Date: 2017-06-02
From: Matagamon Wilderness Camp

To: Deasey fire lookout
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: clear sky

That aphorism about being careful what you wish for came true for us today, when after 65 miles of walking roads the trail took us on what a nobo IATer described in a hut logbook as "AT-type trail -- straight up a mountain".And I couldn't be happier.Well, mostly happy. Not being on a road meant we couldn't go fast enough to keep ahead of the bugs so today was the first day I hiked in a headnet. And the rain came in late in the day, as we were trying to go up a hill on a trail nobody seems to have used since last fall.But it's still so much better than road walking. We began with another session of the huntin' n fishin' icon that was the Matagamon Wilderness Camp for breakfast. When it comes to food that sticks to your ribs, I'd give the hunters the edge over us hikers.Then Frodo drove us back to where we'd got to last night and farewelled us with her familiar advice to "make wise decisions". Since we have some mountainous terrain and a big river crossing ahead, the advice was a little more apposite than before.The trail was fast at first, being on old logging -- or "tote", as it seems to be the local parlance -- roads. The Penobscot River seemed to be have been the original thoroughfare, being mostly slow water but with occasional pitches -- natural rock weirs -- around which there were portages. The sunny weather brought out the snakes too, and Scout actually stood on one without realising. "These snakes don't rattle!" he exclaimed. "I'm used to snakes that rattle."They're also non-venomous, although we didn't find that out until the following day from speaking to a Baxter State Park ranger. In the meantime, we decided it was wisest to avoid them, but even so both of us had near misses with this particularly dopey form of reptile. There were a few well-marked connector sections of trail -- more of a route, than actual trail -- to link together tote roads heading in the direction we wanted, and while mostly the way was open and easy, there were a few road sections where the regrowth was threatening to subsume the road back into the forest around.Matt, a friend from Maine who I met while he was working as an academic in Abu Dhabi, had responded to an earlier post of mine about hiking in spring in his home state with a simple "Maine > all". I sent him back a photo of me in a rain poncho with a bug head net to say: "Dear Dr Martin, we have assessed your hypothesis, "Maine > all", and have verified your findings, so long as the metrics used are (a) rain, (b) mud and (c) flying biting insects."But even with the rain, snakes and bugs, it was a fun day. The nature of it changed when we reached Lunksoos lean-to, which had a magnificent view of Katahdin but which also marked the end of the tote roads and the start of the first extensive section of trail on the IAT. It was pretty well marked but we needed to pay attention. We were grateful for the benefits of having two sets of eyes that were accustomed to the task of finding the route and spotting markers. The "AT-type trail" certainly proved true, even though I haven't hiked so much as a single foot on the AT and was unable to independently verify the claim other than comparing the route to friends' descriptions and previous trail journal accounts.From the lean-to log books, it seemed like we were the first to come through here since November but the trail was remarkably good shape, with relatively few blowdowns. After wandering through the forest for a while, it went straight up some moss-covered granite ledges towards the summit of Lunksoos Mountain, where even the worst of the bugs was unable to prevent us stopping to marvel as the near and far views on offer.The near was the "lichen forest", which was a true marvel. But the far was even more gobsmacking views all around to the places we'd already hiked from and to places we were about to go. One benefit of walking was we recognise every landmark along the way.We'd aimed to stop at Deasey fire lookout, another mile or so further on, but hadn't got water at the stream near Lunksoos and so it seemed like we were going to have to go past the restored lookout, where we could have slept inside, and camp at the decrepit ranger station below, where there was a stream.But then after a steep and slightly tricky descent from Lunksoos -- partly physically tricky, but also navigationally tricky because a landslide had taken out some crucial IAT markers -- we were in what would seem to have been on the crest of the ridge for the rest of the way but found ourselves at a tiny but sufficient stream, allowing us to fill our bottles again and sleep in the lookout.The benefits of that became increasingly apparent as we scaled the ridge after the saddle and the heaviest rain of the day set in. Scout went to put his wet weather gear on but I tried to beat the worst of the rain by getting to the shelter double-quick. But after five minutes of this unwarranted optimism, I too succumbed to putting on rain gear, although in my case I used my rain jacket as a cape over the top of my pack rather than putting it on.I was very grateful to see the signpost showing the lookout to be 0.1 miles away. Scout has a theory that nothing is more discouraging as a 0.1 mile marker, because it seems to cover everything from 50ft to half a mile. In this case, it was probably even closer than 0.1 miles and I was was glad to get in and out of the rain.Scout joined me soon after and we looked across at Katahdin socked in with cloud, wondering what we're going to find there in -- maybe -- two days time. In the meantime, there's hardly a nicer sound than being inside and warm, listening to rain on the roof.IAT fact of the day: We dropped in briefly at Bowlin Camps, reached via a bridge across the river. It says something about winter conditions when one of the main selling points for itself is "warm FLUSH toilets".