PM: After crossing Rainbow stream over a pair of wobbly tree trunks we hugged the edge of Rainbow lake, passing a couple pulling a canoe out of the lake, a guy who about two hours ago saw a moose and wanted to warn us as if the moose was going to stand there the entire afternoon waiting for us to show up. Once we had traversed the length of the lake the trail took us upward to the Rainbow Ledges where the aforementioned moose was spotted. Not surprisingly there wasn’t a moose waiting for us at the top, however, a spectacular view of Katahdin with the afternoon sunlight highlighting its grandeur took my breath away. It was just too unreal to think I would be climbing that beast in two days. When Spoon and I got to Hurd Brook Lean-to Crocstar and Nick were enjoying a fire prepared by the shelter’s temporary resident. The guy staying here comes out for one or two weeks a year and basically lives between this shelter and Rainbow Stream Lean-to. It was great because he had a ton of firewood prepared and maintained the fire until we went to sleep that night. Spoon and I cooked our last meal together, I dried my sweaty clothes by the fire for the last time on this trip, and I fell asleep on the first and last baseball bat floors in the final night we would spent out in the woods on this wild adventure.

PM: Pennywhistle joined us shortly afterwards and then we all left the river at the same time. As we approached the side trail to Gulf Hagas we ran into a MATC ridgerunner from we which stopped and got some trail information. The gulf was formed by water eroding the slate walls of a narrow canyon resulting in a stretch of many spectacular waterfalls that as a result receives a lot of visitors. Pennywhistle hung around talking to the ridgerunner while Spoon and I moved on. At Carl A. Newhall Lean-to, where we initially planned on stopping, we took a break to eat some food and resupply water at Gulf Hagas Brook. Crocstar came hiking through from the side trail to the shelter and stopped for just a minute to chat before moving on towards Gulf Hagas Mtn. On the way up Gulf Hagas Mtn. I was astonished as to how much the trail had been maintained and that much of it looked like new trail as the dirt was still loose around the rock staircases. We hiked up two more peaks, I thought I saw Katahdin through the trees a few times. We couldn’t find the trail around Sidney Tappan Campsite, and finally made our way up White Cap to the final peak. I got in front of Spoon when he stopped for a Snickers bar and powered my way up White Cap but was hugely disappointed when I got to the top because all of the view was directed south so there was no view of Mt. Katahdin. I thought for sure we would finally get a peek at the monster we had been chasing for so long. From the peak, the rocky trail circled around to the other side of the mountain and when I broke my concentration from my feet and looked out over the horizon – I saw it. Far away in the distance a mountain that fit Pennywhistle’s description perfectly. Right then I knew I was looking at Katahdin in the distance and I was blown away. I pulled out my camera to take a few shots and then sat down on the trail to admire what the Indians call the “greatest mountain.” Spoon came up behind me and took a minute to relish the moment we had been waiting for so long. Unfortunately the sun was setting and we needed to get to the shelter so we continued down the mountain to our destination. A little while later we came upon Crocstar and Nick hanging around the shelter and we were the only ones who were there at the moment which we were stoked about. I had speculated that after all of the people we had seen the past few days that the shelter would be full. After dropping my pack I headed over to Logan Brook to fill my water and was warned by Nick to be careful not to slip and fall in as he had soaked his shoes earlier getting water himself. I came back just as dry as I left and prepared dinner for Spoon and I. Late that night Pennywhistle came into camp and we all wondered if Strider was going to make it to the shelter tonight. Pennywhistle and Strider had made a pact to summit Mt. Katahdin on the 7th of September because Strider had a plane he needed to catch. From tonight’s shelter they would have to do back to back 33 mile days to make it in time. And that is why you don’t buy a plane ticket out of Maine in advance.

