No Sleep Till Katahdin
I woke up this morning (September 19) at the private campground just outside Abol Bridge. And my experience this morning was a lot different than most of the other people’s here, because the logistics of procuring a camping spot in Baxter State Park the night before you summit Katahdin is very challenging and anxiety inducing for a lot of thru-hikers. The way it works is that there are 12 spots available at a campsite reserved specifically for thru-hikers, called The Birches.
And those spots are available on a first-come, first-served basis. The ranger station opens at 7 o’clock in the morning, and the ranger on duty takes down the names of the hikers who want to stay at The Birches that night, in the order in which they show up. Some days, there are fewer than 12 hikers who want to stay there, and when that’s the case, there's obviously no problem.
But other days, there can be upward of 20 hikers who all want spots, so it can get very competitive. Carolina Sunshine and Salamander didn’t want to risk missing out on spots, so they got up at around 4 a.m. and walked the half mile to the ranger station to wait for three hours. And when they got there, they were fourth and fifth in line.
Fortunately for me, S. had had the presence of mind to proactively book us a campsite at the Katahdin Stream Campground, just in case. It’s adjacent to The Birches. And because she’d done that, that eliminated the need for me to get up super early in the morning to try to claim a spot at The Birches.
By the time I got up, most of the people were already back from the ranger station. The ranger was being very conscientious and was fortunately able to get sites at Katahdin Stream for the hikers who weren’t among the first 12 to arrive for The Birches. I actually think it wound up being a little bit better for those hikers, because Katahdin Stream is a better campground.
Our campsite can accommodate up to six people, so Not Yet jumped on my offer for him to stay there with us, and so did Munich Mule. They hadn't gotten up early enough to secure other spots, so I just said, “Hey, why don't you stay with us?” Sundial and FIIK were originally going to stay there, too, but they’d found another option. So that all ended up working out really well.
We didn't have a huge hike today. There are two ways to get from the exit of the 100 Mile Wilderness, which is Abol Bridge, to the Katahdin Stream Campground or The Birches. The first is to take the Appalachian Trail, which you would probably assume would be the natural choice. However, it's a 9-mile hike, it's not particularly interesting, and it's kind of in the shape of a U.
The other option is to take a trail called Blueberry Ledges, which is only about 4.5 miles, and it’s a really lovely trail. A woman named G-Bird thru-hiked the AT a few years ago and was at Abol last night with her boyfriend, who’s finishing up his own thru-hike, and told us that Blueberry Ledges is a great hike and we should just take it. So pretty much everyone I talked to this morning had decided to take the ledges.
Salamander and Carolina Sunshine and I headed over to Katahdin Stream around 9 o’clock. It was only going to take us a few hours, and it was a beautiful day, so we just took our time. The fall weather is really starting to set in, and the trail was really nice. There were some lovely views along the way.
And a bonus of taking Blueberry Ledges is that you can actually get some cell phone reception. Once you enter Baxter State Park, there’s zero cell phone reception until you get to the peak of Mount Katahdin. And getting a bit of cell service was fantastic, because I was able to communicate a little with S., who had flown out of Charlottesville early this morning. I hadn't had any reception at all last night at Abol Bridge. So I was glad to be able to get in touch with her and learn that her flights were on time and things like that.
After just a few hours, we’d made it to Katahdin Stream Campground, and the task then was to go and register with the park ranger to get our Katahdin Hiker Permit, because the park keeps track of all that stuff. So a bunch of us headed over to the ranger’s office together — Boots with the Fur, Ranger, Carolina Sunshine, Salamander, and I and a couple other people.
And one of the things that everyone was discussing was what time to leave the campsite in the morning, because you want to give yourself plenty of time to get up to the peak and back down again before it gets dark. Also, some people like to get up extra early so they can watch the sunrise from the peak. And a little foreshadowing here — it was probably a great idea that we didn't try to do that, because I can't even imagine hiking up Katahdin in the dark.
After we registered, I headed over to campsite 18 to wait for S. to show up. I had a couple hours, and those couple hours felt like a couple days, because I hadn't seen her since July. I just sat at a picnic table and watched every single car come in, hoping each time that it was her. And then around 3:30, I think, she arrived, and geez, it was such a wonderful reunion, and I was just so relieved that everything had worked out. All the logistics had worked out. I didn't break my neck or my leg in the 100 Mile Wilderness. S. had made it safely to Baxter. It was just a fantastic reunion.
