Date: 2007-06-29
From: Monson ME

To: 100 Mile Wilderness to the Birches
Miles today: 109.3

Well we finally headed into The 100 Mile Wilderness, the final fun before the big K. 7 NOBOs luggin more food than we've lugged in a LONG time. We usually carry no more than 1 or 2 days lately. Now we gotta slug at least 3 meals and lots of snacks to get us midway to the only resupply at White House Landing.Plus we're all carryin our celebratory Champagne bottles-another 5 or 6 lbs for sure. Uggh.The skeeters, black flies, and no-seeums are killin us, but nothin can stop us now. Headnets & DEET all the way. We wake each morning knowin there are no major climbs left between us and Katahdin. A 1000 footer and a 2500 I think. Pish! Mere bumps.Hiking with The Goodfellas and Fruitfly only adds to our resolve - and entertainment! Every day is comical. These guys are insanely atypical hikers. Everyone is so relaxed now. Guthook, Groove and I have hiked hundreds of miles together. But it's somehow different now. Each of us knowing it's really gonna happen. We're unstoppable now. We chill for hours early and throughout the day. And yet there seems no pressure to keep moving. We can hike fast and strong now, making the miles fly by at the end of the day. We even take in extra side trail miles, like the Gulf Hagas, a 500 foot deep canyon with waterfalls & steep slate walls of pure beauty. And we stop to checkout scenic views. Each day lasts forever. We meet more and more SOBOs every day, many whining about how hard it is. And in numerous shelter registers they cry about the climbs over the whimpy hills they've endured. How sore their legs and feet are. Whaaaahhh. We've privately renamed all SOBOs as Sally SOBOS or just SALLIES for short.Get over it.   You haven't climbed ANY mountains since Katahdin and most of you took a wussy trail UP and came DOWN the AT. The terrain here is flat. Period.Your packs are way overloaded. Most of you have no idea what's ahead or how to cope. But you will. At least some of you who stay on the trail.It's funny the things they say. We all remember how naiive and newby we were back in Georgia. At least most of them seem friendly and upbeat. A few cocky or arrogant ones, but no doubt, they won't be hiking much longer.But we don't let any of that bother us. Each morning we rise and head out for another great day of incredible views of Maine's secluded undeveloped ponds. As close to the wilderness experience as it gets out here. Stopping for long breaks whenever we want. 20's are easy now. Lots of daylight. No need to hurry. Just chill and take it 60 foot waterfalls, streams, and views from the small peaks Sally SOBOS call mountains.At least one dip in a brook by the shelter or at a pond each day. 2 or more is even better.Chillin each nite at the shelter. With 7 NOBOs grouped up we push our luck each nite, since we ditched our tents long ago. Pish-we don't need no stinkin tents. Let the SOBOs use theirs'! Most shelters from here on out sleep 6. We can squeeze 7 NOBOS, but SOBOS: GET OUT! Use ur tents! We earned it! Your time will come in Georgia. Maybe.And that's just what happened. Squeezed in with 2 SOBOS (they were nice, so we let 'em stay!) one nite. Then we kicked out 3 Sally SOBOs already in their sleeping bags. "Hmmmm. Gonna be pretty full tonite with 7 of us and 3 of you...You guys got tents?!" They quickly obliged. As they should. Thanks! Our egos are pumped and wouldn't have it any other way.We eat lots every day, just to get rid of the weight and why save it? We'll resupply in a couple days. Not that the weight even matters now.Saw another big moose near Antler campsite. Campers there said he'd just swam across the whole pond. When I first saw him he was about 200 yards away, standing in the middle of the trail just a little uphill from me. They have no antlers this time of year, and he was so big I at first thought he was a horse WITH a rider from my angle. I must have made a noise as he turned and walked away into the woods. Such majestic creatures.Also saw a porcupine early one morning. I was in the lead and he was walking directly toward me on the trail. Walked right up to me, to within 3 feet before he noticed me, then turned 180 and waddled back down the trail. Tried to grab a photo but it blurred. Finally we hit White House Landing. The ultimate "Wilderness Experience." Lunch & resupply in the middle of the woods. Blew the Air Horn. Waited on the dock almost 30 minutes before they finally jumped in the boat and picked us up 2 minutes later. So much for hospitality & catering to guests. No wonder their business is off and SOBOS bad mouth the service! Then comes the famous 1 1lb burger we've been waiting for all this time-the final stop - and they can't produce it. Had to settle for 1/2 pounders and pizza and made our own mac n cheese to fill us all up. Lame. We grumbled a little then chilled on the porch for awhile. "Chuck Norris" was there chillin too. He's a well to do section hiker from Texas we met at Shaw's Hostel in Monson. Drove his porsche there from Texas. Nice guy, though. Just up here to hike the 100 Mile Wilderness he said. But I guess his plans changed and he's waitin for his ride out. From the middle of the wilderness. Millinocket is a 3 hour round trip after many miles on a gravel road out. So he made other arrangements. Shortly his ride arrived. A seaplane circled the pond, then landed and taxied right up to the dock. He jumped in and they took off tippin their wing to us. I guess he figures "Hey, spend it if you got it!" The Ultimate "Wilderness Exerience". Then we dove off their dock for a dip in the pond and chilled til dinna. Can't leave without the 1 pounders. So they thawed 'em out and cooked em up. We easily chowed down the 1lb-ers. They hit the spot.Finally we headed out after our 7 HOUR mid day break! Earlier in the trip this would have ended the day. But now - Pish! Jumped in the boat & headed for the woods. But the skies quickly started to look bleak. We had 7 miles to go & it's already 6pm. Used