PM: At the start of the 100 mile wilderness a pair of crutches hung from a branch in a tree and I wondered if that was a sign of what was to come or some kind of bad omen. Aside from my package of bagels squeezing out of my pack and having to go back and retrieve them it was a beautiful day to be hiking in Maine. The trail skirted the shores of North Pond and then followed Little Wilson Falls down to Little Wilson stream where the trail followed the stream for a few miles until I crossed over it and headed back up the mountain. Shortly after crossing the Canadian Pacific RR, I ran into a familiar face heading southbound. Her name was SnP (last saw her way back in Shenandoah NP) and she told me that she had spoken to the rest of the guys at the shelter up ahead. Hoping I would catch up to the group, I booked it to the shelter only to find it empty. I took a decent break, eating more food and making use of the privy. I was getting low on water but had no means to purify the source at the shelter because Spoon was somewhere ahead of me and I was worried about running out before I saw him again. Thankfully at the Long Pond Stream ford a pair of hikers were pumping water out of the stream and I asked them if I could use their pump to fill my Nalgene which I figured would be enough to get me up the mountain. They did me one better by filling my Nalgene for me while I got my Crocs on for the stream crossing and then steadied the rope while I made my way across. This was the deepest ford I had encountered so far on the trail with the water reaching my upper thighs. I skipped the next shelter in the interest of time and got to climbing Barren Mtn. as quickly as I could. Dusk was upon my by the time I got to the top of Barren Mtn. Another hiker had set up his tent at the very top and warned me that the trail did not go past his tent but around it. Apparently some hikers had stomped through earlier and I knew it had to be Spoon and the gang. I paused momentarily to take in the amazing sunset and then got moving again because I still had another mile to go before I hit the side trail to the shelter and was out of water. When I got to the shelter area the place was packed and just for location alone I could see how it attracted so many hikers. Spoon and I set up our tent with Cloud Pond just a few meters away and started to cook dinner. Crocstar and Nick had set themselves up at the shelter so I didn’t end up seeing them that night. Pennywhistle came into camp and cooked dinner beside us and we had a good chat while our food rehydrated. Just as we were about to eat we heard someone yelling for help back down the trail and blowing a whistle. We called back trying to figure out what was going on and if they actually needed assistance. Spoon, Pennywhistle, and I were just starting to hike back to the AT when the person in distress yelled back and said she was ok now. When she arrived in camp we immediately recognized her as Kermit who we had last seen in New Hampshire and she told us she had fallen in the dark and couldn’t find her headlamp and then got disoriented on the trail to the shelter. Strider had caught up to her and helped her get to the shelter. When everyone was settled down Spoon and I finished our dinner and promptly crawled into the tent to prepare for an early rise tomorrow.

PM: We all departed after filling our water at the spring and headed toward the summit of Pleasant Pond Mtn. which wasn’t a very pleasant climb being very rocky and rooty in addition to its steepness. The view from the top was just another testament to how beautiful the state of Maine is from above. The trail took me back down to the valley, around Moxie Pond, and through swampy forests before reaching the side trail to Bald Mtn Brook Lean-to. I thought I smelled the smoke from Crocstar’s cigarettes but I was motivated to just keep hiking. The trail turned from the usual dirt path to a rock slab covered by moss on either side of the narrow trail leading me closer to the top of the mountain. Soon the trees faded away and the trail was only identifiable by rock cairns set on top of expansive bare stone. When I had almost made it to the sign designating the Moxie Bald Mtn. summit I heard Spoon call my name from behind me and down the mountain I could see Spoon and Crocstar making their way up towards me. I snapped a picture of them on top of the summit as I made my way down, not really wanting to hang around too long because the sun was getting pretty low in the sky. As I left the summit, I had to make a bunch of moves to avoid large patches of mud that the trail had turned into. I was quite successful in keeping to the edges of the trail but as I hopped from one rock to the edge of the trail and landed in a bush, the bush pushed me back out to the middle of the trail and my boot sank a good couple of feet into the wet mud. I screamed “Noooooooo!” and struggled to regain my balance but the damage was already done. I hiked down the mountain to Moxie Bald Lean-to with a heavy, muddy, and wet boot and sock. When I got to the lean-to I was relieved to find only Nick’s gear inside but saw that at the edge of Bald Mountain Pond he was sitting with another hiker at a picnic table. When Spoon and Crocstar came into camp I was super pumped to tell them that we had a picnic table and they let out cries of excitement. Our reaction regarding a picnic table was not unfounded since it had been a really long time since we had had a picnic table at our shelter. They are very rare in New England. The guidebook states that there are “many moose in the area” and we were all hoping to see or hear moose at some point on the trail. We had a quiet evening with no moose activity and I read a Backpacker Magazine I had thrown in my pack from Pleasant Pond Lean-to then went to sleep.

