Date: 2008-07-28
From: Pleasant River

To: Logan Brook Lean-to
Miles today: 12.7
Weather: overcast clouds

From: Stealth Camp: Pleasant RiverTo: Logan Brook Lean-toToday's Mileage: 12.7Total Mileage: 2102.6There was a huge thunderstorm during the night and around 4:00 AM it started raining inside my tent again. I got up packed up my stuff, put my rain gear on and lay down. I took a picture of myself thinking, I am going to send it to the Black Diamond people and see what they say. Around 5:00 AM, Recon called over to see if I wanted to get up and I was more than ready. We packed up and started out in our crocks, as we had to ford Pleasant River. It was an easy ford as it was calm and only up to my knees. I wish we had just gone across last night as there were places to camp and it would have put us an hour ahead. The trail going to Gulf Hagas was wide and very well taken care of as it is used a lot by the public. We met a couple from Seattle who were going there for the day and we walked along together for awhile. They were interested in hiking the AT.Recon and I had a pretty good day today. We have been saying it is all about the attitude. We hiked along a stream until we arrived at the Carl A. Newhall Lean-to about 10:30 AM and had our first lunch. We have two lunches every day as we pack to small bagels and peanut butter, jelly, and cheese sticks. We have gotten into the routine of hiking together. It is not an easy thing to do to find a good hiking partner as the days are so hard and your body is pretty worn out each day but then you need to be kind and considerate of each other. We had four mountains to climb up and over today after the shelter and so we just took one at a time and tried to really be in the present. If you thought about all four together it would be discouraging. The first one, West Peak (3178) had a strenuous climb to the top and my Handbook said there was a vista but we couldn't find one and we wanted to dry our stuff out. Going up the peak we kept hearing people laughing and shouting and it turned out to be a group of ATC volunteers working on putting in steps. They were doing a great job and it certainly made the climb a lot easier.The next mountain was called Hay (3245) and it had a long flat top on it and when we were up there it started to rain again and so on went the pack covers and jackets. It is becoming a routine on this trip and our boots have been wet for days. I am getting blisters on the bottoms of my toes because they are always in wet boots.The last mountain for the day was White Cap (3654) and we were glad it stopped raining and thundering as it was above tree line. When we were at the top of it, it reminded me of the Whites because we were walking on the same kind of rock. It was very windy and cool so we went down the other side a bit before we stopped. We were suppose to see Katahdin from there but we could not be sure if we saw it or not.Tourist, a 60 year-old northbounder came across the top and we walked and talked the rest of the way to the shelter with him. Coming down we met another crew of ATC workers doing stairs also.When we arrived at Logan Brook Shelter there were two groups of young people already there. One was camped by stream but the other was huddled in the shelter with all their gear. We know they are not suppose to stay in the shelters so the three of us just sort of stood and looked at them and they moved over enough to let us at least put our gear out. They cooked their dinner and left to hike another mile or so down the trail. It was a hard but good day for Recon and I as when we got up we didn't know if we would be able to accomplish the ups of the four peaks but just going through the day we managed to actually enjoy ourselves even with the difficulty and the rain.