Date: 2021-06-14
From: Rainbow Springs Campsite 

To: Abol Campground 
Miles today: 12.0

I¢m sitting on a picnic table at Abol Campsites looking up at Katahdin. The view starts at the campground with a lush meadow that has a slow moving river running through it. Then as I look up I see multiple layers of forest rising above the meadow up into low hills. From the top of the hills juts Katahdin rising several thousand feet above everything else. A spectacular scene. Worth hiking 2180 miles for, maybe. I just finished off a Wicked Woopie pie for dessert. It is like a sandwich with huge pieces of chocolate cake instead of bread and an insane amount of delicious cream filling. Only something that long distance hikers should eat. This morning I was lucky enough to score a campsite in Baxter State Park. The advantage is that I will have a shelter to myself tomorrow when it¢s supposed to have some serious rain. My other alternative was to stay with every other northbound hiker that shows up tomorrow at a group campsite reserved for northbound hikers that have hiked at least through the 100 Mile Wilderness to get there. Hikers can stay only one night before they summit Katahdin. I have about 10 miles to hike tomorrow to Katahdin Stream Campground (KSC) and then just over 5 miles on Wednesday to reach the end of my adventure on the summit of Katahdin. This morning the birds did what they do best and beat my alarm. I was hiking by 5:30. I took off joyful and excited to getting out of the 100 mile wilderness and checking off another milestone of reaching Abol bridge. For some reason I was expecting a nice smooth trail for cruising to the finish line. The AT had other plans. There were plenty of roots and rocks to keep me honest and slow down my pace. Just to keep things from getting too monotonous the trail added some huge boulders for me to navigate over or around. I¢m so over having to step over roots and constantly worry about tripping and ruining my hike. I kept reminding myself that at least the trail isn¢t trying to kill me like the White Mountains and Southern Maine. I got on top of rainbow ledges and stopped to send out a Inreach position to my family. I wanted to see if I had cell service to check the weather. Hurrah for my prepaid Verizon phone which works in this remote area. For some reason I decided to check the weather on the Baxter State Park website. Then I got the idea to see if they had any openings in their private campsites. They did but I had to have an account to reserve one. I filled out their form 3 times to register and each time the website would not let me submit the information. I located the reservation phone line and called at 8:02. They opened at 8:00. I was the 3rd in-line. I finally got connected with a reservation person and secured my campsite. Such luck. I was supposed to get a confirmation email. I didn¢t. So I called back and this time I was 7th inline. By the way it¢s cool and breezy on the ledges. The lady checked my email and it was copied down wrong. She said I was lucky to get the campsite and I was supposed to have a paper copy of the reservation. I told her that I was on of a mountain finishing my AT hike and I didn¢t have access to a printer. She told me the rangers would work it out. About 30 minutes later I called again because I still hadn¢t received an email. The same lady answered the phone and said she would radio the rangers to make them aware of my situation. She still didn¢t have my email correct so we carefully went over each letter of my email address. Last time I checked I still have not received the email. But she said don¢t worry about the email. I¢m the kind that likes to have everything worked out perfectly or I worry that something will go wrong. The rest of the hike was more of the same as far as the trail conditions go. Several southbound hikers came by only 20 or so miles into their journey. I didn¢t envy them hiking through the summer heat, humidity and bugs. I started in February 2019 and the 23rd of May this year to avoid the heat. The bugs have been crazy but once again my anti- bug system has worked great. Not 100% effective but close. I finally made it to the opening of the woods that marked the end of the 100 mile Wilderness. I looked for the famous sign that warns people to be prepared for the next 100 miles but I didn¢t see it. I celebrated seeing the Abol Bridge and felt great relief and excitement because there¢s a great view of Katahdin dominating the horizon from the bridge. I checked in at the campsite and decided on a private bunkhouse because I didn¢t want to break camp in the rain tomorrow morning. I bought an ice cream and some other junk food. Their restaurant is closed because they can¢t find seasonal workers so I settled on buying some ramen noodles and a flavored tuna packet. I cold the soaked ramen noodles, dumped out the water and added the flavored tuna. A lot of thru hikers eat this combination on the trail but I don¢t because the thought of carrying trash that smells like fish disgusts me. The campsite comes with a continental breakfast. At first I told the owner that I would be hiking out too early to partake and asked him if I could get something the night before. He agreed. Later I thought, why rush, I only have 10 miles to go and I already have a campsite reservation. So I decided that I would try to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely breakfast before I started hiking in the rain that was supposed to be coming tomorrow morning. It¢s hard to break my thru-hiker mentality of early rising to hike more miles. Happy Trails, Silver StreakNote: I¢m finishing the last 346 miles that I have left from my 2019 thru hike attempt. The mileage includes a week that I hiked from Springer to the NOC.