Date: 2007-08-02
To: Katahdin Reprise
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Well folks this is a summary of the summer's activities so far, the highlight being a reprise of my Katahdin summit on August 2, 2007 ten months after the original. Old man weather cooperated this time. While it started out cloudy, the steep hike up the Abol Slide Trail, to where it joins the AT Hunt Trail route at the start of the tablelands, was in the clouds. This was much appreciated as I labored up the steep trail as it was very exposed and I would have cooked in the sun. I was joined on the hike by Skillet a fellow volunteer on the Maine Trail Crew. Skillet and I were the only ones who decided to go to Katahdin a mere 2 hours drive from the MATC base camp on the "weekend" between sessions. He's a very mature 22 years old, an O5 thruhiker, and was able to virtually fly up the very steep trail. I was about 20 minutes or more behind, but well ahead of the desk jockeys who were using the same route. There were four or five nobo's finishing up their thru-hikes at the summit. I was hoping for a sunny day for that perfect summit photo and somewhat disappointed as it seemed it might be a cloudy day. It had rained about 4 am and the clouds lingered. Just as I reached the summit the clouds started breaking up and within 15 minutes it turned into an absolutely perfect day, if somewhat hot. Skillet and I had talked up doing the Knife Edge on the way down and now that the weather was cooperating we took off across the narrow ridgetop to to South Peak and Chimney Peak, lesser peaks on Katahdin. This would definately be hazardous in wet, icy and/or windy conditions, but it turned out to be a gorgeous day. There was quite a crowd of day hikers at Chimney Peak and one of the thrus, Silver I think he was called, who had just summited reached there as we were taking a break. He let us know he'd arranged a ride back to Katahdin Stream, which it turns out we didn't need it, but we did climb down the 3.2 mile Helon Taylor trail with him. And it was a climb down---on rocks, in the full midday sun, high humidity and temps in the 80s. By the time we reached Roaring Brook near the trail head we really needed to cool off. I reached this beautiful mountain stream first and turned to Skillet who was right behind me with a questioning look. He answered by dumping his daypack, stripping off his shirt, and starting to take off his shoes. I followed his lead immediately. As I was removing my boots a day hiker who'd I'd seen in front of me about 100 yards toward the bottom of the climb down stopped to join us saying that a dip in the stream was just what he needed. I noticed a bit of an accent and asked if he was an immigrant. He responded that he was from the Czech Republic and his wife was from Slovakia, and I thought of my friend Brano Cikel and asked if his name was Branislaw. It turned out it was Marek Skacel. In the course of our conversation, I learned he was a doctor and had done his residency in pathology at the Cleveland Clinic and was now working in Bangor. We'd nearly been neighbors for three years. Soon the three of us were enjoying the refreshing waters of the stream. I must have been overheated because, though the water was quite cold, it didn't chill me. It was so clear I felt safe drinking straight from the stream itself. The three of us were soon joined by Silver who had gone to check on his ride.Meanwhile I got to know Dr. Marek Skacel a bit. He was finishing a week of renewal in the big north woods having gotten a pass from his wife who was home with his two pre-schoolers. He's an avid mountain biker, cross-country skier and hiker, so the Maine life style is right up his alley. As we got out of the water, he offered us a ride back to our starting point and persisted even though I said it was a long way. I thought Silver's ride might want to go straight to Millinocket; besides, that ride wasn't yet there and a ride in the hand is worth two in the bush! Those old AT yogi skills paid off.While in Maine I did another weekend hike in the Bigelow Range--a circuit hike from Stratton Pond over West Peak and Avery Peak camping out two nites. On the way to crew I stopped to see JohnnyK near Portsmouth NH. Like me, JK is planning a PCT thruhike in 08.The MATC project on which I worked was on the north side of WhiteCap Mtn where there was a good view of Katahdin. Since I had missed out on the view, I thought this would be a good project. The crew leader was "The Beer Poet", Brandon Bragg, GA-ME 01 and the project added three more stone staircases to those already in place during the two weeks I was there. The summer started out with a reunion of the FDOM (Four Dirty Old Men: Handlebar, BigFoot, GreyGoose, and Veto) at Trail Days in Damascus in May. I'd picked up Veto and his wife Gwyndolyn at the Doyle in Duncannon and drove him down to Trail Days. Veto had just completed the section he missed when he got the severe infection in his foot last June. It was great to have us all together again. We had a good time visiting with Goose and BigFoot and at Trail Days. The Class of 06 was well-represented and I bought a huge squirt gun for the parade. Just after trail days I did a short section hike from Old Orchard Shelter to Partnership Shelter and had a chance to give some of the 07 class trail magic in the form of rides. Then followed two weeks of Trail Crew at Konnarock. On the first week we worked on a relocation along Brown Mountain Creek and I got a chance to use the swimmin' hole there that I'd looked longingly at on my thruhike. The second week was a relocation on Unaka Mountain near Beauty Spot. Between the weeks, I went hiking in Mount Rogers with Skywalker, GA-ME 06, who also worked on crew and who had been a few days behind us summiting on Oct 5 or 6th.After a few weeks home to take care of my domestic responsibilities---the grass really needed cutting, I was off for a week on SWEAT (Smokey's Wilderness Elite Appalachian Trail crew. This was a lot of fun and I enjoyed working in the backcountry. I then drove to Florida to visit my daughters, son-in-law and grandson for a week. October will bring 10 days of work on the RockyTop Crew fixing trail in GSMNP. Hopefully, by then, I'll be done with my summer home maintenance project---"the last time I paint my house". This first week home the weather's been oppressivly hot and humid with lots of rain.I'm also spending one morning each week working to build a section of the North Country Trail. All this trail work being my way of saying thanks to all the builders and maintainers who made my AT hike possible. I'm also following several PCT hikers' journals to prepare for next year.Cheers to all!