Breakfast is served promptly at 6:30 so we can be out of the camp and back on the trail by 8:30. We had talked to Linda last night and she told us the deadlines were not going to be a problem for our group. The tight deadlines are in place to get problem people on the move in the mornings. Some kids seem to be unable to make decisions for themselves or are incapable of moving unless pushed. We’ve encountered people like this. It was agreed that we could take our time since we would have a boat ride to ourselves.
Last night, while we were talking to Peter, he told us a story about the north woods that will help us to remember the name of the lake we are staying on. The original camp in this area had a cook named Pem. He was completely inept and just plain stupid. He’d lose his way constantly just walking across camp. The lake was named in his honor—Pem, a dumb cook, aka Pemadumcook Lake.
Breakfast is an AYCE pancakes and coffee, with a serving of sausage, eggs, and juice. There’s no reason to walk away hungry and I didn’t. Bunny noticed an explosives box next to the wood burning stove. This only reignited her demands to see a moose. I stood my ground and told her she would have to do her own dirty work, I was not going to lay a finger on Good Chip Norris. She cut me!
Some people give Bill a hard time saying he’s not friendly. This is not true at all. I relate to Bill quite a bit. He has narrow focus like me. He gets a task on his mind and that is what he concentrates on. He doesn’t bounce back and forth or exchange pleasantries while he is on task. He and Linda built this camp entirely by themselves. This is their home, year round, off the grid. He was telling me about how they deal with winter conditions having to park a car 15 miles away from the house and snowmobile to it to get groceries. Some hikers have complained about how expensive it is to stay here. That’s not true. It is fair priced for the work involved. This is not a hostel but a working backwoods camp. Having said that, I would recommend everyone not on a tight budget to make the trip over for a night if hiking through the 100 mile wilderness.
We weren’t the last ones to leave. Nor were we the first. Bill made a run before breakfast to run a couple guys that are trying to finish up their hike in the next two days. As usual, GCN was the first packed and ready to go. Bunny and I weren’t far behind. Guess who was last. While we were waiting for the boat to return to take us back across the lake, GCN and I played fetch. I’d throw the stick for him to retrieve, but this damn dog kept running and getting it before Chip could. I guess his knees are slowing him down.
Maine has been, and continues to be very nice to us. Bunny, as of recent times, has got us all on edge. It started a couple of days ago when the colors really became vibrant. She was out front leading, climbed over a hill out of our sight, and started screaming. We all panicked to run to her aide only to find her in a state of joyful excitement. She had screamed “OH MY GAWD! ISN’T THIS BEAUTIFUL?” I’ve often complained that Bunny has one scream, good or bad. I’ve nearly wrecked the car several times when she sees a rabbit on the side of the road and screams in joy. She screams so loud that I think we’re about to get ran over by a semi.
Today was the height of color and the height of Bunny screaming. Every hill that lead to a color change—“OH MY GAWD! ISN’T THIS BEAUTIFUL?” Every overlook—“OH MY GAWD! ISN’T THIS BEAUTIFUL?” Trail magic—“OH MY GAWD! ISN’T THIS BEAUTIFUL?” In all fairness, the last example was me. I still get pumped when I run across my 3 favorite words on the trail…”Hikers, Free Food.” Bunny was relatively quiet about the food. “How can you possibly eat again, already?”
Flying Albatross, who had lashed the AT in back to back years, and his son were out making chili for thru-hikers. They had cokes (sodas to the non-midwesterner readers), a huge pot of chili, chairs, and a campfire. We ran into hikers we didn’t even know were on the trail. Lately, we haven’t been running into many people during the day, but put out free food and it’s like turning on a bright porch light on a hot summer night. The moths come out.
The 3 bowls of chili and 2 cokes (translated as Cokes) sat pretty heavy on my stomach. We stopped at the lean-to just a couple miles down the trail after the magic. This was Wadleigh Stream Lean-to which had a memorial to a thru-hiker that died near this shelter in 2011. He was just 38 miles shy of finishing his third thru-hike. I felt sorry for Buffalo Bobby, but I was quite psyched to hear we were only 38 miles from being done.
I was really starting to drag during our only climb of the afternoon up Nesuntabunt Mountain. We got to the top and could see the bottom half of Katahdin—“OH MY GAWD! ISN’T THIS BEAUTIFUL?” The clouds were surrounding the summit of the mountain on the other side of the lake. We had a sunshiney day with almost no clouds. What clouds that are around seem to be hanging out on Katahdin.
Coming down the mountain,we started to spread out a bit. We waited at the road for a while for everyone to catch up. It was now Good Chips Norris’ turn to fall behind a bit. While we were waiting for him, another hiker we met at the last shelter passed us. He asked if we had seen the moose. “What moose?” “The one standing right next to the shelter. I figured you had to see it. I tried to leave right after you guys left but I couldn’t because he was blocking the trail.” He showed us a picture—“OH MY GAWD! ISN’T THIS BEAUTIFUL?” Followed by “NNNOOOOOO”
We still had another 5 miles to go for our target shelter for tonight. The plan was 15 miles today and tomorrow with a 10 mile day to get to the campground in Baxter leaving us just 5 miles to finish the trail on Wednesday, 10/10. That would put us on top of Katahdin leaving us another 5 miles to hike back down, but those miles don’t count because we only count trail miles.
GCN quickly caught up, and passed, Bunny and me. We were the last (as usual) to get to the shelter. Bear and Sassy already had their tent set up. The area was quite crowded. I had no idea there were still so many people on the trail. The shelter was completely full and there were, easily, 10 tents in the area. I let Bunny find us a spot. She has a nose for finding spots. I also have a nose for finding spots that she doesn’t approve of, so I no longer try.
She found a fantastic spot nestled in the trees and shrubs. We were just about 20’ from Bear and Sassy, but you’d have no idea we were even around anyone. It was like a private room in the trees. Because of its location in the woods, I decided to go ahead and hang a bear bag tonight. This may come as a shock, but last to arrive equals last to eat and last to bed. I guess I’ll never have to worry about being healthy, wealthy, and wise.
EFG