Monday, August 15th

Rainbow Stream Lean Too (2164.2 mi) to Birches Campsite (2189.0 mi)

Hiking Miles: 24.8

Total Ascent: 2,426.8 ft

Total Descent: 2,279.2 ft

Total Grade: 234.2 ft/mi

Steps: 47,635

PLAYER – Baby Come Back

Gator/Sunrise: This was the last morning for me heading out alone, because whether we camp somewhere near Abol Bridge or we make it all the way to the Birches, Croc and I would start out on trail together tomorrow. My goal was to reach Abol Bridge by noontime (a projected 15 by 12) in time for us to hopefully secure a site (only 12 available) at the Birches, affording us to the opportunity to summit Mount Katahdin on Tuesday. Any time later than 12:00 PM would significantly decrease our chances for doing so. Thru hikers staying at the Hurd Brook Lean To just 5 miles before Abol Bridge would be competing for spots so I needed to move swiftly. And Tuesday’s forecast called for bright blue skies in contrast to overcast and rainy conditions on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, I was feeling lethargic and moving at a snail’s pace, despite my efforts to push it at times. It was like I was wading through molasses. Croc erased my two hour jump start by catching me only 9 miles into the hike, unlike the 24 miles yesterday to paint a perspective. However once I started hiking with him, he helped me to pick things up over the next six miles and we made it out of the 100-mile Wilderness and to Abol Bridge by noontime! But I desperately needed to rest and fuel up on protein if we proceeded on to the Birches for the night.

From this point on today, my blog will be brief for two reasons: 1) I was feeling well under the weather which made it extremely hard to focus on anything but keeping myself awake. And 2) Croc did an absolutely phenomenal job (below) recalling everything that transpired for the both of us down to the finest detail.

I do remember crashing at a picnic table just outside the general store while Croc ran a mile to check on openings at the Birches. Lying on my back and looking up at the clear blue sky, I was seriously doubting whether I could hike another 10 miles. But if Croc returned with a thumbs up on the Birches, I was certainly going to bust it out.

My best shot was taking the Blueberry Trail, a blue blaze leading to the Birches, a totally acceptable alternative as Croc succinctly explained. The only thing I remember was struggling to climb a short 2% incline towards the end of the 6 mile hike. That wasn’t the time to be thinking about the neat 800 ft/mile grade leading to Mount Katahdin the next day. What ran through my head was crashing early tonight (as soon as I hit the camp site) so I would be as strong as humanly possible in the morning.

We claimed two spots in an empty shelter, and I grabbed a bite to eat (a bear claw and an apple). Then after blowing up my mattress with the last bit of breath in my lungs, I lied down to take a nap. Moments later, Croc called out to tell me that Mailman, a hiker we had met in Georgia at the Around the Bend Hostel, was there! I mustered enough energy to spring up to meet our friend. He had jumped a good portion of the trail in order to summit Katahdin before returning to close the gap. He was there hiking with a young lady named Taylor whose trail name was “Amazing Grace”. It was absolutely uplifting to see him and catching up on our respective journeys before I retreated back to the shelter for more rest.

I did manage to get up one more time to meet with the Park Ranger to register for the climb, get my Baxter State Park tag, and to eat my last trail dinner with the other hikers. The site was full and everyone was excited to get an early start in the morning.

Croc: Today was our last full hiking day before we’d summit Katahdin tomorrow. It would be our last time where Gator wakes up and I have to catch him later in the day. It would be the last time we’d be wondering what our plan was for sleeping tonight, or the next day’s hike. Our last day wondering what’s for dinner, or if we had enough food. It really felt like it was our last day on this trail since tomorrow was all about summiting Katahdin like a normal day hiker would. Today we’d still be moving forward towards an unfinished goal, while tomorrow we would eventually hit that goal and turn back around. It’s kind of like the last few pages of a good, long book. Sometimes you feel more excitement or feelings overall on the penultimate chapter than the actual last page since it encompasses the full process and not just a half-page closing statement.