PM: Around lunchtime I caught up to Crocstar eating a snack next to East Carry Pond. I thought about just passing him, but then I realized we were really in no hurry today so I sat down and took a break with him. A few minutes later it was time for him to get moving again, but I decided to stick around and enjoy the pond and its scenery. I pulled out my lunch and watched the water splash against the shore. I tried to give Cat a call once I was back on the trail, but I kept walking out of signal range dropping the call so I had to give up. The rest of the hike that day was one if the easiest in a long time. I only passed one southbound hiker that afternoon and the trail seemed deserted the rest of the time. Since I was all to myself and I had Croc’s earbuds from last night I pulled out my iPod and rocked out while I finished the final few miles of the day. I got to Pierce Pond Lean-to about 45 minutes after the rest of the guys and found Crocstar and Spoon hiding from the cool breeze coming off the pond in front of the shelter. Spoon was already in his sleeping bag and Croc was soon to follow. I asked where Nick had gone and they said he had left to investigate the boats that were tied up down the shore. I asked if anyone had signed us up for the breakfast tomorrow and they hadn’t. The book said it was a .5 mile walk to the camp and no one was motivated to go over there. Crocstar suggested that I try and give the place a call since we had the number in the guidebook. I didn’t have any service at the lean-to so I went back to the trail and walked a little way trying to pick something up, but I had no luck. I just decided to walk to the camp myself and make sure we didn’t miss out on the opportunity. When I got there nobody was around but a clipboard was hanging on a post with instructions on how to sign up. In addition to the pancakes there was options for egg, meat, and beverage so I signed all of us up for the most food we could get and guessed on what people would want to drink. When I got back to the shelter Nick was back sadly without a boat. All this thinking about food got me hungry so I got dinner started. All this time Spoon hadn’t moved from his sleeping bag so when dinner was finished cooking I told him I wasn’t going to feed him while he laid there and if he wanted some food he’d have to move. At some point that evening Nick thought about jumping into the pond and the rest of us told him he was nuts and it was too cold. Before we knew it he had leaped off the rocks and into the pond. He was out of the pond almost as fast as he went in however he said it was worth it but to us he looked freezing cold until he put warm clothes on. I’m sure that constant wind off the pond didn’t help warm him up. Lots of hikers ended up staying at the lean-to choosing to set up tents on the ridge behind the shelter and only one older gentleman squeezing into the shelter with the four of us. Later on while everyone was either reading or doing something quietly Spoon starts singing to himself and tensions were already high from being around each other for so long and I was annoyed with his selfish attitude today so I told him to be quiet. This ignited whatever things I had done to annoy him the past couple months so he started yelling at me. This wasn’t the time or the place to have this confrontation especially with some guy we’d never met before sharing the tiny shelter space with us. I let Spoon go off until he felt satisfied and then we just didn’t speak for the rest of the night. As the sun set over the pond the three other guys went down to the water’s edge while I enjoyed the view from inside the shelter. The loons made a bunch of noise flapping vigorously to take flight off the pond and lulled us to sleep with the sound of their calls.

PM: I traversed the saddle between the Horn and Bigelow, taking an excessive number of breaks to relieve myself than any normal person should. This was really dragging me down on a such a beautiful day that had so many breathtaking views along the Bigelow Range. You could see how glaciers cut through the land leaving these rugged mountain ranges flanked by immense lakes and ponds. After the scramble up to Bigelow Mtn. (West Peak) I could see the tower sitting on Avery Peak which marked my next big climb. Coming down West Peak it looked like a group of people making a lot of noise were on their way down Avery Peak in either really lightly colored jumpsuits or their birthday suits. Between the peaks is the Bigelow Col/Avery Memorial Campsite which is where I ran into a girl who called out that a thru-hiker was coming to her group I assumed was up the trail. She warned me that there were some crazy naked people who were hiking sans clothes as a “team building” exercise. I told her not to worry as I had seen crazier things on the trail and proceeded onward. I was paying more attention to the large boulders I had to climb up rather than the naked girls trying to get some clothes on as I got closer. The last thing I needed was to slip and fall with an audience making an already awkward situation worse. All of the straight ups and downs were really killing my knees. Today I would be able to say I officially have hiked over 2000 miles and it was really starting to wear on my body. At the sign signifying I had reached Avery Peak two girls, Katie and (Sara?) were sitting with their dog Max. I walked up and said “Hello” and then I think I turned my head too fast or something because my foot slipped off one of the rocks and I couldn’t recover and ended up falling backwards off the peak, bouncing off the sharp rocks and rolling to a stop in a lot of pain. I had injured my knee, butt, and my pride so I sat there for a minute before I could pull myself up. The two girls immediately asked me “Did you hit your head?” and I told them I was pretty good about avoiding damage to the important parts of my body and that this was typical for a guy named “Hazard”. I left to head down the mountain with a bruised body and bruised ego. I had to descend almost 2000′ down to Safford Notch before beginning my final climb up to Little Bigelow Mtn. What really kills hikers on this section is that you go over six or more false peaks before finally reaching the top. Along the way I made sure to get a self picture at the sign for the Old Man’s Head side trail which now marks the new location where hikers have completed 2000 miles on the AT. No time was wasted at the top of Little Bigelow as I just wanted to be done with the day and get to the shelter. At the shelter I asked Crocstar for his earbuds and sat on a log near the campfire with the loudest music I had on my iPod preparing dinner for Spoon and myself. I had made another 5-6 stops since the last time I saw the group and it had no signs of getting any better. The older couple who shared the shelter with us had met Annie and told her she couldn’t do 20+ miles through the Whites and we told them that she was still trucking hard and fast. There was an extra register at the shelter that was used for hikers to give their “2000-mile awards”, where hikers could list the greatest moments on the trail. It was fun to look at other hiker’s lists and say that we had done this and that or not and reflect on all of the awesome things we had done so far.

