Date: 2010-10-03
From: Chairback Gap Lean-to

To: Whitecap
Miles today: 0.0

Whitecap,    It was Skid Mark and Weasel that set their tent up next to me last night.   When I went by the shelter to go to the privy this morning to do my business Rocket greeted me. She was not her usual self, meaning she was not running her mouth a mile a minute. I was surprised. Maybe someone put her in her place.   There was another guy in the shelter that said "hey Troll how's it going". I said not bad and then I apologized to him and asked him his trail name. She told me it was Kcufs. I remembered him right away. Last time I saw him was near Front Royal. Hopper also gave him a lift in Port Clinton because his insulin pump had stopped working and he was trying to get a ride to hook up with his dad. He told me he had to get off the trail in Rutland because he got lyme disease. Then when he got better he went to Katahdin and started heading south.   Right off the bat after leaving camp Hoppers dog Ben started chasing everything he thought he saw moving in the woods, no comment.   I ran into another guy that was heading south today that met me before but I did not remember him. He said he stayed with me at Chet's place Lincoln with another girl. I remembered him once he told me that but he stayed in the front of the garage with the girl on the double bed. I could not remember his name so I had to politely ask him. He said his name was Big Fork and the girl was Little Spoon. She was slack packing him today. She had done this section once before because they were from Maine and was not going to do it again. He told me that they were from Waterville. I told him I lived in Litchfield. We started talking about all the people we met on the trail from Maine this year. He also told me that early in his hike he walked into one shelter and everyone staying at that shelter was from Maine. That had to be weird.   About an hour later we ran into Two of a Kind. We all screamed with excitement. I knew they had flipped and were heading south but was afraid I would miss them because I was also trying to run into Blissful when she was southbound and missed her somehow. We hugged and chatted up a storm. We all knew this was the last time we would see them on the trail because they were heading south. They said they were totally glad they had flipped because the the pressure was now off about making it to Katahdin. They also said it was great running into everyone they had met or hiked with during there hike. This way they could congradulate them and say there goodbyes. I finally had to move on and say my hard felt goodbye.   We came to Millinocket after my hike today because I was very concerned about finding a place to stay on the night before my summit date. There are a bunch of hikers out there with a summit date of 10/10/10 and the only thru hiker lean-to in the park only holds 12 thru hikers. There are more than 12 thru hikers that we know of summiting on that date. This means that the lean-to will be full on the 9th. We checked to see if we could get a paid site at Katahdin Stream Campground and even that was full. We asked if there were any site in Katahdin Stream Campground for the 10th and there were some available. We decided to grab it and change our summit date to 10/11/10.   I called and taked to my brother tonight who had been planning on trying to summit with me and he still wants to but he is worried about the cold and not having the right gear to spend the night in the campground the night before. He also thinks his son may have a hockey game that day. Only time will tell if he comes or not.   While in Millinocket this evening we ran into Chef, Puma, and Timon. They had summited today and were very excited and a little buzzed after having a few drinks. Chef told me he broke his left hand in four places going over Saddleback Mountain. I could not imagine hiking that long with a hand broken in four places.