Date: 2013-08-13
From: Cooper Lodge Shelter

To: Mountain Meadows Lodge
Miles today: 10.3
Weather: very heavy rain

Day One Hundred and Fifty Eight - (10.3) Cooper Lodge Shelter to Mountain Meadows LodgeIt was so cold last night that Saint who was in a tent nearby got up in the night and moved into the shelter. I was okay but it made me wonder just how much colder it will get before I summit Katahdin. It was still cold this morning so I wore a pair of thermals over my shorts and shirt and kept the down coat on until the last possible second. While I was changing I noticed something on my back, I had Canadian Bacon check to make sure it wasn't a tick and it turned out that I now have a chaffing mark on my back. I have seen horrible chaffing on other hikers some so bad that it becomes raw and infected but so far I haven't had any problems and it didn't even hurt yesterday, I will have to make sure it doesn't get any worse. We started hiking down for once and I expected to hike down all morning, I was wrong! The hills weren't big but we were going up and down all morning and the few bigger ups that we had were knocking me out. I felt like I was crawling along at a snails pace but it was beautiful! We started in a pine forest full of moss covered everything and then in a mixed deciduous forest that looked like there might have been a controlled burn years ago because other than the large trees all other vegetation was two feet tall. It was cool because you could see forever through the forest, it wasn't all filled in. Next we went through a birch woods. Seriously it was all birch trees, I have never been in a Forrest that was just all birch. And the tree trunks looked even brighter with the sun shining on them. We came down another hill and met a family out hiking that was looking for me! The husband has been hiking the trail and the wife (Debbie) has been reading my journal and gave us fresh cinnamon rolls and left a dog treat on the trail for Melkie. We came to the junction where The Long Trail splits from the Appalachian Trail and realized we wouldn't be seeing some of the hikers we had met this past week (goodbye Saint enjoy your hike to Canada). Then we walked to where we estimated the 1700 mile mark should be. Canadian Bacon made a sign in the dirt but Melkie sat on the sign so we just kept hiking. We wanted to get to Mountain Meadows Lodge for lunch and had hopes of staying to enjoy the hot tub and sauna. When we arrived I thought it was odd that we weren't handed a menu instead the owner just prepared a table of food and it was a feast! Fresh salads and wraps, it was perfect! Real food, not just some Sysco product! After lunch we sat on the comfy couches and debated whether we should stay, it is supposed to rain later. Sometimes it's frustrating making group decisions because Two Socks doesn't act like he is part of the group and either doesn't say what he wants to do or says that we can do whatever we want and he will make his own decision. In the end he always sticks with us and it works out but it turns a simple one minute question into a long drawn out event (but our hiking group is awesome and we have stuck together way longer than most other groups on the trail). Anyway after taking turns having showers we went straight to the hot tub. Surprisingly, I couldn't handle it for too long and left everyone else down there and enjoyed having a room to myself. Funny how just having a room seems like a luxury. Unfortunately there wasn't going to be any dinner served here tonight and nowhere around here delivered. The owner gave us a ride to The Inn at Long Trail where there was an Irish Pub. As we got out of the vehicle several other hikers called us Yellow Blazers (hikers who cheat and hitch hike to get ahead on the trail), but we aren't cheaters we have hiked every single mile plus some! They are just jealous that we got a ride! Inside the pub we found lots of hikers and the Hobbit came over to our table with his phone in his hand with a picture I had just put on trailjournals a few hours before. He introduced himself and said he had been following the journal. Wow, I have fans! Cool, thanks! The food was great and we ordered shots to celebrate 1700 miles! There is daily talk of Katahdin now and what the Whites will be like. It's hard to write down the thoughts and emotions that go through our heads thinking about finishing! So few people who start this adventure actually finish it and we have made it this far! It is so exciting but it scary at the same time to realize that a simple fall can still ruin the trip! There is a hiker on the trail this year who hiked all the way to Maine and busted his knee sixty miles from Katahdin last year, can you imagine the disappointment! He is hiking the whole thing over again just to be a thruhiker. Wow! After dinner we started getting silly and expanding our superhero costume idea. Before we just wanted a Katahdin picture in costumes, now there is talk of hiking up the last mountain in a costume. Hmmm... Not sure how that will work out but it's fun to think about! Saint is staying at the Inn so we got to see her again and she actually borrowed a friends car to drive us back to the Lodge at the end of the night. Thanks, you really are a saint! It is well beyond hiker's midnight. Good night world!Trouble