Date: 2005-08-29
From: White House Landing Wilderness

To: Rainbow Stream Lean-to
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

I¢m recording this two days after, again because so many things have been happening around me that I really haven¢t had an opportunity to get out and privately record.The morning started by getting up. Bill and Linda don¢t make breakfast at White House Landing til 8:00, and that¢s 8:00 sharp. We all had a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, English muffins, and all you can eat blueberry pancakes, of which I ate seven or so.Then he takes us back, this time to Mahar Tote Road, and drops us off in his little boat. It totally makes sense why he has to do the long blue blaze because that¢s the only place he can hear the airhorn from across the lake to call him to pick us up. He can pick us up at Mahar Tote Road and save us having to go back down the blue blaze, which is a real good thing.I got cranking out of there really fast. It doesn¢t matter anymore in terms of what I do to myself because I¢ve only got so little to go. I once again just blasted off and did that sixteen miles starting at 9:15 from Mahar Tote Road to Rainbow by 3:00. I was the first one in again and was thinking that it was just going to be myself and maybe Tinkerbell there because all of the section hikers were going to stop at the shelter before that, the Potaywadjo Shelter.I went ahead, filtering water, cooking; stuff like that, which is a good thing because Tinkerbell¢s water filter broke somewhere along the way. He needed to get water, so he got it from me. He also broke his fifth trekking pole. The guy is 6¢7¢ tall and the poles don¢t stretch out long enough for him. He¢s constantly snapping them. Not to mention that he is not the most sure footed guy in the world.I got in there and did my thing and set up. Then all kinds of people started walking in. Tinkerbell came in first, then Jersey Fresh, who I really thought I wouldn¢t be seeing before I summitted. Jersey Fresh and Razz walked in together after having done a thirty mile day through Maine, which was pretty tough stuff. As soon as Jersey Fresh walked in, he freaked out, took out his trekking pole and wrapped it around a tree. He was just upset about many, many things; mostly about walking in the rain; but also about people who are blue blazing; people who are section hiking are taking up shelters; all sorts of things are getting to him. He was going to get off the trail right there, 30 miles from summitting Katahdin he was going to quit. We settled him down. He knows what the deal is and we know what the deal is. It would have been comical if we hadn¢t all felt the same way by this point. We¢re all beat up. We¢re all worn out. Every person, I believe there were eight people, at the shelter there was ready to go. In fact, at some point, at least four or five of them said ¢Screw it. I¢m going all the way tomorrow to Birches. I¢m going to summit, and I¢m going to get out of here.¢ But, with Jersey Fresh especially, it has to do with nutrition. He is skin and bones. He¢s totally down to the wire. We¢ve all experienced that at some point, where there¢s no energy, no fuel left. And he has been pushing hard and that affects you emotionally so much. It was a very moving day. Like I said, it would have been comical if it wasn¢t for the fact that we all knew exactly what he was going through.Also, I didn¢t even mention this, but today was a walk in rain all day long. It rained from about 9:00 and it never stopped until I got to the shelter and them it stopped for a few minutes. After we set up camp, it poured hard. It really, really came down. Luckily, we were in the shelter.A lot of things I want to go into, but I¢m going to have to do it in a separate post. It¢s about the emotions running around this time as we¢re about to finish, about what people are thinking and doing. I¢ll put that one in a post after I finish or maybe even tomorrow¢s post.