Date: 2007-09-26
From: Rainbow Stream Lean-to

To: Abol Pines Lean-to
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke this morning to gray skies and expected it to start raining at any moment, which it never did. I had tented behind the shelter last night, as I have done most nights on this hike, and was glad I did not sleep in the shelter. About an hour after dark 2 thru-hikers I didn't know came in by headlamp and immediately claimed space in the shelter. It would have been very tight with me in there too. Nights like this make me glad I have my tent to retreat to after dinner. This is the time I work on my journal entries and in my tent I don't have to worry about keeping others awake with my headlamp or the sound of pecking away on my Treo keyboard.I was on the trail by 7.30 but one of the most difficult challenges of the morning was crossing Rainbow Stream right in front of the shelter. The crossing was 4 narrow trees laid next to each other so that you could balance with one foot on one tree and the other foot on another tree. Each tree was fairly small diameter so they all bent and wobbled as you shuffled over the dark stream below. In the end I made it safely across and continued on up the trail.It was another warm and humid day, high 68, with a slight breeze that was far too warm for this time of year. It was also very humid and I dripped constantly all day. This required more water than most previous days and I refilled all my containers (2.5 liters) at least 3 times during the day.Most of the first 7 miles was along the south shore of Rainbow Lake. Every so often I heard loons calling from the big waters of the long and wide lake. I never tire of hearing their wierd and wild calls. If states have their own individual sounds, loons calling is the sound of Maine. I stopped briefly for a snack at the Rainbow Mt side trail. Almost immediately a float plane landed on the lake and unloaded several fishing clients nearby. With this whole lake to choose from, the float plane just had to interrupt my peaceful morning break and anchor right next to me!I didn't stay long and soon pushed on. Besides wanting to get away from the loud fishing party I was hoping to get a view of Mt Katahdin from Rainbow Ledges before the mountain dissappeared in the building haze. It was about another 4 miles to the Rainbow Ledges and by the time I got to the view points the mountain had almost completely dissappeared, just a slight bluish outline rising high above Little Hurd Pond. With little to see I continued down to Hurd Brook Lean-to. I spent nearly an hour at the lean-to eating lunch and talking to Marco Solo, Cobweb, Dirty and another hiker I didn't know.About 2.00 I left the lean-to and headed for Abol Bridge. The trail was rocky and tiresome in many places and the 4 miles took about 2 hours to finish. At Abol Bridge I stopped for snacks at the campstore and to look at a little bull moose in the back of a hunter's pickup at the game check station. So far I've seen 2 moose on this trip, one dead in Mahoosuc Notch and this little bull dead in the bed of a pickup. I'd be nice to see a live one at some point but I'm running out of time.A huge black cloud was hanging on Katahdin's tablelands and a heavy rain seemed imminent. After some ice cream at the camp store I crossed the road and set my gear down in a lean-to at Abol Pines to wait out the weather, cooked dinner, and had the whole place to myself. It was on a bench covered with tall white pines overlooking the West Branch of the Penobscot River. This is a big river that runs deep and dark with a very swift current. It is a river with a long history of spring log drives down thru the decades of the late 1800's and early 1900's. The guys who worked the log drives were one hardy bunch! Now the river is well known for Atlantic salmon runs and fly fisherman come from all over to fish it. It is good to see the river and its inhabitants recovering from a hundred years of abuse.I have heard several weather forcasts today and none are good news for hiking Katahdin in the next few days. All forcasts are predicting rain through Saturday afternoon. I had hoped to summit Katahdin Friday. But, I'll probably hike the 10 miles to The Birches tomorrow regardless of what the weather does, then try to figure out what my options are if Friday's weather remains poor. At that point I will have completed all but the last 5 miles of the AT, the 5 miles up to the summit of Mt Katahdin's Baxter Peak. The functional word in those last 5 miles is UP - 4,200 vertical feet of UP. I can't wait!