Date: 2010-09-20
From: East Branch Lean-to

To: White House Landing
Miles today: 21.8

Day 160: White House Landing (M9/20)Woke up to a chilly Monday morning moose hunt. Boss heard something and woke me up, and it sounded like a big old moose heading towards the water. Then it sounded like it was IN the water. It was very cold, so we weren't very quick to get out of our warm sleeping bags, but after a few minutes, we threw on our jackets, grabbed our cameras and went to find the moose!Well, we couldn't see it from the water access, and we couldn't rock-hop around the bend in the steam, so we backtracked and followed the AT for a hundred yards or so until we heard it loud and clear. The brush was too thick to see through to the river, but it was only 20 yards away or so. It was making all sorts of weird sounds (maybe because it is rut season...?). Finally, I slowly blazed my own trail to the stream, but only saw a few ducks (and a gorgeous morning steam in the sunlight!). The moose must've crossed the stream and kept going. No moose sighting for us this morning... Just moose tracks in the mud. We packed up and headed out on the trail to the stream that our books said we'd need to ford. I'd left my crocs on from camp. Boss took a chance and put his shoes/socks on. When we got to the crossing, it was an EASY rock-hop. Point for Boss. The hiking in the morning was beautiful. The weather was brisk, but very pleasant. Bright sun. Flat trail. A lovely walk. We had to deal with a slight re-location of the AT going up to Little Boardman mountain. This slowed us down a bit with the new, unpredictable, unworn trail. After this mountain, however, our pace was fast, and we thought about maybe making it to the White House Landing oasis in the wilderness. It's a hostel on a lake that serves food and sells a few resupply items. It would have to be a quick, long hiking day, since we'd need to make it almost 22 miles to their boat dock before dark. I decided that we should go for it. Even if it was just for dinner...We continued hiking at a solid pace, which was easy with the flat terrain. We stopped for lunch at a shelter where Master Chief caught up to us. We chatted a bit before taking off. We passed a logging road and watched a log truck go by (it's not too wild out here...). Later, we stopped by a bridge where we saw Prophet, his friend from home, Kim, and a ridge-runner, CJ. Prophet and Kim got a ride up to Katahdin and were hiking back to Monson. I guess I won't be seeing him again now that he's sobo. Weird.We hiked hard and took another short break at Potaywadjo shelter to get water and check our mileage. We were going to make it! 2-something AT miles to an old road, then .2 non-AT miles east, then about a mile south to a boat dock. There's a bull horn there with a note and directions. I gave the horn a short blast, and five minutes later, Bill showed up from across the lake in his motorboat. Hi Bill!After a quick 300-400 yard ride, we were docked out front of White House Landing. The sun was setting. The sky was dramatic. We knew we'd be staying the night. We met Linda inside as she took our orders for dinner, and we joined Backwards at a table. He was the only other thru-hiker in for the night. We each ate one of Linda's famous one-pound burgers (yum!!) and then we split a pizza. It was all delicious. Linda showed us to the bunkhouse where we dumped our packs and soon took showers. There isn't electricity in the bunkhouse (the lights all run off gas), but Linda said she would charge our phones at her house. (It was great, but it meant I couldn't blog till the next night. No worries...) Thanks Linda for sharing your power!So, it was dark and getting cold, and there wasn't much to do without our phones. I couldn't blog, and Boss couldn't listen to his book. He ended up hopping into bed around 7:30pm, Backwards read a book by the dim light in the other room, while I took my camera down to the lake shore and took a few neat photos of the moonlight. It was SO bright! After it got too cold, I hopped into my bunk and soon fell asleep. All-you-can-eat breakfast in the morning!!![A few of you were concerned with my gps location! Yes, I was a bit off the trail, and this is why. I'm glad I've got you guys on my team!] Full blog and photos: http://maine2010.blogspot.com