Date: 2006-08-26
From: Chairback Gap Lean-To

To: Carl a Newhall Lean-To
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: scattered clouds

Yesterday I got a brilliant inspiration and decided to see if I could get a reservation at Baxter State Park, Katahdin Stream Campground. I have been concerned about the logistics of staying at The Birches ¢ a special shelter at the campground for just 12 thru hikers, where you can stay for only ONE night ¢ climbing The Mountain, and getting out of the park on the same day that you climbed The Mountain. So I thought that I would have a back up plan and have a reservation at the general public campground at Katahdin Stream Campground for the night after I had finished The Climb. The reservations become available 10 days prior. I called them at 4:15PM only to get a recorded message that they closed at 4:00PM. Bummer! Worst, I couldn¢t reestablish the cell signal to talk to KT.   Spent the night alone at Chairback Gap ¢ which somewhat surprised me because of the earlier flurry of incoming NOBO thru hikers. A quiet starry night. I heard an animal rustling thru the discarded food containers in the fire pit. Some people think that since the food container will burn it is OK to leave them in the fire pit as burnable trash ¢ it is not you know! Burn them yourself, or pack them out   Started bright and early on a ¢climb to the sun¢. I just love these early morning starts in the cool, fresh, new dawn, when all things seem possible. It was ¢short and sweet, like a donkeys gallop¢ to the top of Chairback ¢ was that Big K off in the distance? Then there was a difficult descent down. The profile shows the descent like two chairs ¢ down the back and along the seat, X2 ¢ I wonder if this is how the mountain got its name? The first chair is hard, but the second is much better ¢ like Goldilocks and the Two Bears!    At the trail junction to East Chairback Pond, I met two SOBO girls section hiking, taking a break and eating apples. The said that they had gone down to the pond and that it smelled as if something had died in it! I decided to pass up the graveyard   After crossing the road the trail changes dramatically. This is the entry point for Gulf Hagas ¢ a very popular hiking destination. It is a broad sweeping candy foot trail down to the West Bank of the Pleasant River. A calm and tranquil ford crossing this early Saturday morning.   While I took a second breakfast on the north bank, a total of eight day hikers crossed the river. The trail continues to be just perfect, as its well manicured and traveled surface leads up to the Hermitage and the entry into Gulf Hagas. I was sufficiently tempted to actually take the 0.2-mile hike to Screw Auger Falls ¢ the first of many spectacular falls in the Gulf.    The Gulf Hagas Brook, creating a canyon of sheer 500-foot high walls and numerous waterfalls, carves the Gulf out of the slate rock. It has been called the ¢Grand Canyon of the East¢, and it is certainly a very popular hiking destination. So much for the ¢Wilderness¢ ¢ and so good for it also!   The trail then winds its way up, to approach Gulf Hagas Mountain. It is just magical. The Gulf Hagas Brook is to the left ¢ I love streams [and brooks] ¢ on a smoothly rising trail in a sun spotted, perfect hiking, day. I met two SOBO hikers at the cut off trail, who reported good things about White House Landing, and told me that there is a sign for it on the trail and even a blue blazed trail leading the way to the boat dock!   The trail flirts with the brook, just as it did the Piscataquis River, first down on its bank holding hands, then up the side of the mountain, running away from it, only to return once more to the embrace of its banks. At one stage I was so far away from the brook that I thought that the trail had left it permanently, which would have meant ¢ according to my map ¢ that I had missed the turn off to the shelter ¢ my constant and recurring nightmare. But I am older and wiser now, and persisted in my belief that, with faith, all would be well. And so it turned out to be.   The trail crosses the brook and goes up a very well constructed set of stone steps, and here I am at the shelter.   This is a very nice site. The standard Maine Type shelter ¢ oops! I meant Lean-To ¢ with the Deacons Seat at the correct height, and a step outside to sit on in the afternoon sun, and a step inside to make cooking a pleasure. All of my gear is out in the sun, to dry off the sweat, and let the UV radiation work on the smell as well. No cell signal all day, and none here either.   This was one of my nicest hiking days so far. Up and down a steep and rocky mountain ¢ we could use some more white blazes on that vertical scree on the North face of Chairback MATC! ¢ a pleasant ford of a Pleasant River, a side trip to a nice waterfall and a great Lean-To to shelter in at the end of the day.   I am now on Map #2, only #1 to go! The register speaks of views of Katahdin from the summit of White Top Mountain tomorrow.Thought for Today ¢   The AT is like Fine Whiskey.   It is Best Enjoyed by Sipping It Slowly!