Date: 2007-08-24
From: Carl A. Newhall Lean-to - camped 0.5 mile before 

To: Jo Mary Rd - campsite
Miles today: 22.0

It rained last night. The spot I chose to put my tent in last night was not quite big enough. As a result one corner of the tent was about 6 inches higher than the others and the tent fabric was not pulled tight. This resulted in a puddle of water in my tent this morning. It wasn't too bad. I am getting sloppy as I reach the end of the trail.I started hiking at 7:30 and soon found I had stopped just a half mile short of the lean-to where there were lots of good tent spots. I stopped at the shelter for a few minutes. Rodeo Clown, Trashbag, Ben, and Amanda were in the shelter along with two older men I didn't know. The group of four were only planning to do 11 miles today. I was planning to do 19 miles. Blue and Squeeks had tented at this site and were heading out just after I left. They soon caught up and passed me. I hiked with Blue for a while. We talked about diesel vehicles, biodiesel, and other stuff. It turns out that Sqeeks has a Jetta she runs on biodiesel. We had 4 mountains to hike over before the firs shelter. I was so wrapped up in conversation that I didn't even notice the second one. We caught up to Rockman on the forth mountain, White Cap Mtn. There is suppose to be a good view of Mt Katahdin, but today the only thing to see was the inside of a cloud. It had been raining off and on all morning and the trails were so narrow with trees lining both sides. It was like walking through a car wash. The tall grass and ferns along the ground thoroughly soaked my boots.We stopped and ate lunch at Logan Brook Lean-to. I was wet and cold. I ate and got back on the trail to get warmed up. The trail was much flatter this afternoon and I was able to move much faster. I never saw Rockman again. Blue and Squeeks caught up to me but then took a break and I never saw them again. We had all planned to stop at Cooper Brook Falls Lean-to. The guide book identifies it as "swimming hole". I was looking forward to getting camp set up before dark tonight and getting a chance to clean up a little. I think I am about as stinky and disgusting as I have been on the whole trip. All I thought about for the last 3 miles was getting cleaned up before dark.As I approached the lean-to I saw a tent site. There were three backpacks there but no people around. I proceeded on to the lean-to. Whoa. I felt claustrophobic just standing next to the shelter. It was packed and there were two more tents down the hill. It must be the weekend. I had not expected this. There must have been about 12 people there. I didn't see anyone I knew. I decided to get back on the trail and see if I could find a good camping spot nearby. I ended up hiking about 4 more miles and setting my tent up in the dark again. No where to clean up tonight. Yuck. I cooked and ate dinner and reviewed my plans. I had planned to stop at White House Landing Wilderness Camp tomorrow. It is 1.2 miles off the trail to a dock where they pick you up by boat. Now I think I will skip that. I am going to try to hike 26 miles tomorrow up to Rainbow Stream Lean-to and then 15 miles the next day to Abol Bridge. It will be stretching my food supply, but I am ready to finish. There is a campground with campstore and showers at Abol Bridge. I can resupply there and get ready for the finish.For now, I am going to try to kill this bug that keeps buzzing around my ear and then get some sleep. Oh, I almost forgot. I saw a moose today. It was splashing around in a pond as I walked up. It heard me and ran away before I could get a picture.