Miles: 10.8
The morning started off with Highlander making us pancakes with grape jelly. Can't complain about that! He was trying to unload some of the extra food weight before doing White Cap today.
After breakfast, we did a hard ascent up to Logan Brook lean-to, where we took almost an hour break. It was 8 am and my feet were already sore. We got some water to replace the icky, brown beaver water that we had to drink at East Branch lean-to last night. We then finished the ascent up to White Cap, where we treated ourselves to "elevensies." Gorp, lemonade and spectacular views - can't beat it. White Cap is the only mountain, other than Katahdin, that we've gone above treeline (so far). When that happens, you can see for miles and get the added bonus of swarms of blackflies. Well, there's always a trade-off, right?
On the way down and around White Cap, we chatted with another hiker, Dave, who is heading north. He was getting eaten alive by blackflies, whereas Kevin and I were staying relatively intact. This leads me to believe that bugs go for different people at an inconsistent rate. Is there a genetic predisposition to getting knawed on alive? Or is it an instinct of the more gifted sections of the gene pool that leads one to know to bring a huge can of fly dope? The research will continue as we hike on through Maine.
After White Cap (not as bad as I had imagined!), we still have 3 more mountains. So, up we went, then down we went, up we stumbled, then down we stumbled, up we crawled, then down we limped... all the way to the lean-to.
On the way, we saw a 79 year old woman finishing up her section hike of the AT. When I'm limping around these mountains, I just think that's phenomenal.
We saw some of the most beautiful views since Katahdin today. Of course, from White Cap you could see Katahdin. From every mountain around here it seems you can see Katahdin.
In addition to the rivers, ponds, mountains, hills and forests, we also saw where logging is occurring. We've passed quite a number of old and new logging roads ("tote roads") on our trip. Also, at Hurd's Brook and on the way to Rainbow Stream lean-to, we could hear the logging companies cutting up the trees. It's an odd feeling to know that outside our protected little corridor of forest, the trees are being cut down. Kind of sad, but, in the same regard, I do enjoy my toilet paper, newspaper, etc.
All in all, today felt like I hiked 20 miles. The ascents aren't too bad, but the descents are killing my knees (ouch!) and the soles of the feet. Blister count = 3, and I consider myself to be lucky.
It's 8:30 - bed time, so I'm off.
- Battered Bobo