Date: 2017-08-27
From: Rainbow Stream Lean-To

To: The Birches at Katahdin Stream Campground
Miles today: 24.9
Weather: scattered clouds

Squid is kindling a morning fire as I wake at 5:30. It's the first fire I've had in the morning. Getting up to the cold isn't as hard the third or fourth day. I've learned to keep my hiking clothes in the sleeping bag. I hike out in my puffy until I warm up. There are a dozen or so tenters around the shelter, a mix of section hikers and NOBOs. I am one of the first out, a little before 7.The miles pass quickly and I push on to take advantage of my morning energy. The terrain is stubbornly difficult - "Maine easy" because there are no steep climbs - with boulders, mud, and roots, roots, roots of every shape, size, and angle. I pass few hikers in either direction. The 100 Mile Wilderness is a popular section hike but it's still early. There are no southbound thruhikers except the Hawaiian kid at the last shelter. After 15 miles and a lot of counting down the distance I finally exit the Wilderness on a gravel road and enter Baxter State Park via Abol Bridge, a rickety, dusty, one-lane affair traveled only by campers. A family is walking the bridge to take in the spectacular view across the river to Katahdin. A fly fisherman in the foreground makes a photo worthy of a travel brochure.Just as spectacular after four days in the wilderness is the campground store and restaurant. I have a big lunch and I resupply for dinner, breakfast, and snacks for the next day's summit. A number of northbounders are doing the same. I chat with red-bearded Scout at the lunch counter. Waterboy finally gets his resupply. He ran out of food yesterday from overeating and I gave him my jar of peanut butter. A Baxter state park ranger tells me there's still room at the Birches, the shelter at the base of Katahdin reserved for long distance hikers. I walk the mile into the park to sign up for space. Ghost Hiker comes up to register. She's a retired fiftyish Tennesseean who has section hiked the AT and is doing a flip flop thruhike this year out of Harper's Ferry. Her kids are grown and she will be back on the trail in Harper's Ferry in a week. She hiked the 300 mile Benton McKaye trail in the south earlier this year just to get her hiking legs. She always stealth camps and avoids shelters, hence her name.I take my time on the ten miles to the Birches. I take in Big Niagara Falls for awhile, perched on a ledge next to the roaring gush of water. My energy wanes. Little hills tire me out. I eat all my snacks. I stop at Daicey Pond campground and get another commanding view of Katahdin across the water. Finally I walk into Katahdin Stream Campground and register for my summit permit at the ranger station. I'm only the 501st northbounder to reach Katahdin. Over 3000 started in Georgia, plus hundreds more flip-floppers farther north. Probably three in ten will make it this far. September will be the busiest month. The ranger points me a quarter mile up the road to the Birches. A minute after I start walking another ranger driving by offers me a lift the short way down the road. I happily jump in.There are nine other hikers at the Birches. Wood Pile and Workout are building a fire. Waterboy is setting up his hammock. Planter, Brown Sugar, and Sasquatch are hanging out, along with a 50-year-old retired flip flopper. Ghost Hiker doesn't like the shelters, she finds tenting space with a family at another campsite. We eat our resupply goodies at the rare picnic table then shoot the breeze one last time around the welcome warmth of the fire until dark, reminiscing about funny events or personalities on the trail, and what awaits us after trail life. Tomorrow is the culmination of months of effort for everyone here. It's a bittersweet moment. No one can quite articulate how they feel. The crescent moon appears, setting in the west. Eight o'clock is hiker midnight and everyone slips off to bed. I judiciously douse the fire with what little water I have.