Date: 2016-07-13
From: Rainbow Spring Campsite

To: The Birches, Katahdin Stream Campground
Miles today: 21.0

The gang was incredibly amped to get out of the Hundred and into Baxter as soon as possible this morning, so we were up very early. Wonka was long gone, as usual, and most of the others were packing up as I rolled out of bed. I tried to move quickly, but everybody else had a pretty good head start. Other hikers and groups of hikers probably use the hundred as a way to slow down and remember the trail as best they can, but, honestly, we are all pretty ready to get out. Maine, despite its beauty, has not been my favorite part of the trail (which it is for most people). A lot of this feeling has to do with the rain and the bugs we've endured over the last week or two, the experience overall has just been less enjoyable. We can't wait to finish.We also wanted to get out because we're pretty much out of food. I have more than most folks because of the package that my mom sent me in Monson, but everybody else really went pretty light on the resupply from Shaw's because it was pretty marked up and not a very diverse selection. Even the stop at White House Landing meant not that we had extra meals, but that we could eat more at the existing meals. I think Seal Tree ate his last granola bar this morning. The trail headed along the side of Rainbow Lake for three miles or so before beginning a gentle climb up to the rainbow ledges, which looked like a lower elevation version of the ledges I'd seen in Northern NH and the Bigelows, big open faces of granite and sparse trees. I moved very quickly over them, attempting to catch up with the gang before we got to Abol. I stopped and chatted with a Sobo mother and daughter for a second at one pretty spectacular view of Katahdin. It's funny how you see so many pictures of the end of the trail, so you imagine it'll take you forever to get to Katahdin once you see it, but really, it's only three days. I descended down to Hurd Brook Lean-to, where, after navigating the river via rocks, I sat on the shelter floor and entered my last log book entry of the trail. It's so crazy to think that you could follow me all the way up from Georgia via these things. I've been more diligent about log book entries than most; I love seeing everybody else singing in on the trail. Seal Tree - who was just ahead of me - had been very excited to get to this lean-to because the AWOL guide said it had a "baseball bat floor," which he thought meant it was actually mad from baseball bats. It just means it's uncomfortable rods instead of planks. I cruised over the last 3 miles from Hurd Brook Lean-to to the edge of the Hundred Mile Wilderness. Just before the entrance to Golden Road, I came across a guy without a backpack wearing a St. Louis Blues shirt walking southbound, who looked familiar. He asked me if I knew a guy named Aaron, or Lightning, and I quickly realized he must be Lightning's brother, Evan! I told him they were still ahead of me, and so he turned around and we walked and chatted together out onto Golden Road, the end of the Hundred! Yahoo! Evan hopped back in a car with Lightning's mom, and they drove off towards Abol Bridge Campground. They offered me a ride, but I told them that I needed to walk this section. The day was hot and sunny, and I walked happily out along the dirt road, grateful even for the power lines in the distance. It was good to be here. It was only about 9:45 in the morning, we had made good time. I walked over Abol bridge and was met with the postcard picture view of Katahdin in all its glory. It is truly an immense mountain, and just dominates the entire horizon. (We're only at about 500 ft of elevation looking up at it here). I found Wonka, Lightning, Steve, Goldie and Seal Tree all out under the awning of the Abol Bridge Campground Store. Lightning's mom and brother were out of the car and handed every sausage mc muffins. Most people were already polishing off a first round of ice cream from the store. We only had ten miles to go in the day, so we decided that hanging around for a while would not be a problem. I bought a little bit of resupply and some celebratory finish-the-hundred beers. The restaurant did not open until noon, so we ended up hanging out down by the Penobscot River, where we sat on a bench and swatted at bugs while we ate some of the immense amount of snacks that the Winenengers brought to share. Among them were bing cherries, which I love; you really miss fresh fruit on the trail. We took some happy photos and then went inside to eat some food.Wonka headed out, and the rest of us grabbed a table in the corner and got lunch, which Mrs. Winenger generously offered to purchase. We were all pretty tired, and Seal Tree ended up falling