Date: 2004-09-21
From: Chairback Gap Lean-to

To: Carl Newhall Lean-to
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: broken clouds

First day of autumn!When the sun came up a large green caterpillar lay on my airmattress. Its front end moved about searchingly, the way caterpillars do, until it came to a pack of poptarts nearby. It brought the small puckered opening of its mouth to it and several appendages protruded and delicately tore open the foil pouch. The mouth approached the edge of one poptart and the caterpillar nibbled away until it was gone. Then it ate the second poptart as well. After all that activity, the caterpillar rested a while as if worn out by the effort.Then the skin of the caterpillar split open down one side, starting the mouth. My head and shoulders emerged and I tore open a packet of jello mix, added it to a bottle of water, shook it up, and drank it. Another chilly morning began on the Trail.The first order of business was scaling Chairback Mountain. Either Katahdin was hiding behind clouds or it just was not in sight. The trail descended down a rockslide alongside the roundcrested cliff that gave the name Chairback. At first it followed neatly laid stone steps but quickly became just bouldering. I had to guess a bit about which way the Trail went through the chaos of rocks.Next was a long low ridge topped by stone outcrops, rather like the south end of New York but not as difficult. Making my way along, I ran right into a big patch of those dark cherry-tasting blueberries like the ones I found on Moxie Bald! I stopped to eat them by the handful, picking the hidden or hard to reach ones and leaving plenty in plain sight for other hikers to find.Then the Trail descended down to the West Branch Pleasant River. I came to where the path dipped down to the water, changed into sandals, and forded across. I got to the far side without trouble but could not see the Trail. I put my boots back on and left my pack to look around. It turned out that I had crossed upstream of the actual ford. What I had thought was the path to the parking lot turned out to have been the Trail continuing downstream. After some searching I found where the Trail went upstream on my side and figured out what had happened. Returning for my pack, I went on my way.Then the Trail made a fairly gentle climb for five miles alongside Gulf Hagas Brook. Gulf Hagas is supposed to be a spectatular canyon known as "The Grand Canyon of the East" and one sight, Screw Auger Falls, is just .2 miles off the Trail. I was tempted, but when I found the sidetrail started with a wet looking stream crossing I decided to skip it and push on.Ten miles was short for a relatively easy day and there was a campsite about two miles further on. But two southbounders said it already had three thruhikers plus a trail maintenance crew so it was probably packed. What was more, it was on the far side of a mountain and I did not like the way the sky was clouding. So I stopped at the shelter.Within an hour of my reaching the shelter my decision to stop proved wise as it started sprinkling. NO FAIR, the weather is cheating! It has only been a few days since the last rain. It has not even changed from the cold of a high-pressure zone into the mugginess of impending rain. Well, all right, it DID get comfortably warm this afternoon then dropped into the upper 50s while I was at the shelter. But rain already? Hmmmph!I cocooned in my sleeping bag against the chill, watched the squirrels ad chipmunks cavort in front of the shelter and nibbled Pringles while writing my journal until suppertime.Just as I was preparing my chili-flavored ramen with bacon bits and peanut butter, Little Bit, Castro and Bluebell arrived. They had tented four miles before Chairback Gap, in between Fourth and Third Mountains.78 Miles to Katahdin.