Day 5 - 7/20/2004 - The calm before the climb

OK - a bit too melodramatic.  Hunter and I ambled up the coast and inland to Milinocket ME.  We are staying in cabins about 12 miles from Kadahtin.  They open the gates to the mountain at 5am to hikers, and we were advised to get there before 5am to ensure we are not turned away.  The alarm clocks are set for 3:45 am (almost an alpine start) in order to get breakfast and get there.  Give the rain we saw on and off today, it's hard to tell if we will be able to do it on Wednesday.  Much of the 10-12 hours we will spend hiking is above the tree line on exposed boulders.  The defined turnaround point is about 1/2 way into the hike, so we will give it a shot and come back on Thursday if we are turned away.

The hike is about 4500 ft of elevation gain (I am working from memory) and runs over 10.4 miles.  I am hoping we can get up and down in 9-10 hours, with summit no later than 11 am.  That will hopefully get us below treeline before any chance meeting with a boomer.  The trail is fairly rocky, with multiple class 2 scrambles (non-technical climbs) and steep sections.  Should be interesting.

I had to get a new camera today - the other digital unit had some bad fogging due to humidity collected on top of Mt Mitchell (it seemed to work before then.  We will see how this one does.

The ankle is at 90% and should be OK.  I have a couple of supports just in case.