asleep in his chair. This place unfortunately does not let you recharge phones since they have to generate all their own power. Lord knows I haven't been able to send a text in days. After lunch, we slowly rallied ourselves to get going. The day had become pretty oppressively hot, but we said goodbye and thank you to the Winengers and walked out onto the road, which we followed until turning left back onto the trail and into Baxter state park. There was a little kiosk on which we signed up for spots at the Birches shelter for the night, where Long-distance hikers stay before climbing up Katahdin. The trail followed along the side of the Penobscot River, very flat, open pine needle type walking, very well-maintained, About four miles into Baxter, we stopped off at what is known as Pine Point, where the trail border on a large rock slab out in the Nesowadnehunk River. We put our packs down and stripped clothing off, deciding to beat the heat with a dip in the river. We fooled around, playing with the currents and eddies, and enjoying the fresh clean water after all those days in the Hundred. I had seen videos of people sliding down the rock here, but decided it was ill-advised because the water was lower. We dried out by laying on the rock, but decided to start moving because of the flies. The next 6 miles were surprisingly taxing, as usual because i just wanted to get somewhere, that place being KSC. The terrain grew more difficult, with slight uphills and loots of rooty footing. These two hours took forever. At least the day was dry, as opposed to every day in the Hundred. We passed a parking area that began to remind me of the state parks-type hiking that we did in pennsylvania. We then passed some ponds, slowly rising in elevation until, with relief, we hit Lily Bay Road and followed the trail into Katahdin Stream Campground. The campground is more immense than I imagined it would be, with tons of lean-to structures and tent pads and room for car parks. I spose there's tons of people who want to climb Katahdin on any given day. After a bit of confusion on where to go, we headed up on the paved path, following signs for the summit, until turning off across Katahdin Stream and towards the Ranger Station. Wonka was walking down to the station from the other direction, having already dropped her stuff at the shelter for the night. We all waited inside the covered front porch of the Station for the ranger to return, which he did in just a few minutes. One by one we went inside his office and registered to be in the park and hike Katahdin the next day. I was Nobo number 73 from Springer! I was 104 at Harper's, not bad for someone who took an entire week off in NJ. The ranger then gave us all a run-down of what to expect from tomorrow. He suggested a pretty early start (which is what we were planning anyway, since there's storms predicted for the afternoon). We told him that we wanted to do Knife's Edge, which meant that it would not make sense to hike back to KSC, as most folks do. He suggested taking day packs from KSC and finding some hiker who would be willing to drive our packs over to a different campground, strongly suggesting we not bring packs, saying it could take us 12 hours to go from KSC across knife edge down to Roaring Fork even without packs. We thought this sounded like a pretty gross exaggeration, but it did give us some serious pause.I filtered some water from Katahdin Stream, then we made our way over .3 to the Birches Shelters, which were surprisingly pretty grim. They lack the same soul that a lot of trail shelters have - no random nails and strings hanging down, no graffitti. I decided once again to sleep in my tent so as not to get chewed by the bugs. Bananas did not show up through the evening, she may have headed off to millinocket from abol or something. We had a good time hanging out and making jokes through the evening. Looks like all of us are still planning on doing Knife's Edge with our packs. People have done it before, we decided, and this is what we trained for. In my tent, right before going to bed, I decided to finally pull out Ali's note, which she had written "for a day when I really needed it." It was inspiring and sweet, and also included a picture of the two of us, which made me feel somewhat like a WWII soldier, carrying around a picture of his sweetheart back home. I've had pretty low days when this might've been appropriate to read - Big Firescald Knob, Bromley, even yesterday - but the idea of finally opening it the night before summiting Katahdin was too persuasive. It's nice to read it now, when communication has been harder than ever, and I will finally be able to talk with her again soon.I can't believe this is finally it. A few more miles, and it'll be done.