Date: 2007-08-23
From: Speck Pond Shelter

To: Frey Notch Lean-To 
Miles today: 10.6

It is good to begin the day feeling very proud of oneself. I woke up a little before 5:00 am, and rather than roll over and go back to sleep as per my usual ¢modus operandi¢ I, instead, got out my needle and thread and, in the dawn¢s early light, darned that darn hole in the toe of my sock. Now that is a real man for you! But daylight was slow in coming to the shelter area because during the night, high clouds came in leaving the day, for the most part, overcast and grey. Even so, Jack and I still enjoyed excellent visibility beneath the clouds. After breakfast burritos, we headed up to the top of Old Speck Mountain, 500¢ above the shelter. We had spent the night on a large tent platform, which we shared with a Thru Hiker from Minnesota with the trail name of ¢Leader of the Pack¢ (i.e., the ¢Pack¢ on his back). We didn¢t see much of him and most of our interaction took place with him inside his tent talking out to us through it.After reaching the 4,000¢ summit of Old Speck, the AT headed down for the next 312 miles, losing over 2,500 feet. I hate to give up hard-earned altitude; because once you¢ve given it up, you inevitably have to climb back up to reclaim it, and that¢s exactly what we did immediately after crossing the Maine Rt. 26. While catching our breath at the road-side parking lot we were offered food by a hiker, ¢Trail Angel,¢ who was finishing up his few days in the woods. We turned down the food but gave him our trash to lighten our load and then enjoyed a cold orange, which was very juicy, that he had in his car ¢ Boy, did that taste good!In a few minutes, though, we headed back up toward the double summits of East and West Baldpate Mountain. The first half of the journey (1,200¢) was great hiking - the Trail was wide and not too steep to make things uncomfortable on the knees. We made excellent time, and since we are each ¢hiking our own hike,¢ Jack hopped along ahead of me and arrived at Baldpate Shelter far enough ahead of me to have lunch just about ready when I arrived. (It¢s nice to travel with your own Sherpa!) Our three friends, ¢Grasshopper¢, ¢Two Dogs¢, and ¢M&M¢ arrived at about the same time (I realized as I was walking along that, in very positive ways, the three remind me a bit of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz ¢ each on his own quest for his own reason and each possessing so many admirable qualities, especially that of humility). ¢Little Red¢ and her husband ¢Wolf Big¢ (their last name is Bigelow) were there, as were a group of Bowden College students on an orientation course. The sun came out for a while as we enjoyed a pleasant lunchtime together. In spite of being very ¢up¢ when I returned to the Trail after lunch, my legs just were not of the same opinion, and it took me a long time to get to the top. But what a sight to behold was in store upon arriving! The East Summit of Baldpate is where the mountain gets its name - it looks just like a man¢s bald head, is made entirely of exposed granite about 12 mile away from the Western Summit. After taking some pictures, I descending through the col and made my way to the base of the eastern ascent, where I found Jack sitting against the rock face waiting for me. Together we scrambled over the rocky top while keeping an eye on a possible thunderstorm forming over our shoulder. From there it was ¢all downhill¢ into Frey Notch, which we did together, talking all the way. It has been a long time since he and I have had this much time together, and we just yakked about a wide variety of things and nothing in particular. It was great. In spite of the increased possibility of rain, we decided not to sleep in the shelter (called ¢lean-tos¢ here in Maine) and found a small but level spot to put up his two-man tent, in which we are both sleeping tonight. We ate dinner together, and then Jack made a chocolate mousse pudding, which we took up to share with ¢Grasshopper¢ and ¢M&M¢ (¢Two Dogs¢ was already bedded down in the lean-to for the night). The four of us drank coffee and talked of the Trail for nearly one hour. It was a lot of fun to share stories and perceptions of various places on the Trail; where we had each been although at different times and under different circumstances.The shelter is full, with a whole gaggle of NOBO Thru Hikers, who had shown up since we first arrived. There are tents pitched everywhere - wherever a flat of quasi-flat piece of ground can be found. Nevertheless, the tone around camp is very upbeat. Everyone is now through the ¢Whites,¢ and beyond the annoying control of the AMC which places Thru Hikers at the bottom of the food chain and tends to charge for services that are free in all other parts of the Trail.*I don¢t think you want to put this. If you do, you may have to explain more, because you didn¢t earlier in your journal about the situation.More importantly, though, the end is now in sight for most of these people, and the notion that we are ¢truly in Maine¢ is really beginning to sink in. I think people are beginning to feel that they may ¢actually make it, after all¢ and that the cloud of doubt is finally lifting. Time now for lights out.