It was fun to be able to introduce S. to all my hiking partners, too. After she parked the rental car, we walked around and chatted with the various people I knew. Carolina Sunshine was soaking her feet in the stream, and Salamander was sitting with her. We talked for a bit with Speedgoat and Lugnut. We said a quick hello to Double Stuff and Donkey Kong. It was a really great afternoon.
And then we lucked out and bumped into Sparkle. She and Bouge had needed to summit on the 19th, instead of the 20th, so they’d gone ahead of us in the 100 Mile Wilderness to finish a day earlier. So Sparkle had just gotten back to Katahdin Stream after summitting Katahdin and was waiting for her parents to arrive to pick her up. [Wife note: I’d actually passed Sparkle at the Abol trail campsite as I was driving in and almost stopped to see if she needed a ride. I wish I had now! But understandably, I was pretty excited to get to Katahdin Stream and see Rob/Patch asap.]
Carolina Sunshine and I peppered her with questions about how it had gone, and she was very gracious and gave us a bunch of information. Carolina Sunshine asked her whether she’d cried at the summit, and Sparkle said she hadn’t actually felt much of anything and was wondering whether it might hit her later or something. No one seems to know what to expect as far as how they’ll feel when they reach the Katahdin sign.
The whole time we were talking, we were swatting away black flies. The flies hadn’t been that bad the whole time we were going through the 100 Mile Wilderness, but for whatever reason, they were really bad at the campground and were driving everyone crazy.
On her way in, S. had stopped at the grocery store and purchased a whole bunch of food. She got stuff for our dinner and for the next day’s breakfast and hike, but then she’d also added a bunch of random things for us to enjoy as a group or in case anyone needed anything. We unloaded it all onto the picnic table at our campsite and told people to come over and help themselves. Then we just sat around, eating and telling stories and sharing pictures and all that.
[Wife note: I’d gotten tortilla chips and seven-layer dip, sour cream and cheddar potato chips, Cool Ranch Doritos, bananas, a crudite platter (dip, carrots, tomatoes, and some really smelly broccoli), mint Oreos, Tate chocolate chip cookies, a box of honey buns, a box of granola bars, a box of oatmeal bars, a variety pack of cracker sandwiches, a six-pack of Coke, a huge bag of gorp, two bags of mini donuts, orange juice, some canned coffees, and two big jugs of water so people could refill their bottles without having to filter anything.]
While we were hanging out, Sparkle came over with her mom, who had brought a cake to celebrate Sparkle’s summit day. Sparkle wanted to share the cake with everyone, so she started cutting pieces and passing them around. Just before this, Groovy and Half Boot had been telling us about how they had both contracted a disease from tick bites [Wife note: Alpha-gal.], so now, eating anything that’s made with beef makes them sick. Groovy was all excited to dig into her piece of cake, when someone asked whether the strawberry glaze might have gelatin in it, and her face just fell. She handed her plate to Boots with the Fur and looked really disappointed. It was equal parts funny and sad.
Left to Right: (Standing) Sundial, FIIK, Boots with the Fur, Not Yet, Sparkle (with Coke) — (Seated on left) Carolina Sunshine, Salamander, Lugnut, Speedgoat — (Seated on right) Rob/Patch, Half Boot, Groovy
Up in Maine at this time of year, it's pretty much dark by 7 o’clock, and the bugs were still pretty bad, so we eventually decided to call it a night and retreat to our tents — or car, for us. S. had rented an SUV, so we put the seats down and piled into the back to sleep there, rather than squeezing into my tent. We just lay there for a while, laughing because it was not even 7:30 at night, and everyone had already gone to bed.
We had expected to be cold, but instead, it was really hot and stuffy and not particularly comfortable, so we cracked the windows a bit to let some air in. And every time we opened the door to get something or go to the privy, the headlights would go on automatically. Munich Mule and Not Yet were sleeping in their tents right in front of the car, so we kept blasting them with the lights, and we couldn’t figure out how to turn them off. We felt really bad about that, but neither one of them ever said anything.
We had arranged to meet Salamander and Carolina Sunshine at 6 o’clock to start hiking, so we set our alarms for 5. Tomorrow, we’ll finish this hike we started so long ago. It should be a busy day, and a great day. I’m excited to finally get up to the top of Katahdin.
