What a beautiful place to wake-up to! The sky was clear, with a rose sheen on our mountain peak. I could stay here all day. But breakfast will be served at 7:30am so I packed up, headed to the store. Then waited.

Toto showed up and was terribly sick. Oh no! Only two more days to summit and he doesn’t feeling well. His glands were swollen, he has a fever and zero energy. There was no one at the store, so the only option is to get ahold of a Ranger. I didn’t have cell phone coverage, no Wi-Fi and was no help. Luckily the Ranger was able to radio help and within 30 minutes, a shuttle driver from the AT Hostel arrived. She drove Toto to the ER. I bided him farewell and will call Toto once I get out of here. So sad after walking 2190 miles just to not finish the last 8 miles. He’ll be back, I am sure of it.

Breakfast was served at the Abol Store. Typical continental style with eggs, sausage, French Toast sticks, bagels and cream cheese. It’ll suffice and get us down the road. Wedding Walker and I left around 9:30, as Juice wasn’t in any rush to leave. We had an easy ten mile hike to Katahdin Stream CG.

We walked through more forests and along a river for most the morning. The fog had come in and blanketed the trees with mist. The ground was damp but not the mud and muck we’ve had for so many miles. After awhile we stopped along a granite slab that protruded into the Nesowadnehunk Stream that flows into the Penobscot River. We sat for a bit and watched a kid float down the River on an inner tube. What a great way to relax for the day, cold but fun.

We crossed a few rivers but nothing that we couldn’t rock hop. Some of the rivers were fairly large but the water wasn’t flowing like the last few days. There may be a change in the weather here in Maine. Hopefully they will enjoy some amount of summer, even if it’s just a week or two.

There were many ponds on our way. Most had loons on them, floating around. I was bound and determined to find a moose today, stopping and looking, listening to any crackling in the bushes and trees, but still no moose. I’m starting to think that there are no moose in Maine! Maybe someone comes out in the middle of the night and places moose droppings on the ground to trick me into thinking here are moose?!?! It could happen.

This area of Baxter Park is frequented by many campers and dayhikers. I saw more people on the trail today than I’ve seen in weeks. This group of four gals who call themselves The 4 M’s were quite impressed by my near completed hike to Katahdin. They raised their sticks and ushered me through the gauntlet. It made my day, and Wedding Walker also was christened by their super gauntlet powers.

We arrived at Katahdin Stream Campground around 1pm and found our site. It was a Lean-2 with a picnic table and quite primitive. The grounds around our site were thick with fallen trees and a trickling Brook. Not the most scenic of all places but definitely proper place to stay, especially when it started to rain.

Blue arrived and brought provisions, snacks, fruit and beer. We all sat around and shared our tales from the past few days. Blue went back to Shaws Hostel and met up with Mary Poppins. She was so surprised to see Blue and what a great reunion they had. Blue also saw the boys, Cassain, Otie and Garfield. She drove the gang to dinner in Greenville and received the new and more fitting name of Bluber, a Blue Uber. Quite appropriate. Blue plans to hike Mt. Katahdin with us tomorrow, as she should. She has started this hike and this will be the finishing jewel.

The Ranger came around and presented us with our Purple Tag which allows us to hike Mt. Katahdin tomorrow. It’s more symbolic as we don’t need to present it to anyone but the yellow receipt needs to be given to the Ranger as we leave the Park. This way they can keep all hikers accounted for and documented. I should’ve asked her how many people summit each year? Close to 30,000 people attempt to hike Mt. Katahdin every year.

So here I am, the final night in Maine. It’s bittersweet, but it is also exciting to be here. We had a brief rain shower this afternoon which is par for course. I’d be miffed if we hadn’t had rain for more than two days! I decided to sleep in the Shelter tonight. This could be my last time sleeping in one, at least on this trail Wedding Walker is a Shelter Guy and Juice likes sleeping in his tent. But being we want to get up early to start hiking, Juice decided to commandeer Shelter #1 that is unoccupied. He snores pretty darn loud and didn’t want to keep us awake. I hate to say this but even with him in the Shelter down the way from us, we’re still going to hear him. That’s my final rest on the north end of Appalachian Trail. More to come in the morning.