Abol Bridge Camppground to the Birches Campsite

Day Fifty-One
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Abol Bridge Campground to the Birches Campsite
10 miles

After a free breakfast buffet at the campground, we hustled on up to the sign-in kiosk at the entrance of the trail.  It was further in than we were thinking it would be so I guess it was a good thing we didn’t try to come here early this morning to sign up for the Birches then go back for breakfast.  Anyway, the sign said that was not allowed, which we did not know.  We were third on the list.  We had seen one fellow come by while we were eating breakfast, out from the last lean-to I suppose. 

It was a relatively easy 10 miles.  The first 5 miles went by pretty fast, the last 5 not so fast.  We thought we had done 5 miles, then we cam out on a parking lot and found out we had 2.5 more to do!

We came out of the woods at Katahdin Stream Campground, and went across the bridge to the Ranger Station to check in with them and get a daypack to use for our summit.  The Ranger told us the water supply for The Birches was the stream under the bridge that we had just crossed (inside Katahdin Stream Campground).  We stopped to fill our water containers and lo and behold our last Sawyer water bag busted!  We had nothing to squeeze our water into our bottles.  I had been using a soda bottle for one of my drinking bottles, so we used it as our dirty water bottle, but that put us two water containers down.  We didn’t have enough bottles to hold enough water for tonight and in the morning both.  We would have to come back to the water source in the morning before breakfast.  Not a good thing to happen on your next to last day and in a spot where there was absolutely no resupply place. 

The Birches campsite sure seemed a lot further than .2 up the road.  When we got there, the youg man we saw go by us this morning was already there (his name was Smurf or Smitz or something like that).  Later on Jurassic and Torch came in.  Flickertail came by with her parents, they were staying at Abol Bridge Campsite and her dad was going to hike to Katahdin with her tomorrow. 

Jurassic, bless his heart, gave us a liter bottle full of water.  Saved us a lot of trouble. Besides, we didn't have enough water bottles to make it to the top of Katahdin and back.  

The excitement was tangible as we all thought and talked about tomorrow’s summit of Katahdin.  We had all come a long way to get here, one way or another. 

We all finally made our way to our tents or shelters and called it an early night so we could get an early start tomorrow.  Sometime during the night another fellow named Ferrel came in and joined us for our summit.  

Youtube of Abol Bridge to Birches

Baxter State Park Boundary is in the middle of a bridge. 

Signing up for The Birches Campsite.

Ranger Station at Katahdin Stream Campground

Rainbow Stream Lean-to to Abol Bridge Campground

Day Fifty
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Rainbow Stream Lean-to to Abol Bridge Campground
15 miles

The profile today looks extremely nice, but as always we had lots of roots to navigate, slowing our pace tremendously.  We hiked from 5:30 a.m. to 1:30 and covered 15 miles.

Somewhere around Rainbow Lake walked past a fellow resting beside the trail and shared greetings with him.  Later while we were taking a break, he came upon us and started talking.  He shared that he had started the trail yesterday headed south but now was going back.  His pack was too heavy and his back and legs were hurting.  He needed to go back and rethink his plan.  He was very discouraged.  Wait-up helped him adjust his pack to give his legs some relief and gave him other pointers. 

We passed some other hikers breaking down their camp and they asked, “Is it all like this?”  I don’t know if they meant the terrain or the mosquitoes, but we could have told them, “No, it gets worse.”  We didn’t.  The trail continued to be swampy and rooty and we still had lots of mosquitoes. 

At the last lean-to, Hurd Brook, as we approached we saw a lady sitting on the raised floor eating her lunch.  As we got closer I realized – it’s Mariposa!  We had hiked with her back on Mt. Washington.  I had often thought about her as we maneuvered the hard sections and wondered how she did it and if she was still going.  Here she is, about to finish the trail.  We visited while we all ate lunch. 

We have looked at the AWOL guidebook many, many times and read about Golden Road and Abol Bridge Campsite and store, the Birches, Katahdin Stream Campsite and all the information about how to summit Katahdin.  Here we are about to experience it. 

We were never happier than when we were in the woods and suddenly saw the road in front of us.  Yee haw! We are out of the 100-Mile Wilderness! Oh my goodness, what a relief.  We did the first half in 4 days and the last half in 3 days.  Seven stinking days in the wilderness! 

When we came out on the road a lady standing beside the road with a box of donuts approached us and asked if we would like one.  Yes!  Then another one?  Yes!  She had brought them for her husband as she met him here when he came out of the wilderness ahead of us.  Celebrating!  Man, did we have something to celebrate!

We crossed Abol Bridge and looked for the view of Katahdin, but it was to cloudy to see. 

We went on to the campground store and restaurant and booked a cabin for the night.  ($86)  Took our packs to the cabin then back to the restaurant for lunch.  Wait-up had a huge fish sandwich, potato salad and coleslaw (which I had to help him eat), and I had a hamburger. 

While we were sitting there, Shroom came in with the dude whose pack was too heavy.  They rented a cabin together and sat at the bar the rest of the evening.  We had offered to help the fellow lighten his pack, but that never happened. 

We had to juggle our laundry in the laundry facilities along with some employees who were using them, but we got it done.  We had a good long afternoon to rest and contemplate the next couple of days making our way on up to Katahdin.