I went to bed preoccupied with Bunny’s edict—“I want to see a moose no matter what it takes!” She’s a scary woman when she has her mind made up. Thoughts were running through my mind: “Bunny MUST see a moose…Good Chip Norris must die…It’s a killer bunny with huge nasty teeth…Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat…Bring out your dead. I’m not dead yet. You’re not fooling anyone…Chip is a good guy, but I wonder whatever happened to Mike, Robbie, and Uncle Charlie…I don’t want to kill Good Chip Norris. Let’s get Mikey, he won’t try it. He hates everything…Rosebud…You’ve got to think like a gopher; act like a gopher; and whenever possible, look like a gopher…The King must die; long live the King.”
Sadly, this is pretty much my normal thought flow, but I didn’t get a tremendous amount of sleep. Maybe Nostradumbass was wrong. Chorris might be able to live and us still see a moose if…if he were just to get abducted for a while. There’s got to be a way. I’m sure an opportunity will present itself. I should listen to Eckhart Tolle and just live in the moment. That is the true essence of long distance hiking. Live in the moment. Don’t try to figure out answers to problems when you’re hiking. People will die or be abducted rather you dream of it or not. Don’t worry, be happy.
We got trail magic even before we got camp tore down. As soon as I stepped out of the tent, Bear saw me and said there’s magic just a few feet down the trail. I would have rather had less eye contact because I had to pee really bad, but Bear was excited. I danced for a second while I said “thanks” hoping Bear would give me a moment. He maintained eye contact and said “it’s really good. He’s got all kinds of food.” I couldn’t take it any longer, I unzipped and kept eye contact. It didn’t deter him. “I even got an avocado.” 🎶 Let it rain. Let it rain. Open the floodgates of heaven. Lift your voice and sing it again. Let it rain. 🎶
After I was done raining, I headed up to the magic. The guy had just finished his thru-hike a few days ago. He collected everyone’s extra food before he went home to New Hampshire to get his car. He drove back up to Maine where he was out giving all the extra food away. He barely had enough money for gas to drive up here, but he wasn’t ready to be done with trail life yet. He talked the toll guide into waving the $10 toll to get on Jo-Mary Road, explaining he was just out for trail magic. Sometimes the AT really grabs hold of someone and doesn’t let go. Completing a thru-hike IS a big deal. For a lot of people it’s the accomplishment of a lifetime. This guy was definitely in its hold. He’s just the type of guy that would be willing to help fellow thru-hikers on a quest to see a moose. I started to ask him if he would do me a favor when GCN walked up.
I went back to finish packing up and eating. Bear and Sassy were already done and headed back to the magic to join GCN. Bunny even headed over leaving me to fold up the tent, saying that I had taken too much time already. I folded up the tent, by myself, and packed up before I joined everyone and had a “magic” espresso—not THAT magical. Nothing psychedelic. I mean a free, trailside expresso that someone gave Bunny but she wouldn’t drink because he didn’t have steamed milk and sugar to make it palatable to her. Despite what she says, Bunny doesn’t like the taste of coffee.
It was only 4 miles before we all arrived at Antlers Campsite on the shore of Jo-Mary Lake. The main attraction here was Fort Relief, aka, the privy. We all had a go at the fort which did live up to its name. While we were waiting our turn at relief, we struck up a conversation with an ex-military pilot that was solo hiking the hundred mile wilderness. He had been out 5 days so far and had not been able to call home because he didn’t have Verizon. We all finished up and moved on while GCN stayed behind to lend him his phone. I thought the military guy might be a bit off, so I was torn between leaving Chip behind or, possibly, having an answer to the Chorris problem. Would phone hostage be enough to settle the Nostradumbass dilemma?
The trail today was all lakeside and level. Bear and I were out front talking and enjoying a truly easy day of hiking. We came upon an amazing sign of plenty that we were not expecting to encounter in the hundred mile wilderness. This stretch has been held up to thru-hikers as wilderness unparalleled on the eastern coast, yet here we stood in awe of a campsite with, not one, but two, pit latrines. One of which was even sporting lace curtains. We must be hallucinating.
As Bear and I continued walking, I noticed a small sign on a tree with the words Katahdin View and an arrow. I wasn’t expecting much because we were still almost 50 miles away. We dropped our packs and walked the short side trail to the beach of another lake. As soon as we stepped on to the beach, we had the same reaction—“Holy shit! Look at that!” Katahdin could not only be seen, it filled the northern sky. Bunny and I had skipped coming to Baxter State Park 3 years ago when we were visiting Peter and Marcia because we didn’t want to see Katahdin until we were hiking towards it. This is it. We were in awe. We are going to make it. We are going to be what I’ve only dreamt of for years…Appalachian Trail thru-hikers.
We ran back to the trail waiting for Good Chip Norris, Sassy, and Bunny to catch up. This is a pivotal trail moment that we all wanted to share together. Bunny be damned, GCN is going to finish the trail with us as a member of our trail family. We will not see a moose and that’s perfectly fine. We stood on the beach all pretending to be the Babe pointing at center field as to where, not the ball, but we will soon be.
We were in such an adrenaline rush, I barely remember walking the final 2 miles to Mahar Tote Road. What could possibly be better than our first sight of Katahdin on a clear day? Then we saw something equally amazing just as we were approaching the dock where we were to be picked up and whisked across the lake to Whitehouse Landing. It was a sight that made me miss Stickers, Little Blue, and Mizman. At the bottom of the sign for Whitehouse Landing was the phrase “free joint to all visitors over 21.” It brought a tear to my eye. How can you “Make America great again” when it already is?
We got to the dock where Good Chip Norris whipped out his moneymaker and called for a ride. Bill was there to pick us up in less than 15 minutes. I have dreamt about this excursion for years. The five of us were flying across the lake at the astounding speed of 10mph. This is quite the rate when you’ve walked almost 2150 miles. Bill pulled up to his dock then walked us all up to the main building to give us the schpiel about our stay for the night. He then showed us around. Bear and Sassy had a stand-alone one room cabin with a king sized bed. Good Chip Norris got a bunk in the bunkhouse that already had 4 or 5 other hikers including The General (I’m sure it will be peaceful sleeping there tonight). Bunny and I got a single bedroom in Lakeside Cabin which had 3 bedrooms and a big common room. We had the whole place to ourselves.
It was growing quite chilly already and it was only mid-afternoon. We hurried to get our showers and laundry done while it was still light out. Bunny and I walked around the grounds for a bit looking at the gardens, admiring the lake, and picking apples to eat as snacks for the next couple of days. The tramily assembled in the common room of our cabin where we called Peter to make plans for meeting in Baxter State Park in a mere 3 days. Peter is going to rent an SUV and spend the last night with us in Baxter. After we summit Katahdin, thus finishing our thru-hike, he will bring us all back to Portland, Maine where we’ll scatter to the winds.
Now that we had the end plans finalized, all we had left to do was eat. Whitehouse Landing is famous for its one pound hiker burgers and my appetite was up for the challenge. It put a good dent into my hunger, but didn’t kill it. Bear let me have his leftover pizza crust and I had a couple bites of Bunny’s homemade pumpkin spice moon pie. I won’t be going to bed famished, for a change.
EFG