Date: 2008-10-03
From: White House Landing, ME

To: Rainbow Lake Dam, ME
Miles today: 17.8

I am usually in the Lakeshore Cottage all by myself, but the two Germans filming the two thru hikers for the German PBS station were here at White House Landing too and one of them snored last night, so I slept most of the night listening to Grateful Dead to drown out the snoring German.I woke up early and brewed some coffee, then walked out the door of the cottage to take some early morning pictures of daylight arriving over Pemadumcook Lake. When I stepped outside, I stepped on ice. I didn't realize it got that chilly out last night. It was cloudy when I went to bed, but the skies cleared overnight and let the heat escape. It was an excellent morning!! :-)I spent about half an hour outside....enjoying the morning AND my coffee, then went back inside and started packing up for today's walk. Bill usually takes the hikers back across the lake and drops them off on the dock right after breakfast.I walked up to the lodge at 7:30am and started drinking some of the coffee up there and sat down next to a window for breakfast. :-)Bill served up a very good breakfast at 8am of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, blueberry pancakes and orange juice. There were about 8 people there for breakfast and Bill had to refill the pancake plate about four times before everyone was full. I had my pack ready to go. I paid Bill and thanked him and Linda once again, then sat outside and waited for the others to get ready. Well, the film crew got their cameras out and started filming every move the two hikers they were following made. They even got down on the ground for close up shots of them putting on their boots and lacing them up. I took some pictures of Pooh Bear and one of Ben, Bill and Linda's son, in his new boat while I was waiting on the others to get ready.It was 10am before we finally got the boat ride to the other side of the lake and it was still over a mile to the Appalachian Trail.I took a picture of three hikers behind me and Bill in his boat heading back to White House Landing, then walked that one plus miles back to the Appalachian Trail at Mahar Tote Rd and turned north.I stopped long enough to take a few pictures of Nahmakanta Lake while I was skirting the shoreline when I got there. The trail took me back into the woods over muddy, rooty, rocky, wet trail. I was walking along fine when a loose stick got caught between my legs. That happens every so often and the stick usually lets go in time for me to stay upright....well, this one didn't let go. I fell forward and my hands landed on some rocks. It wasn't a bad fall, but when I got up and looked at my left hand, my middle finger was bent to the left and was touching my little finger....two fingers away. It's NOT supposed to do that!!! All kinds of things were racing through my mind. I thought it was broken, then as I was looking at it closely, I realized it looked more like it was dislocated from the upper joint. I felt around it with my right fingers and decided it really was just dislocated, so I grabbed it with my right hand and pulled it back to where it was kind of pointing in the right direction, but not quite. I did that again and got it even closer to where it was supposed to be, but still realized it wasn't back in the joint properly because it was still pointing somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. I grabbed it a third time and got it really close to being back in the joint. I felt around the joint with my right fingers and decided I still had to move it more, so I ended up doing that a fourth time. It was pointing in the right direction! I tried straightening the fingers on my left hand and my middle finger locked up pointing straight out...kind of like I was flipping someone off. ;-) I couldn't go through life like that, so I had to pop it again to get it in a more satisfactory position.I walked on, thinking how unlucky it was that I had dislocated my finger, but then I realized just how lucky I was that I didn't actually break it. The finger kept locking up each time I would try straightening it, so I found a small curved stick and duck taped it to my middle finger and the second finger right next to it. That worked to keep the finger bent a little, so I wasn't having to stop and rebend that finger back from the locked open position. It hurt too and was throbbing and I couldn't hold onto my hiking stick. :-(I kept walking and passed by a sand beach, then passed by Wadleigh Stream Lean-to before climbing Nesuntabunt Mtn. I always have to laugh when I climb this mountain because I remember back in '03 when my buddy John Galt had a tough day climbing it and he renamed that mountain with a name I can't repeat here. :-)I got over Nesuntabunt, then descended it and passed by Crescent Pond, then Pollywog Stream before finally getting to Rainbow Stream Lean-to. I sat there watching the stream flow by while I snacked on some food. This is another place I always have to chuckle at because another good friend of mine got his trail name here when he was crossing the stream on some small logs and fell in....his trail name is Rainbow Slick. He was a southbounder that year, so it didn't take him all long to get his trail name. :-)I walked on, crossing Rainbow Stream on those few small logs (without falling in) and walked on to the side trail that leads almost half a mile to Rainbow Lake Dam. I found this spot in '06 when Frogcaller, Mrs Gorp, Zulu and I walked that half mile to see what the dam looked like and were pleasantly surprised with a beautiful view of Katahdin over Rainbow Lake. I told myself then that I would come back and tent there the first chance I had....and today was that first chance.It was getting late in the day, so I set up my tent, then walked around the area exploring a little. I had to get water out of the pond for morning coffee, so I wouldn't have to get out of my sleeping bag tomorrow till I was done drinking coffee and watching the sun rising over Katahdin.I took a few pictures of Katahdin right at dusk, but there were some clouds hanging around the top of the mountain, so I didn't get to see the upper part of it....at least until just before I crawled into my tent and the clouds cleared just enough for me to see snow on it. I figured then that my summit of Katahdin in a couple days might be delayed a bit. :-(I laid in my tent and kept watching the mountain till it was finally total dark, then I listened to a loon while I fell asleep.I took quite a few pictures today and added them to my photo section....so go take a look if you have time. :-)Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)