hiker.More amazing yet was the disclosure that she had come to our campsite with a single goal in mind ¢ to serve us a hot home cooked meal that she had made in her RV home more than 20-miles away. Wow! Her own husband wasn¢t scheduled to arrive at The Birches for another day, so this was simply another example of unselfish trail magic! Since it was clear that she and Papa Bear already knew each other from earlier phases in our AT hikes, at first I balked at her offer, claiming that I had enough food, but then she told me what was on the menu: hot macaroni and cheese, hot sliced pork roast, hot homemade vegetable soup, corn bread, fudge brownies and cold soft drinks and beer. Of course, I changed my mind! While we were feasting on these delicacies two other NOBO AT through hikers, Speak-Up! and Ponderer showed up to join us.After we finished this festive meal, all of us went back down to the park ranger¢s headquarters building so we could pay for our campsite and fill out the requisite paperwork to climb the mountain and eventually receive our official notification of being AT 2,000-mile through hikers. We also soon discovered that the ranger had daypacks that we could use to lighten our load on summit day, leaving our excess gear in his headquarters building. Ponderer and Papa Bear elected to use the daypacks, but since Speak-Up! and I wanted to be able to say that we carried our big backpacks all the way from Amicalola Falls in GA to the Baxter Peak of Mount Katahdin in ME, we declined the generous offer. Instead, we both decided to simply dump out all of the excess gear (tent, sleeping bag, stove, etc.) we didn¢t need for the climb and carry nearly empty and clearly MUCH lighter packs. Speak-Up!, an eighth-grade language arts teacher from MI, also wanted to carry his pack because it had a name, ¢Monkey-Butt,¢ and as such it played a prominent role in his www-site trail journal.We all then returned to The Birches and chatted some more for a while since it was still early and we were all keyed up with anxious anticipation for tomorrow¢s big climb. The cold and wind eventually got to me so I retreated to my tent to warm-up, read and try to get to sleep early. Well I succeeded on the first two of these goals, but as the ferocity of the winds increased I had a hard time getting much sleep this night.