Date: 2006-09-05
From: Mahar Tote Road (White House Landing)

To: Rainbow Stream Lean-To
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Awoke this morning around 5:45 in the bunkhouse at White House Landing to a cool, crisp Maine morning. Since our days left on the trail are getting close to an end I got up and spend about an hour on the porch watching the sunrise over Pemadumcook Lake. As it got light out over the lake a thin layer of fog began to lift leaving nothing but a mirror reflection of the mountains across the cove on the water. Views like this will only be a memory soon so every chance I get to enjoy them I do. During this peaceful time as I sat watching the world come to life for another day I scanned the banks of the lake for another exciting site. We have been told that around dawn there is a moose that sometime breaks free from the forest and feeds just across the cove at the edge of the water. Every since the sightings of the two previous female moose on the trail I have been waiting to catch a glance of a big bull moose. When I say big I mean BIG because they can weigh upwards of 1,250 pounds and have antlers that stretch 6 feet from one side to the other. I sat for nearly an hour with no sightings of a moose but the views that I did see were enough to satisfy me for now. Around 6:45 I returned to the cabin and eventually crawled back into my sleeping bag to knock the chill off from the cool morning before getting up for good. We all hit the floor around 7:00 to start packing and cleaning the cabin so we could be at breakfast at 8:00. We hiked over to the main cabin and gathered around until the Ware¢s signaled us in for another great meal. They had cooked up eggs, bacon, English muffins, and a huge stack of pancakes. To top this off there was a cold jug of milk and a pitcher of orange juice. Everyone talks about how little there is in the 100-Mile Wilderness and how many supplies you need to pack to make it from one end to the other. I definitely suggest packing one less dinner and one less breakfast and visiting the Ware¢s. After finishing breakfast and cleaning up our mess we gathered for a picture before heading down to the dock for a ride back to the other side of the cove to the trail. We set off for today¢s hike around 9:30 with fall in the air. It seams that just over night the seasons have changed as the trail is starting to get littered with freshly fallen leaves. The next section of trail from Nahmakanta Stream to Nahmakanta Lake is very nice. It follows the contour of the stream and has gentle elevation changes making for an easy morning hike. Our first stop was at the south beach on Nahmakanta Lake around noon. We made our way over to the sandy area next to the water and found that the wind coming off of the water was a little cool but felt really good. The views from this end of the lake were nice and gave us a preview of the area that we were about to go. Just two miles further up the trail we stopped again but this time at the north beach. Set back into a cove this area of the lake was shielded from the wind so several of us took a quick swing. There is nothing more refreshing than a swim in a cool Maine pond in September. After the swim I started playing in the sand and made an AT sign sandcastle about 4 foot tall and 2 foot across and talked to Jane for a while before starting our ascend up to Nesuntabunt Point. At the point there was an incredible view of Mount Katahdin across the lake. I say across the lake but we are roughly 845 feet above the surface of the water so it was not only a clear view of Mount Katahdin but also a great overhead view of the lake. H-Bomb, Shasta, Jangles, Baro, and I walked out on the rocky point for a picture with the lake below and Mount K in the background. As we started our descend toward Crescent Pond we met two southbound hikers Dave and John that just started a couple of days ago heading south to Springer Mountain. These guys have a tough journey ahead of them because if they finish in six months that would mean they would arrive in Georgia sometime in February. That leads for some very chilly hiking. With Katahdin on my mind and only a few short days remaining I hike toward Crescent Pond with the thoughts of a victory summit on my mind but at the same time sadness of leaving the trail. I hiked alone for the mile or so when all of the sudden I saw the rest of my trail family as a standstill just ahead. They motioned for me to slow down and to be very quite. At this point I just knew there had to be something cool just ahead, so I carefully walked when all of the sudden at the edge of Crescent Pond I got a glimpse the huge bull moose that we have been waiting so patently to see. The trail came to within about 30 feet of the pond and just another 10 feet out in the pond the largest animal that we have seen to date was standing grazing on some aquatic vegetation. We all started snapping pictures and taking in shear size of this thing. After a few minutes of observations he began to get a little agitated and made is way onto a section of the trail that we had just hiked. His diet changed from the tender aquatic plants in the pond to stripping every leaf off of saplings in a single swipe. Off in the distance on the hillside we got a brief sound of another moose about the same time that he did. Shifting his focus on all of us to the sound from the hill he disappeared to the forest to the sounds of grunting followed by clanging of antlers. We made our way down to a canoe landing on the pond and took a break just to talk about our encounter and view everyone¢s pictures that they were able to snap. From this point all the way into Rainbow Stream Lean-to the rest of today¢s hike was awesome for most. I say most because at some point Shasta had a close encounter as she slipped on a rock and skinned her shin and knee up pretty bad. After a little patchwork though she was on her way. We pasted a section of the trail next to Pollywog Stream where the fall colors were starting to shine and the evening sun enhanced the colors more that ever. Fall is definitely in the air because the temperature is dropping rapidly as the sun sinks in the sky. As we reached Rainbow Stream Lean-To it was starting to get dark so we pitched camp on the hillside just behind the lean-to and prepared a small dinner. To complete the day I built us a fire next to the stream and we spent a while talking about how this would be our last night in the wilderness and once we reach Abol tomorrow our hike would be almost over. I stayed by the fire to nearly 10:45 pm before retiring for the night to a moonlit sky.Tonight: Jangles, Shasta, H-Bomb, Baro, Jelly Bean, a section hiker, and I