Date: 2013-09-03
From: Mahar Tote Road 

To: Mahar Tote Road
Miles today: 0.0

Zero daySleep bed in hostelCell minimalOld Goat's notes:Today is a recuperate day after being soaked to the bone and freezing cold day yesterday. We are zeroing here to dry ourselves, our clothes, and our equipment out. The sun has been shining most of the day which is doing a great job on us. We started today with a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, English muffins, bacon, pancakes, coffee, and orange juice. After breakfast Bill the owner took the three other hikers who were here last night (Keninski, Glacier, and Red Riding Hood) back to the trail. Fortunately the spot where he drops hikers off at is closer to the trail than the dock he picked us up at. We have spent most of the day hanging our clothes on a line outside, spreading our gear and shoes out in the sun and watching that they don't get rained on. So far it hasn't rained today but the sun does get covered by clouds on and off. Most of the things are dry but the stink is still in them. Our clothes were so wet yesterday we could have hand washed them and we wouldn't have made them any wetter. Had we known they would have dried we would have washed them to improve their smell. We just had dinner here at WHL Check 6 and I ate the 1 pound hamburger for dinner. Then Linda brought out a brownie with two birthday candles on it. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Check 6 as she turns, oops I can't say it, tomorrow. Happy Birthday honey. While we were eating dinner a storm front rolled through bringing rain and thunder for a while. I hope that was all there is as we don't want any more water on the trail. Well whatever it is we will move on in the morning. We have looked at what we have left to reach the summit of Katahdin and how long it would take to get there. It should take 2 to 3 days to get out of the Hundred Mile Wilderness, 1 day to reach the base of Katahdin, and 1 day to climb it. Once that is done we'll get a ride to Monson and pick up our car. Then we will take a few days to drive home. Check 6's notes:It's not raining today so we have our clothes hung on a clothes line drying. The hostel owner says there's a chance of thunderstorms later, so we're keeping a close eye out. Don't want to get our drying clothes caught in rain again!Old Goat is filling our water bottles and Camelbacks. I'm relaxing on a comfortable sofa. The building isn't heated, but since it's not too cold outside and I have enough layers on, I'm very comfortable. With all the rain yesterday we expected this place to be full of people. I love the peace and quiet...we are their only guests right now. They have 3 small, private cabins, a bunkhouse that can sleep 18, and the building we're in that has 4 bedrooms and a common room. No running water or electricity, just water from the lake that can be pumped up by a hand pump (cannot drink it). The lights are gas, with the small mantel that burns. Nice place, and the owners, Linda and Bill, are nice. They've owned and run it for 20 years and have it advertised to sell now. Their son starts school up here tomorrow, and then when they close for the winter season on Oct 15th they go to their Florida place and their son resumes school down there. They've done this every year because they run this business in the summer and Florida deep water fishing in the winter. I'm charging the phone again right now. Even though there's no electricity here, Linda loaned me her cord so I'm giving my phone one final boost to 100% before we head back out tomorrow. Even though we're almost to Katahdin, we haven't seen it yet. There are 2 good viewpoints that we've gone by, but it was cloudy on top of Whitecap so we had no view, and rainy and foggy at the next point so we had no view yesterday either. It's hard to believe we're only about 45 miles away. It's later now and we had another fabulous dinner. I can't believe I've been able to eat a one pound burger!! I don't seem to be able to maintain my weight when we hike like this, so it's great that I could eat so much! Old Goat surprised me...he told Linda that tomorrow is my birthday, so she put a couple birthday candles in a huge brownie and sang Happy Birthday to me. Fun!Around 4 pm today two female hikers arrived. One we met during our 2009 hike..."Wicked Wahini." What a surprise. We've been having fun catching up. Sent from my iPhone