Date: 2009-07-26
From: Jo Mary Road

To: White House Landing
Miles today: 10.3

We have been looking forward to these next two days of hiking. We have been planning an overnight at White House Landing for quite a while after reading about it in other trailjournal reports.Access:South--From the Jo Mary Gate go 5.9 mi to a fork in the road. Take the right fork for 5.3 mi to the bridge at Cooper Brook.North--Only one way to get there...read about it in the Hike!!The Hike:We were up at 4:30, for the most part, because of our slow day yesterday. We had no idea how long it was going to take us to do the 10+ miles into White House Landing. Burly Girl woke Bugsy up with the comment 'Hurry up...we don't want to miss dinner tonight'...read on...The first 4 miles were a dream. The walk along Cooper Brook was on pine needles on an old road. We did these 4 miles in 2 hr. Then came the mud and the roots and the swamp...oh...don't let us forget...the mosquitoes. The US Air Force has nothing on these mosquitoes! They fly in formation, taking turns diving and attacking any exposed body parts. Bugsy 'deeted down' again, put his head net on, tucked his pants into his socks and swatted his way through the next 6 miles!To back things up a bit, at the outlet to Mud Pond, we came across Tic whom we had hiked with several days before. We did a video for Mrs. Tic which you can see under our videos. Tic told us that the water levels were down and we could get across all of our potential northbound fords by rock hopping and sliding on trees. This was good news. Next came Antlers Campsite which is an old camp. The last of the buildings were removed 20 years ago, but the tentsites on the lake are very nice with a bed of pine needles everywhere. And then there's the privy, AKA Fort Relief. It's about 6' square inside with 2 windows, curtains, and a glass doorknob. After we left Antlers we ran into TNT and Fluffy Bunny (aka ETC) and did another video. There is a special place in our hearts for them and Tic as we did our first two fords in the 100 Mile Wilderness together. Fluffy Bunny was all aglow with excitement as she had a pizza in her backpack...keep reading...By the way, Fluffy Bunny was still carrying that fullsize guitar...ouch!The next couple of miles along Jo Mary Lake were very wet and rooty. We then went over Potaywadjo Ridge and down to Potaywadjo Spring Lean To. It just seems incongruent that there is mud and lots of it on top of a mountain. But it's there...At Potaywadjo Spring Lean To we met a father and his 12 year old son (on his first overnight hike). They had planned to hike south a few days in the heart of the 100 Mile Wilderness and then head back to White House Landing--our destination tonight...keep reading... It seems that last season the father and his brother-in-law, during the course of hiking the 100 Mile Wilderness, spent a night at WHL. They saw a pallet of roofing materials next to one of the cabins and asked Bill, the owner, 'what are you going to do with those?' One thing led to another and the two hikers (roofers in real life) bartered a deal and came back later with their wives and stripped and roofed a large cabin in exchange for some wilderness camp overnights.We ate lunch at the lean to and moved on. It started to rain. This is not something new for Maine. The trail got muddier and rootier (I know you don't think that's possible, but it did). The going was slow, but we came to an area where there still the remains of some very old stumps. The stumps were almost 5' high (we are told that's a sign of a big snow winter). The trunks were, in some cases, 3' across! We appeared to be in an old cedar swamp area.At the 10.3 mile mark we came to Old Mahar Tote Road and tacked onto a tree, we saw the business card for White House Landing, our destination. An arrow pointed right down the road and we traced a blue blazed trail for another 1.2 mi (through more mud and roots) to a wooden dock on beautiful Pemadumcook Lake. We followed the posted instructions and did a short blast on the airhorn hanging from a tree.Within 5 minutes we saw a powerboat come racing across the lake towards us. Bill pulled the powerboat up alongside the dock, we did introductions, loaded our backpacks and poles in the boat and sat on the bow as instructed. We got a quick ride across the lake to White House Landing.White House Landing is a former logging camp dating back over 100 years to the heyday of river logging when the logs were loaded into the lake and floated downstream in the Spring of each year. According to Bill, if you walked the 100 Mile Wilderness in the 1930s, you would have been able to stay at a different logging camp each night. Now, only White House Landing is left.This is a true 'oasis' in the midst of the Wilderness. For $35 you can get a bunk in a bunkhouse (using your own sleeping bag), a towel, a hot shower and an all you can eat (AYCE) breakfast of eggs, bacon, juice, muffins, coffee, and blueberry pancakes! We opted for the small private cabin which came with all of the above and sheets for the bed.Dinner, which started promptly at 5, consisted of the famous 1 lb hamburger (we upgraded to the Deluxe 1 lb Cheeseburger) which we split, along with Linda's gourmet 14" veggie pizza. And we washed the above down with a bottle of Merlot. Today was a slow day here, and we shared this experience with one other hiker, Greg, who was doing the 100 Mile Wilderness. After dinner, Burly Girl wrapped herself in the cottage blanket, sat on the porch on an Adirondack chair and read an AT book. Bugsy was inside the cabin taking refuge from the mosquitoes.We retired with the sun (it does stay lighter later up north). From the bed, we could look out over the lake. The fireflies were exceptionally bright, but alas, no stars due to the heavy clouds.This was one of our more memorable anniversaries!!