Date: 2018-07-12
From: Abol Bridge

To: The Birches
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: scattered clouds

My mattress that's had a small hole in it for the past few weeks really struggled last night. I woke up on the ground so much that it just became something I no longer worried about. I had the opportunity to buy a new mattress in Monson but it just wasn't what I wanted and I would survive a few more days with mine. After tonight though I'm pretty ready to sleep in a bed. Just one more night!That's such a crazy thought i've been having. I've been out here for four months sleeping in a bed only on and off. Re-integrating to society will be crazy! It only has been four months and I've lived in society for 22 years but the transition back is going to be interesting. I hope to hold onto the beard for a few days at least and sit back with my feet elevated trying to bring my body back to life. Oh and I'll shower multiple times.I suppose my first step in the transition back to the world was sleeping in a campground last night. I have a massive site to myself and all that's on it is my tiny single person tent. Meanwhile everyone else has their cars and massive tents or RVs and is hanging around watching TV on a portable device. There was, however, a guy playing some JT outside by his picnic table though (James Taylor not Justin Timberlake). My man! It was funny watching a few guys my age waddling to the bathroom too. They had been on a hike to prepare for hiking Katahdin tomorrow and were really sore. I totally get it but I suppose it's cool to observe society like this from a different perspective of having hiked for 4 months. Ozzie said to them "that looks like it hurts!" We didn't tell them how far we had come. It would have just been mean. It made us smile though. I can't wait to go back to doing day hikes and such.I lay in my tent this morning after waking up normal time around 5. I made my way over to the bathroom (that is one thing I like about the woods is that I could really pee anywhere but that probably wouldn't be acceptable here) then back to my tent to lay some more. Ozzie and I had planned to eat the breakfast buffet together then hang around and catch lunch at 11 before hiking our 9.9 miles to The Birches at the base of Katahdin for our final summit tomorrow!We sat around the buffet for two hours and I ended up paying $2 to use the WiFi for an hour to upload a journal, talk to my parents and Abby and to kill some time. We closed down the bar-- breakfast bar that is, and I bought a few snacks and things to get me the next few days. I sat around waiting a lot and eventually worked up the energy to take down my tent and pack my bag before waiting some more for the restaurant to open at 11.Around 1045, as Ozzie and I were talking with a Baxter ranger, and getting the low down on the park, Hungry Cat comes walking up from trail! He had decided to summit a day earlier than originally planned! We chatted and then he got into the store to grab snacks for the last day or so. He described it as "a kid in a grocery store" as he picked out a bunch of sugary snacks the same as I had done. Hey, it was our last chance to do this!We all ate lunch together inside and I had the Thanksgiving sandwich again! After hanging out and eating, I got up and grabbed an ice cream cone from the store to finish me off. I may have slightly regretted the dairy further up the trail but the ice cream was good! I hiked out around noon to do the 10 miles to camp. A short distance and so much time.The trail started off amazing. It was literally a dirt path along the side of the Penobscot River for a mile or two. I kept having to double check I was on the AT. This was so unlike the normal trail. Eventually it got more rooty and rocky but was nice. I took side trails to "Big Niagra Falls" and Daicey Pond to check them out. Around 330 I got to the Birches Campsite where there is a ranger station. I was in there with a guy named Frank. He's the one finishing his triple crown and he's from the Netherlands. We both signed in here and got our passes to climb, paid for the tentsite and got our numbers for summiting. #93 for thru hikers to hit Katahdin. Pretty cool!We made our way over to the birches site and pitched our tents. Frank began grabbing wood and I did the same. As Hungry Cat and then Ozzie arrived we had a fire going and bathed in the smoke. It beat the mosquitoes! It was a nice night chatting around the fire as the sun went down and we prepared to end it all tomorrow.