[at-l] Ready's Journal :Sept 18 TD 96

[kahley7@ptd.net (kahley)]

You can write to Ready    readyhiker@pocketmail.com



We awakened to the alarm, but it sure was hard to get
up. Spur had hacked, coughed, sneezed and sniffled all
night long. Still, he got up without complaint and got himself
ready for the day ahead.
The clear skies of the past few days had given way to some
cloud covering. We were concerned that it might rain. We
were happy that it was not as cool as it had been the past
few mornings.
This was an oddity. Even though the night and morning had
been warmer, throughout the day today, it remained cooler
than in days past.
As we were sorting our food we noticed holes in the food bags;
the plastic bags holding the cocoa, gorp and iced tea mix had
all been gnawed into during the night - by chipmunks, or more
likely, squirrels. We could see where the squirrel(s) had gnawed
  through the silnylon bags! Fortunately that was the extent of the
damage.
We divied up our water supply and headed out by 6:45. Our first
stop out of camp was the Gulf Hagas Trail. We hiked down far
enough to see the Screw Augur Falls. These were very
impressive despite the lessened flow caused by the drought.
Up and over Gulf Hagas Mtn. It was tough climbing, but I really
loved it. When we got to the Carl A Newhall Lean-to we met
Fungal and Pepperhead. We'd been seeing their journal entries
for some time now.
They'd met on the trail last year and had hooked up as a couple.
Spur had met Fungal last year at Tray Mtn. - a tale I well remember
hearing: Datto, Rainbow, Mouth, Godfather and Singe had all been
there that night.
The couple had only gotten as far as Oquossoc last year, in November!
They started from there in early September this year and were
setting sights for Katahdin to finish out their end-to-end hike.
We climbed West Mtn. next. This was another really tough climb
that I really enjoyed. Third up, Hay Mtn. 'Just loved climbing today!
I had a veritable "'70's juke box" playing in my head all day. I'd seen
  the name, "Bill" scrawled on a rock. That started me off: "B--I--L--L!
I love you so, I always will...."
I must have "played through" 50 songs! It helped move me along
"hearing" all those songs! I swear I could hear every note, every
back-up voice, even every pop and ping on the vinyl!
The last big climb of the day was up White Cap Mtn. Here Spur
shot up the mountainside like a cannonball out of a cannon. I
struggled to barely keep up with him.
We got to the top in less than 1/2 an hour and Spur showed me
a side trail to a view to the NE: Katahdin! It was a bit overcast but
  we could clearly see the mountain in the distance. We'd be there
  in only 5 days. Very exciting.
Mr. Zip and Pepperhead & Fungal crested shortly after us. Mr Zip
explained that he'd hiked the whole trail last year, except for the
  final 5 miles up Katahdin. The rangers had prevented him from
summiting due to heavy snows.
This year he "was taking a running start' since Katahdin was
such a big mountain!" - by starting in Monson.
We'd been low on water so we stopped at the Logan Brook
Lean-to on the way down White Cap to fill up at the brook.
Pepperhead & Fungal stopped there too for their late lunch.
We pressed on - our target for tonight was the next shelter,
East Branch Lean-to.
The descent to the lean-to was a bit challenging for me, as was
the level walk after, but 2 "vitamin I" tablets seemed to do the trick
  for me and we hiked strong.
We had paused at every lookout point we'd come to today, enjoying
the wonderful views. From one point, we were able to count 15
lakes/ponds in the distance!
It was only 4 PM when we reached the lean-to. We decided we'd like
to use more daylight for hiking, making tomorrow's mileage a bit
shorter due to miles we'd gain today by hiking farther.
We reset our sights for Mtn. View Pond, hoping to find a campsite
there. A strong impetus was the chance to see moose near a pond.
We have yet to see one here in Maine, unless counting the one
sighted from a truck during a ride back to the Andover Guest House.
We wanted to see at least one moose! Our only wildlife sightings
today had been "ordinary:" a rabbit, a few squirrels, some grouse
and gray jays.
We got to the pond just past 5 PM - this was a lot of fast hiking
for us today. It was amazing: lining the trail leading to the pond
was a huge path of poison ivy - all turning fall colors. I'd never seen 
poison ivy growing so far north!
We found a perfect spot right next to the pond. We made camp
and ate supper while watching the sunset over the mountain. We
were in our tent journaling just as it got dark. Spur's cold seemed
much better. Our plan was to reach White House Landing by the
following evening - some 20 miles north.
We had rigged a "tightwire' for our foodbag tonight. We hoped to
foil the efforts of hungry squirrels this time.




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