Date: 2008-08-14
From: Abol Bridge Campground

To: The Birches
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: light rain

I was up early (5:30am) because I wanted to register for the Birches before it might get full. The two previous hikes, because they were southbound, did not involve staying at the Birches. As a matter of fact, southbounders are not even supposed to stay at the Birches. Almost as soon as you leave the Abol area you enter into Baxter State Park. There is an information board for the park with the signup sheet for the Birches campground. I was at the signup sheet by 7am and was really surprised that there were six names already on it. The Birches only holds (officially) 12 hikers. Those 12 can either stay in lean-tos or tent. Anyway, I was number seven on the list and hoped I would indeed have a spot when I got there.As mentioned in my previous journal entry, there had been a little rain over night but today looked partially sunny and definitely rain-free. This spoke well for the weather I¢d have summiting tomorrow. The high temp today was supposed to be warmer than the previous days, but didn¢t think it would be anything I couldn¢t live with. I was also ready for the mosquitos and black flies ¢ picked up a new bottle of repellant last night at the Abol Campstore.I hiked past the Katahdin and Abol streams and a little beaver dam. Then the trail followed the west branch of the Penobscott River upstream. Made several stream crossings (nothing difficult) and then followed the Nesowadnehunk upstream. There were several cascades and falls, and what looked to be the remains of a old dam. Next up I arrived at Daicey Pond. Took a break and look around just a bit. Then moved along and past Elbow Pond. There were a lot of ponds out here ¢ Tracy Pond soon appeared. Shortly thereafter I arrived at the Katahdin Stream Campground area. Immediately went over to the Birches to see how crowded it was.Well, the lean-tos were already full ¢ definitely more than the six hikers who had signed up before me. So there must have been ¢local¢ hikers in the mix or possibly southbound thru-hikers. I didn¢t care because no one had taken any of the four tenting sites. I was more than happy to tent tonight. I¢d probably get a lot better sleep than if I stayed in a lean-to. By the way: in my opinion it¢s pretty stupid to not allow southbounders to stay at the Birches. Maybe there is a valid reason but I don¢t know what it is. If I was going southbound again, I would justify stealth camping if there was no other lean-to or approved spot. It¢s totally against the Baxter State Park rules to stealth camp. But sometimes there isn¢t much of a choice. Yes, the BSP officials may escort you out of the park (or fine you) if they catch you. But if I were to stealth camp I¢d make darn sure I¢m buried inside the woods somewhere.So once I¢d grabbed one of the four tenting spots I dumped my gear to stake my claim and went over to the ranger station. Checked in and made sure they knew I was indeed a northbound thru-hiker and my name was on the sign-in sheet. I didn¢t want a ranger later coming by and trying to decide who was supposed or not supposed to be staying at the Birches. I also checked on the day packs that are loaned out to hikers climbing Katahdin. They seemed to have quite a few but I went ahead and asked if I could borrow one now. The ranger said to go ahead.Went back to my gear and set up my tent. By now there were two more hikers there to tent and only one spot still empty. When you walk over to the ranger station you cross a bridge. There is a great stream that runs under it. Good source of water for refilling. Also, if you look to your right as you cross that bridge you will see several lean-tos that are smaller than the standard lean-tos the park rents out. On previous hikes these were empty when I came through. I get the impression they are used for ¢overflow¢ shelters, but I¢m not sure who they put in there. Here¢s one suggestion (that¢s legal) if you show up at the campground and the Birches is full. Walk along the road that passes the rented lean-tos and tenting spots. Although they will probably all be occupied there is a chance that someone may share their space so you can set your tent up. Ask around. If you do this you are supposed to pay the per person cost for the lean-to/camping site. And you probably will have to pay because a ranger usually walks through the area and checks on things around dinner time. This amount is probably going to be $10 (from what I could tell this year) so you may think it worth it or not.Then I went over to the clipboard (seems like there are a lot of sign-in/sign-out cliboards) for hikers as they actually start their summit attempt each morning. (You really should sign this list, even if you are going to try a climb on a non-climb category day. Anyone who has not signed back in that evening will be looked for by the rangers and/or a rescue party. I¢d rather wind up getting a climbing fine than getting killed because no one knew I was up there).I hung around the clipboard for about an hour and met around ten hikers who were returning. It¢s a good idea to talk to others who summited the day before you try to climb. Unless they BS you, they can give valuable info on trail condition, weather, available water at Thoreau Spring, etc. The rangers will also help but the returning hikers are the best source for most recent info.It was interesting that four of the ten hikers returning had not made it all the way up to the summit. The weather had been good (although visibility was poor with the clouds). I think one of them only got to the treeline. The other three had trouble getting past the large bouldars in the middle section of the climb.All four of these hikers had started after 8am. That can really be a late time to start. A lot of folks start their climb at first light (around 6am at the present time). That may seem excessive but an early start gives you plenty of time to take a break(s) on the way up. Also, it takes a good bit of time coming back down.Back at my tent I cooked what would probably be my last dinner on this entire thru-hike. It wouldn¢t be hard adapting back to normal meals, but it still seemed a bit sad that my Jetboil was getting put away. Well, maybe not sad but still something to think about.I had bought some extra supper goodies at the Abol Campstore. Things to put into my dinner and spice it up. I had also bought several cans of Miller Lite. I kept one for myself and left a can at each of the two lean-tos. Not sure how they split the beer up but I¢m sure they got it figured out. I think the folks in those lean-tos were already getting the party started. Good for them.Pretty much the last task for the night was to figure out what items needed to go into the borrowed daypack. Just the essentials ¢ some snacks; water bottles; light jacket and cap (wind/rain protection); iPhone (camera & cell phone); journal and pen; and one can of Miller Lite. Because I was afraid I¢d not wake up on time, I used my alarm clock for the first time in a couple of months ¢ setting the wakeup time to 5:30am. And that¢s how my last night on the trail ended.