Date: 2021-07-19
From: Rainbow Spring Campsite

To: The Birches campsite 
Miles today: 21.3
Weather: light rain

It rained until about 10 o¢clock last night and then the rest of the night brought the soothing drip-drip-drip from the trees overhead. I also heard a loon a few times overnight from wherever he was out on the lake. This was to be the last day of our four-day 80 mile hike to the base of Mt Katahdin. It remained cloudy most of the day, but the rain never materialized as we hiked. The terrain lacked any climbs over 300 feet, but as we spent much of the time hiking around lakes or next to rivers, there were multiple ups and downs through rolling terrain. I only saw two SOBOs, both getting a late start from a shelter where Iceberg and I had stopped for a snack. When I told them we had already hiked 10.7 miles by then (it was 9:45), they seemed incredulous. But, hey: I know how NOT to hike 10 miles by 10 am - don¢t leave camp. I was able to get a good view of Katahdin from the top of Rainbow Ledges, but to tell it true, I was more focused on picking wild blueberries. They were growing everywhere on this rise and half were at peak ripeness. I slowly grazed down the trail in a half-squat that could have been straight out of an ¢How Early Man Lived¢ series on the History Channel. I wasn¢t sure if I¢d end up looking like Violet Beauregard from over indulging or Christopher McCandless because I was only 75% sure they were actually blueberries. By 11 both Iceberg and I had exited the 100 Mile Wilderness and were crossing Abol Bridge.  This did feel a little surreal to me as I¢ve been reading about this iconic crossing (though it¢s just a simple one lane bridge) for a decade. The view of Katahdin from the bridge was very dramatic as the summit popped in and out of the clouds. We stopped at the camp store for what would be Iceberg¢s last convenience store of his hike. I had a soda and some popcorn and bought a Gatorade to pack out for later. We then went to the kiosk a half mile further on and found that we were the first hikers signing up for The Birches campsite. A week of wondering and uncertainty vanished as we filled out the form and began the last 10 miles to the campground. 8 of the last 10 miles from Abol to Baxter was mostly along the river and streams and was very enjoyable. The last two miles was a mosquito-riddled deer fly infested slog. I arrived a little at Katahdin Stream Campground just after 2pm and saw Birdman, who had summited that morning to complete his hike. Then I saw TP (Trail Pimp - still an awesome sobriquet) as well and happily congratulated them on completing their thru hikes. There was a mixture of relief, pride, exultation and a little unreality on their faces. Tomorrow it¢ll be time for some more thru hikers to summit and complete their hikes.There are seven hikers here tonight, getting ready for the climb tomorrow. Peps and Iceberg will be finishing their thru hikes. Quiksilver and I are finishing the NOBO portion of our respective flip-flops. Nines and Short-shorts are completing a 160 mile section hike from Grafton Notch. And Lamb¢s Ear has kicked the behind of the 100 Mile Wilderness in six days.  All of us got the standard ¢your not in Kansas anymore¢ introduction/lecture from Kevin, the Baxter Park Ranger (this was fine: their house, their rules) and received our summit permits for the following day.Now it¢s one more night in the woods before our planned 4:30 departure time from the campsite for the quarter mile walk back to the trail. We are really, really hoping to beat at least some of the rain and thunderstorms coming tomorrow. We pushed the mileage over the last four days as the weather for Wednesday and Thursday looks even dicier. If all goes well, we should be back down off the mountain by 2pm!Sleep may be hard to come by.