After getting up and realizing I’d be the last one out again (still at 7:00 AM), it did light a fire under my ass to get going. After Gator’s nearly 30-mile day yesterday and not catching him until 4:30 PM, I assumed he clocked the 15 miles by 9:00-10:00 AM and be waiting for me at Abol Bridge. I also wanted to make sure we beat out anyone that was staying at this campsite or Hurd Brook campsite (10 miles further), to ensure we’d be one of the 12 to stay at Birches Campsite. I did make sure to load up on a double breakfast (two instant breakfasts, two oatmeals, coffee, etc.) since I only needed one more breakfast for tomorrow.

As I made my way out of camp, I was immediately challenged with crossing the river that was by our campsite. Maine’s hilarious solution to this river crossing was laying down a big, rotting log across the skinniest part of the river. Honestly, this might have been the work of a hiker who was fed up with walking through water and had some excess time at the shelter. The log worked great if you were well-balanced, but I was shocked that it was still intact thinking about the number of hikers who have crossed this “bridge.”

We did have one uphill today, but we’re talking about going from 1,000 ft to 1,500 ft in the span of a mile, which felt like nothing. It did give us another great view of Katahdin in the distance. This is actually where I caught up with Gator again to finish off the day. It was actually nice seeing him early in the morning so we could hike together again like old times. I know he wasn’t feeling well, but he still crushed 9-10 miles already! At the beginning of the hike, perfectly healthy people would take all day to do that. Gator was feeling extremely under the weather though, but I kept thinking, “just push ONE MORE day. You got this.” He even joked that he may have COVID and I immediately put that down because I was like, “How would you even be hiking right now? You just hiked 30 miles yesterday and you’re doing another 25 today?”

It was a great feeling when we reached the end of the wilderness and saw the northern 100-Mile Wilderness sign. It ironically notes the “no access to food or towns,” which I laughed at since you had plenty of chances to get food dropped off, or even get picked up to slack-pack the whole thing.

As we left the woods, it felt almost freeing though. For the last 5 days (technically 4 if you break it down hour-wise), we had been “stuck” in the woods without any real communication with the outside world. So seeing a road with a truck driving down and a shop at the end was a welcoming sign.

Gator was able to press on to the Abol Bridge shop where we were hoping for some real food that wasn’t pre-packaged snacks or meals. Along the way, we crossed the actual bridge that Abol Bridge is named after and caught a final glimpse of Katahdin in her beauty. This would be the last time we’d see the peak until we climbed her tomorrow because we’d soon be going back in the woods to hike to the Birches Campsite.

When we did arrive at the shop, the chef (or sandwich maker) was not available and the restaurant in the back was closed on specific days (like today). Although that was a bummer, we were still able to grab some cold drinks and snacks while we waited for the sandwich guy to come back. Gator was barely hanging in there with his sickness, so I told him I was going to run ahead to the Birches Campsite sign-up page down the road to see if we could get signed up. It was about noon and we were getting dangerously close to the time that the campsite would likely fill up. As Gator rested, I actually “ran” to the signup board about a mile up the trail. Surprisingly, running was extremely difficult since I hadn’t been using those muscles in months. I thought it would be easier being 15 pounds lighter! When I did arrive, I saw there were 5 spots left so I signed us up (worst case scenario if Gator couldn’t make it we could cross it off). I ran back to the shop to find Gator passed out on the picnic table.

I went back into the shop needing to ask some questions to the lady behind the counter, but she turned out to be one of the most useless people I met on the trail. Although she wasn’t as vocal as Kelly from Boots Off Hostel, she was certainly more inept, which I didn’t think was possible. First, when we initially arrived looking for food, she mentioned the restaurant was closed but they had someone who could make sandwiches. When we asked when he typically arrives or where he was, she had no clue. That didn’t help, but we had time to wait. So when I arrived back from signing up I went back into the shop to see if he had arrived and he was hard at work making sandwiches and working the front counter as she sat there on her phone. Then, I had a question about confirming the sign-up and paying to stay at the Birches Campsite because anyone could just cross your name off the list and steal your spot. She said that you had to put money in a box and just go to the campsite. That was not true at all since you had to pay the park ranger in person and actually fill out more paperwork with him. We almost had to pay twice because of her. I was kind of shocked that no one had asked her this question before (apparently) if they are thru-hikers coming in every day. Even the ranger mentioned later that day that the workers at the shop had been notorious for giving wrong information about trails and how to pay. The final straw was the internet. The lady mentioned we could get internet by paying $2 for 15 minutes or something, so we signed up so we could contact Mom for pickup tomorrow. Of course, when the internet didn’t work, she THEN told us that the internet rarely works. She was just looking at her phone the whole time, so I had no clue what Wifi she was on but apparently hers worked. After wasting about 15 minutes of no internet (purchasing it on both Gator and my phone), I asked about a refund and she said that the internet had no affiliation with them. Great… The guy working hard behind the counter was nice enough to let us use his phone to call Tarryn (Mom wasn’t answering because it was an unknown number) and give her details about when we expected to finish and where Mom could pick us up.