PM: The lady staffing the library kicked me out when the library closed around 12:30 pm. Crocstar had left much earlier to sort out his resupply situation, but when I got back to the room everyone was laying around watching TV. I kick started the resupply conversation by discussing with the guys the details of our schedule that would take us to Monson and then ultimately to Katahdin. What the reader may not realize is that in order to feel confident in buying the exact amount of food we have to hammer out a schedule we know we can stick to and make commitments to be in certain places on time. I guess this is the kind of all or nothing approach that helped us move up the trail as quickly as we have. For this resupply Spoon and I decided to move away from the model we have used the entire trip and agreed to handle breakfast and lunch on our own and only have a communal dinner. This allowed us to satisfy our personal cravings without affecting the others budget or pack weight. After picking up the goods and repackaging them into our food bags we needed to figure out how we were going to get our laundry done. Instead we all ended up getting wrapped up in watching “Liar, Liar” on TV blowing away a couple hours. Needless to say none of us were very motivated to get anything done today. After the movie Spoon asked someone at the Inn if we could use the washer but we were denied so I walked across the parking lot to the hostel and asked Susan if I could do a load of laundry for a reasonable price since we weren’t staying with her. I put up $5 and then went back to collect the guys and their clothes. While our clothes were churning we sat down for dinner at the Inn but the cook and owner were still not back from a wedding reception they catered that afternoon. We sat around for awhile in no hurry and asked for the remote to the big flat screen near our table and watched some TV and Spoon and Crocstar played chess with the pieces provided at the table. When everyone returned from the reception and the kitchen got fired up, I ordered one of those Wolf burgers that had bacon and a sausage patty on it. After dinner, my food induced coma made it so I couldn’t move very far from my bed and I passed out sometime around 9:00 pm.

PM: From the river we had to gain roughly 2000 feet in just over two miles to the top of South Crocker Mtn. which resulted in some pretty steep sections to get to the top. On my way up I stopped for a moment on a rocky stair climb and looked over to see a toad staring at me from under a rock. He sat, unmoving, judging me for being so slow and out of breath. The top of South Crocker was not the end by any means and I had to hike over the mile long saddle to reach the slightly higher peak of North Crocker where Spoon had taken a break. All that was left was a long and steep descent down the mountain to Maine 27 where we got picked up in a matter of minutes. This road had a great reputation for being a great spot to hitch a ride. UCOC got picked up by Susan who runs the hiker hostel in Stratton when some other hikers he met at the road had called her and he was in the right place at the right time. Crocstar later told us that he got a ride without even putting his thumb out by a guy going the opposite direction. He’s got a gift. Our hitch offered Spoon a beer which he gladly accepted, while she knocked one back and they both sang Space Oddity at full volume as we rolled into town. The song wasn’t over when we got to the White Wolf Inn parking lot so Spoon and our hitch belted out the final verses as UCOC wandered over and stared in amazement. He wasn’t sure if we were going to have a hard time meeting back up in town since he didn’t have a phone, but he said there was no way anyone could have missed hearing us coming. I went into the Inn and booked us a room for two nights since we had all unanimously agreed to take a zero day in Stratton for a few reasons:

1. Spoon, Crocstar, and I had not taken a zero day since our break in New York City.
2. Tropical Storm Danny was forcasted to hit the Maine coast tomorrow along with a cold front bringing rain from the west. We did not want to be hiking in that.
3. Our bodies were just plain worn out. I for one felt like my body was falling apart.

Crocstar finally called me around 5:00 pm letting me know he was in town. I directed him to our room and he told us that he ended up sleeping pretty late into the morning and that his ribs were hurting him pretty bad today slowing him down. The Inn was pretty small, only having 10 rooms available, but on the first floor was their restaurant which served daily dinner specials. Tonight’s special was a fish fry of fried halibut with french fries and cole slaw for around nine bucks, but the real kicker was that an entire second plate of food was on the house! Crocstar and I killed off two plates each of food while Spoon ordered the Wolf Burger which featured a sausage patty in addition to the beef. After dinner we went to Fotter’s Market to pick up beer and I bought some Ben & Jerry’s that ended up being a huge mistake because I went to bed with a nasty stomach ache. That really didn’t bother me too much because I knew when I woke up tomorrow I didn’t have to move if I didn’t want to or hike 20 miles in the rain.