Date: 2009-06-25
From: Katahdin Stream Campground

To: Abol Bridge Campground
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: broken clouds

We woke up this morning refreshed and Paul shuttled us to Baxter State Park from the A.T. Lodge in Millinocket. Along for the ride was Andrew, a fellow A.T. South-bounder from Australia who is retired from the Australian Army. Andrew plans to summit Katahdin today. Anya and I registered at Katahdin Stream Campground ranger station; the ranger gave us a card that marked us as official thru-hikers leaving Baxter. After our Katahdin weather experience we took a zero day at the Appalachian Trail Lodge, a cute and homey place, run by Paul (trail name ¢Ole Man¢) and his wife, ¢Navi-Gator¢. They were encouraging, the place was very comfortable, and Anya felt better after resting for a day. Together we bought our food for the 100 Mile Wilderness. So today we hike out of Baxter Park.The hike started out excited, hiking along Pack-Tote Rd. and into the woody trail of the A.T. The black flies and mosquitoes were swarming around us, even with the Deet and Ultrathon bug spray we applied multiple times amply over our exposed skin and clothes. As we hiked Anya and I got into a dispute about her camera. I wanted to take some pictures chronicling our journey and she said no. I felt slighted because I though we were sharing our equipment, the benefit of hiking as a couple and we began, despite the beautiful scenery, to let anger seep into our walk. I walking ahead then waiting for her, her behind and catching up. After a bit of grumbling and huffing and puffing and replacing real communication with different paced hiking steps I slowed down to express my feelings about how our equipment is shared between us: tent, water filter, stove etc¢¦ She sat upon a rock and I sat across from her and she smarmily snapped a picture of me sitting grumpy. We both started laughing at the dispute and her witty display of camera ownership and soon we hugged and made up. In an offering of peace Anya let me carry the camera.Feeling more like a couple again we hiked towards Little Niagara falls. Not wanting to miss the falls we took a side path off the A.T. and ate on a sloped rock face that jutted out into the river, right by the rushing falls. We shared pita and cheese by the swollen falls, rapids that had been filled by the rain and weather of this June. It was a beautiful spot. We filtered water for the trail and retraced our steps back to the A.T. to continue on our way.After Big Niagara Falls, another stop off the A.T. and another pit stop for Anya. Every time we came upon rushing water she had to pee, probably from the sound of rushing water having a Pavlovian effect on her bladder. We came to what would be our first river crossing.At the A.T. trail there was a blue blaze which said ¢High Water Pass.¢ We saw the rushing of the tide and the lack of footing from the bank rock to a boulder rock about 10 feet away. Anya didn¢t think we could cross due to the power of the swollen river, so we tried to rock hop along picking out our own path. I wound up splashing into the river and getting stuck, unable to find sure footing close enough to the next rock hop outside of the rushing tide. After a couple attempts we decided it was too dangerous to cross, made more dangerous by our heavy packs that had 6 days worth of food crammed in for the 100 mile wilderness. Only 6 as we planned to pick up a food drop Anya had sent to Kathy Prebble (who does a re-supply in the 100 mile wilderness) in preparation for our hike.Feeling defeated as I was having to blue blaze on the high water pass and worrying about the missed A.T. miles we ran into two ladies who said the river was swollen on the other side of the high water pass as well, but assured us that this was also considered the A.T. for inclement conditions; we hoped so.The high water pass trail was less maintained than the trail we had been on before and both were covered with roots to step over and rocks to trip on. This trail was returning to the wilderness, It had lots of mossy spots and small routes through grass that licked your ankles and made you hope that ticks weren¢t finding a place on your legs. Anya stopped me and pointed out a deer 20 feet off the trail in the forest to our right. We watched the deer for a while but it did not run, only cautiously looked at us and made careful steps in the vicinity. Just as we were about to continue our hike a fawn rose from the forest floor a few feet from the mother deer and began suckling on its mother. The baby deer pawing greedily as it had its fill of milk. It was magical to see, and I felt better about taking the bypass since I got to see such a sight in the wild. After many muddy passes we came back to the A.T. and saw some guys walking one way on the trail and then a few minutes later walking the other way. They explained that they were Geo-Caching. After some more water filtering and hiking we saw a red bearded guy hiking northbound dressed in a black long sleeved shirt and gray long pants with a wood walking stick instead of hiking poles. He asked ¢going all the way?¢ ¢That¢s the plan,¢ we responded. Finding out that he was a North-bounder at the end of his journey on the way to the Birches campsite tonight and to Katahdin tomorrow. We told him our experiences on Katahdin and asked for any advice. He gave us a list of 3 people to visit along the trail who take in and help hikers for free, and introduced himself as Incognito, also known as Zach, originally from GA. We thanked him for the advice and he said, ¢If Maine kicks your butt, keep going! It gets better from there.¢ We both were encouraged as Incognito was the first North bounders we saw and was one of the first to finish his hike, finishing in under 4 months. He completed the 100 Mile Wilderness in 5 days, averaging 20 miles a day! For all that hiking he didn¢t look emaciated, overly dirty, or even seem to smell that bad from conversation distance.We looked forward to when we can hike that far, getting conditioned and get our own trail legs. He said that the trail was relaxing, he started early and hiked all day and said that¢s how he made big miles. That and I¢m sure his military training didn¢t hurt, I thought to myself.Coming out of Baxter Park we returned our registration form. Luckily the same ladies we had run into on the high water pass trail came out of the woods while we rested had found my aforementioned registration slip on the ground. I thanked them. Anya¢s shoulders and hips all had big hives swollen where the straps put pressure on her skin so we continued on a short hike to Abol Bridge and Campground to call it a day.It was 3pm and we had originally planned to hike 3 more miles to get to our 1st shelter in the 100 Mile Wilderness, but Anya wasn¢t feeling well, so we planned to stop there instead. Our neighbors were a friendly couple, Connie and Paul, with a decked-out camper that have been camping at that spot for 25 years. We watched the birds and chatted with them for a while over bottles cold bottles of water they had brought us. We then laid down for a nap at 5 pm and Anya slept through the night. Hopefully we will both feel good as we enter the 100 Mile Wilderness proper tomorrow.-Joshua