Before we left, a group of hikers who had just come back from summiting Katahdin today met us at the store. They graciously gave us all their leftover food, although we didn’t really need it at this point. We did grab a honeybun, protein bars, and some candy.

After that, we made our way to the Birches Campsite for the night. We opted to take the Blueberry Trail that was 4 miles shorter and led right to the campsite. Although it was a blue-blaze, it’s technically still considered part of the trail because the AT recognizes any blue-blaze as part of the AT if you can continue the blue-blaze on the other end and meet up with the trail and if you have a reason to take the trail (e.g., sleep at a shelter, grab water at a water source, bypass a mountain top during bad weather, etc.). Gator was still struggling, but it was an incredible feat of strength that he went ANOTHER 6 miles to the campsite. There was one part that we were barely going uphill and he thought it was part of the mountain. I can’t even imagine hiking going through what he was going through. But we ultimately had to push through and finish this off because if we got off trail, we’d be forced to hike in the rain tomorrow and not be able to stay at the Birches Campsite.

Finally, we made it to the campsite where a few hikers had already arrived. Surprisingly, no one wanted to stay in the shelter and they all opted to stay in tents, hammocks, or the nearby platform. To our shock, we saw Mailman from all the way back in Georgia when we stayed at Hostel Around the Bend. He was the guy who stayed in the van. What’s the chance of crossing paths with someone during the first 100 miles of trail and then again in the last 5 miles of trail? We quickly caught up and grabbed a photo, and then Gator went right to sleep. He was going to do everything in his power to rest up and tackle Katahdin in the morning.

Meanwhile, I walked down around 5:00 PM to the ranger camp about 0.25 miles down the road and he said that he’d pop up to take attendance and go over the rules at 6:00 PM/7:00 PM. I walked back to camp and started to make some dinner while I waited. Many of the hikers who were staying with us tonight weren’t actually finishing their thru-hike tomorrow. Some of them were flip-flopping or section hiking. However, one of the thru-hikers who was finishing his hike had one of his friends visit (maybe his brother actually?) who hiked the trail back in the 80s. He still had his old jacket he wore on his hike nearly 40 years ago. The guys were super friendly and even brought fruit and snacks for everyone to feast. The ranger eventually came back and I had to wake Gator up so he could give the ranger his information and listen to the rules on the mountain. The most important one was no alcohol to celebrate since it was protected land. Gator quickly went back to sleep and I soon joined him while the rest of the hikers celebrated. I actually started in Gator’s shelter but eventually moved to the second shelter after he began to snore due to his sickness. He was probably surprised when he woke up to me not being there the next morning.

PS: There was one guy who kept talking about wanting to be the first person up Katahdin tomorrow. I was convinced he was going to hike up tonight just to be there first. He kept saying how he hiked the whole 100-mile wilderness in 5 days, so he could beat everyone, which I found funny because we technically did it faster. There were a lot of characters though at the camp tonight that summarized the people we met on the trail perfectly. One of the flip-floppers was a young kid who loved every second of the trail and was so excited for the south. He was exactly like Smiles. Another was the older man whose friend (brother?) came up and he was just like the classic retired guy living his dream on the AT. Then you had Mailman who was genuinely nice and cared about the people he met. Lastly, there was this other guy I just mentioned who only talked about himself and his own hike with no regard to anyone else.