to be that was 3 hours. And in the Whites and early Maine it was so unpredictable - maybe even longer cuz of the terrain. Now we're so pumped and confident, we hope to blow it out quickly. Rumbling starts. Thunder. Uh oh. We started flying. Racing the storm. Crankin thru swamps, across bog bridges, quick climbs and descents up over little hills, light rain starts. Everyone is sweatin to death and expendin mega energy but nobody even thinks about slowin down or takin a break. The race is on. Bring it!We squeaked in in just 2 hours 15 minutes as the skies opened up dumping mega rain on the shelter roof! Hahh! WE WIN! Again.The last few nites are priceless. Everybody chillin takin it all in. We know the end is near. Can't wait. But we're in no hurry for it to end.Guthook has a crowd of 20 or so coming, Groove's sister & friend are coming, and 2 of my hiker friends from AMR are expecting to meet me the nite before and then meet us on the summit.We cranked out the last couple days easily, up and over a couple mountains including the last-Success Mountain. Looking back on the Whites was pretty cool, and Saddle & other distant mountains over which we've come.Finally atop the first Rainbow Ledge Peak we each chilled for a break. Guthook had already passed ahead, so when I reached the second clearing I looked left and saw the instantly & utterly amazing view of Mt Katahdin! We haven't had even a glimpse of it until now. Multiple peaks we've crossed all had hazy views or low visibility. Normally it's visible from far away and each day you get another look. But now to see it for the first time from up so close....Wow. We're only 20 miles by trail, maybe 10 by line of site. And it's HUGE. AND Intense. It's fierce looking - a SERIOUS Mountain. Like nothing else we've seen for a long time. The Whites were huge, but all grouped together there are no individual standouts. Just huge ridges and many peaks. This was different.As each of the rest of the group approached me sitting on the rock just chillin, I would nod to the clearing and they would turn to look. The look on their face was priceless - like that of a child at Christmas, opening his favorite gift! A huge smile and truly stunned look appeared. And then they eached mumbled the same words. "Wow." We chilled for quite a while just taking it in and snapping a few photos.Finally we cranked the last miles to our shelter that nite.The register entries in the last shelter were almost teary as each NOBO before us and each of us penned our last entry before the Birches. Nobody wants it to end. And each of us reflects on the journey. The memories are overwhelming. Some seem so long ago though it's only been a few days and weeks. Some of the earliest NOBOS had done 30's to get here and several including Li would go for it from here ~ 20 miles including the killer climb up and down The K. Li had cranked 73 miles in 2 days to get here! He'll summit on time. June 25th, exactly 3 months after he started and then on to the CDT to complete the Triple Crown! Wow. Part of each of us thought of Woodstock, wishing his name was already there where it should be, before us. But it will be there soon when he gets back on the trail. For our final day before the summit climb we got an early start even though we're only goin 13.5 miles. Wanna get there early to meet family and friends. But not before stoppin to chill at Abol Bridge Family Campground store for some "resupply"...well more like a zillion snacks, various food, beers, a few hands of Eucha,etc. And who could resist watchin Groove tear apart a Sally SOBO's pack-a complete shakedown. Groove actually did him a major favor. He had just walked back outta the very beginning of the wilderness saying he was ready to quit (after less than 15 miles!). He had unloaded 7 lbs and Groove talked him outta 11 more!! 18 lbs lighter we dressed him and sent him back out onto the trail. Fruitfly even loaned him his Titanium cookset and homemade alchohol stove. Maybe he'll at least make it to Monson now. Maybe.So after another 4 HOUR break, we headed out with full bellies and big smiles ready for our last nite at the Birches Shelters, reserved for thru hiker NOBOS ONLY - finally somebody gets it! The nite before the big climb. The K.6 days to get through the 100 Mile "Wilderness" plus a couple extra miles. Not bad, 109.3 miles. We're in no rush. Takin it all in, brah. Checked in with the Ranger station, weighed my pack-it STILL weighs 30 lbs! Yikes. Lots of snacks I bought in White House Landing and the Champagne & 2 16oz beers I guess. Didn't even notice it was that heavy. We're pumped. (That's as much as it's EVER weighed the whole trip!) Glad we're only carrying daybacks for the summit climb.Everybody's family and friends arrived and were excited to see us, but not as pumped as we were. They couldn't possibly be.When my friends Scott Dykema & Scott Cummings (AMR friends) arrived we broke the news-we would make it a sunrise summit! Sunrise is at 430am, it's a 5.2 mile hike to the summit-a vertical mile in the air (5287ft). The Hunt trail (the AT route) is the steepest & most difficult route up, with major boulder climbs, making our trekking poles useless. The top 1/3 is completely exposed rock face. Whether it's blistering heat, rain, wind or whatever the weather, it will be intense while the climb continues. Scott's been up since 530am interpretting for a deaf patient til 11am, then drove with Scott over 6 hours - flying - to get here. They took the news pretty well. Eat dinner, take a short nap then get up about 1am to hit the trail by 2 am! They'll hike up Abol Trail, another very difficult but shorter route and meet us at the table top, 1 mile from the summit. Sounds like a plan.Unfortunately Guthook will not join us initially. He'll start the climb with his family and friends around 7am and meet us up top for the big rally & photos.Can't wait. Cooked up our last Liptons & whatever else we had. Napped for just a few hours. 30% chance of showers tomorrow, so we're hoping it won't matter.