Despite the fact that I was in a hotel, in a bed, warm and dry and well fed, I didn't sleep well last night. I'm not accustomed to beds. It's not as if I sleep great in the sleeping bags, I just don't sleep any better in a bed. I know it's only a few more days till I'm home in my own bed. Till then I have to live with it. I got up early to put on all my hiking clothes. They were still damp from yesterday's rain. Since I was unable to successfully crank up the heat in the room to dry things out, I figured good old body heat would do the trick. I crawled back into bed and under the covers hoping to grab a few winks of sleep before having to get up.

When I couldn't take it any longer, I got up and woke Brandon. We sat for awhile on the edge of his bed eating the leftovers of our Chinese dinner from last night for breakfast and watching TV. Kung Po Chicken and Fried Rice aren't exactly breakfast fare, but it beats our normal course of oatmeal. By the time we finished breakfast and packed our gear, Whispering Pine's brother Pine Stump had arrived to shuttle us back to the Abol Bridge camp. We stopped at the store to pick up extra food to eat along the way.

Out at the camp no one was in much of a rush. With only seven miles to cover today, we were going to have a cookout, then hike to Daicey Pond in the afternoon. Virginia Creeper, Lone Wolf and Minty Fresh stayed at the camp last night and from the looks of things, spent the better part of the evening getting wasted and pitching horse shoes. A sign was placed at the bridge notifying other thru-hikers of the party, but Honey Bear and Rareback were the only ones to show up. Still we had a good time eating and relaxing.

Around 1:00, Brandon and I shouldered our packs for the hike into Baxter Park. It was a pleasant hike with most of the trail following the Penobscot River. We watched numerous rafts floating down river as we hiked along. It would have been nice to take more time and mosey along. At this stage of the hike I just wanted to get where we're going as soon as possible. A light rain had started to fall when we entered Baxter Park, so we just passed all the falls without stopping.

After paying our registration fee, we set up our tarp at the lean-tos. Little Moe and Chief were at the little lean-tos, and the others were up in the Library. Brandon and I hiked up to the Library and met Scooter and Wild Boar. We'd heard about them before but they had been behind us. Optimist, Jay Bird and Pepie were also there. We sat around for awhile reading and hoping to catch a glimpse of the mountain before heading back to camp.

Slowly the rest of the crew made their way into camp from Abol Bridge. Expectations were running high as we were climbing tomorrow and everyone wanted good weather for the ascent.

Today we woke up in our hotel room in Millinocket and had last night's leftover Chinese for breakfast. We packed up our semi-wet stuff and put on our semi-wet clothes, then waited for Pine Stump to pick us up. When he showed up, we took our packs downstairs and put them in the truck and piled in. He drove us all the way back to Abol Bridge where we got some drinks and partied all morning. I played Hide and Seek with the Pine Nuts (Whispering Pine's two nephews). Rareback and Honey Bear showed up in the middle of the day and had lunch with us. Wolf, Creeper, Papa Pine and Pine Stump were playing horseshoes.

Dad and I figured we should get going about 1:00, so we left everyone and started hiking the seven miles to Daicey Pond. We got there in a few hours and checked in. Then we walked down to the shelter and set up our tarp, because we wanted to leave room in the shelter. There is a library here where everyone was hanging out. Later, Pine, Joplin, Daddy Long Legs, and Shadow showed up and set up camp. Around 8:00, Minty and Seeker Street also showed up. We sat up in the library until the Ranger kicked us out at 8:30. Figured there was nothing else to do but go to bed after that.