Date: 2009-06-09
From: Baxter State Park, ME

To: Monson, ME
Miles today: 114.5
Weather: moderate rain

First of all I'm not sure where I should start. Whether I should start with Lady K (Mt. Katahdin) or with our crazy walk through the 100 mile wilderness. Bu I guess the best place to start would be with getting to Baxter State Park. Everything worked like clockwork. I met up with Will (Strider is his trail name) and Ben (Whose trail name is Chow Down) at the bus station in Portland Maine. I spent plenty of time cruising around Portland ME visiting the stores of local Potters, touring a brewery, enjoying the smell of the harbor and even some New England Clam Chowder and Lobster (which I later found makes me VERY sick.) Strider, Chow Down and I made the journey from Portland to Bangor and without fail we made it, to Bangor and Luke Howerter's uncle was there to pick us up. We stopped at Doe's Dogs a roadside hotdog stand for lunch (this would be the last greasy food that I would eat for more than 11 days) Uncle Stacy took us to Baxter Park and left us there more excited than ever. The Journey would begin the next day as we climbed up Lady K. The night before we climbed Lady K we met a guy named Lumberjack. He reminded me exactly of Katz in Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods. Lumberjack never did make it up Lady K, but his heart was in it. The hike up Katahdin was not easy. There were plenty of rock scambles and some of the most technical hiking I've ever done. Making it to the top was one of the most satisfying things that any hiker would be proud to complete. We made it to the top and took some pictures (we decided to take a quasi naked picture behind the sign just because we thought it'd be funny) and then headed down. It was SUPER cold but it looked like the clouds that surrounded Katahdin were clearing. WRONG! On the way down we were slammed with pea sized hail and 40mph winds. Within 20 minutes of encountering this crazy weather the sky cleared and it was beautifully clear and you could see for miles. All of the beautiful lakes and surrounding mountains. AMAZING!So after encountering our first couple of white blazes and we were setteling into the fact that we would soon step foot into the 100 mile wilderness we found ourselves standing at Abol Bride and the Golden Rd, where logging trucks would exit the wilderness with piles of lumber. We treked from there to the nearest shelter after passing a sign warning us of what to expect in the 100 mile wildersness. We didn't know what we were about to get ourselves into. The first night we met two young guys from Atlanta GA. They, like us were straight out of college and looking to go southbound (SOBO) We stayed with them and enjoied a great conversation and ended up spending a few nights with them along the trail. About half-way through the wilderness there is a place that you can blow an airhorn and a guy in a boat would come and pick you up and you could stay the night or just get resupplied. Brewer and Shakakan (the guys from GA) decided they wanted to take the time and spend the big bucks to stay the night at the Whitehouse landing. The night we said goodbye to them we met up with two younger guys from rural Pennsylvania, Fiddler and Homeschool. Fiddler actually brought along his fiddle and played that night (and everynight since) around the campfire while we enjoy our dinner. One night while he was playing before we summited Whitecap Mtn. a friendly pourquipine wandered up to check out all of the noise and the tasty smell of the AT hiker favorite the Lipton Side. We would later meet up with Brewer and Shakakan but our buddy Chow Down was not fairing well. He was struggling with ankle and knee pain and felt that he was holding Strider and I back and told us that we should go on and that he would stay with Brewer and Shakakan and meet us where we are now, Monson Maine. We still are awaiting their arrival and expect that they will arrive later this after noon. We decided to pull some bigger mile days so that we'll have time to have alomost two Zero days (days of no hiking) and enjoy some really greasy food. Because the 100 mile wilderness takes anywhere from 8-11 days to finish, you have to carry A LOT of food. We didn't take enough food mainly because it was too much to carry. So we were careful not to eat all of the food we had and had Trail Angels that left food in shelters (which was amazing) and cooked on the fire to conserve stove fuel. In the process of 8.5 days I lost about 8lbs. Not to worry though. We're going to be able to carry more fuel, and more food because from here on out the towns are closer together allowing for better resupply and the ability to carry more food! YUMMY!A little bit about Monson ME. It's a VERY small town. The library I'm in right now is in the back of the town hall and the post office is less than a quarter the size of most. The people are extreamly friendly and we're staying at the famous hiker hostel SHAW'S. A man by the name of Dick picked us up this morning and took us to SHAW'S where for breakfast you order by the number. Not like "I'd like a number 4, where you get a ham and cheese sandwich with hashbrowns) but a number as in how many of everything you want. All of us ordered a 5. Breakfast was 5 eggs, 5 pieces of bacon, a large helping of hashbrowns, 5 sausage patties, 5 pieces of french toast and unlimited coffee and juice. To say the least it was the best breakfast I've ever tasted. (No offense to the lovely people who have fed me breakfast before.) There is a BED and a shower!!!! WOOOOHOOOO!!!!Last but definately not least I wanted to give my buddy Jukebox a paragraph of his own. We met Jukebox 2 days ago but the dynamics that he has added to the group have been AMAZING. He always has a positive attitude and looks out for the whole group, not just himself. He has taught Strider and I a lot about life and has made us realize how luky we are to have amazing families growing up. It is my hope that he will continue to hike with us and I'm excited to get to know him more and more. So in short. We made it out of the 100 mile wilderness alive with some amazing memories already, some great friends and much much more to come. There are many more stories, inside jokes and other things that I didn't include in this journal but I did the best I could to give you a good gist of what being on the trail is like. It's hard, dirty, sweaty, grimmy and any other word that could descibe such wilderness but one thing that fits in with all of that is happiness. Happiness that is indescribable and a lifestyle so simplistic that the hardest decision you have to make all day is what kind of Lipton side you want to eat for dinner, and the reward for all the hard work is to get a beautiful view from the top of the many mountains that you cross step by step. Thanks for reading and thanks for the support! Hope all is well and hopefully I'll get another update when we get to Caratunk ME! See you soon.Rojo.Also! For further accounts, check out my buddy Strider by Searching for Strader in the search box of this website. http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=274897