The day was going to be long, but just downhill, so we got out of bed
late. I took on the task of being the morning's cook, the first batch
of Oatmeal was great. Now I was discharged from the second batch
because I was a little behind in my packing. Robert, after eating all
trip from dirty plates, the floor, the soles of boots, decided that he
did not want the second batch of oatmeal from a dirty pot. Woman who
understands them, Oh wait...
After breakfast, the artful craft of sled packing continued. This time, the packing would be crucial, since we would be sledding the way down from chimney pond to roaring brook. First, we had to resort group great, since food and fuel had been consumed. Mike who carried most of the food, got the short end of the stick, he got stuck with all the bulky group gear items!. I, having carried only non-consumable items, had my pick of what to get rid off. Robert, by some magic or witful exchanges, was able to have the slimmest sled. (I give him credit in the art of packing, it was really a masterpiece of sled). He had rigged his, as to be able to sit in the middle, very close to the ground and ride it like a pony. Mike and Bill managed something similar albeit less professional. I personally thought that I had a good setup for sledding, but proved later to be wrong.
At 10:30 we departed and the fun began. Robert "snowplow" Zeithammer went first catching some high speeds; Bill and I followed, and Mike joined few minutes later. I unfortunately was very frustrated, my high center of gravity made it extremely difficult to stay upright. I said to myself "Great, I am going to be the only fool that will walk down this trail, all of my friends will have to wait for me". To further make my life more difficult, I found Bill's poles on the trail. After a quick radio exchange, Bill was way down, and I decided to carry his poles which made my sled more difficult to maneuver. After 15 minutes of fighting with my sled, I remembered that I was wearing a helmet, and so I had not tried one thing: head-first lugging!!, I got on top of that puppy, pushed it and lied on top of it.. this made my center of gravity lower, and my aerodynamic profile slimmer. I was soon catching some serious wind (and of course winning in the wipe out contests, at one point while falling into a powder bank at high speeds, the spit me more than a body length from it); fortunately (or unfortunately) I was alone (with a radio for safety and Mike behind me), so no one would see it or record it.
We reached basin pond. This is a beautiful flat pond that affords
some majestic views of the mountain. We were all together again.
Robert queried me how his sled has 200 yards in front of us. I
thinking of my wipe outs, replied "you were coming really really fast
and fell off the sled?", he corrected "no, I put a sail on it!!!". I
was impressed, I think we have a plethora of wilderness-technologies,
that will make our next trip a breeze. In another half an hour we
were down at Roaring Brook. I cannot stress how fun is to be able
to sled 3.3 miles, 1500 feet elevation loss in 45-60 minutes (and I
have heard of people who have done better time...had I done my lugging
earlier...)
The sun was out in full strength. The temperatures had risen to high
30's, low 40's. Fortunately it was in the end of the trip. Had it
been this warm earlier, I would have cancelled the trip (I mean is
suppose to be a winter hike). Now we would have to master another
technique, skiing downhill with sleds. The trick I learned is to keep
the legs slightly bent (otherwise the sled poles can push you from
behind), and push with your poles like an animal, if the sled passes
you, you lose. We had some excellent displays of wipe out technique
from Mike and Bill, fortunately for them, they were too distant to be
caught by a camera.
The day proceeded with the "woosh-woosh" of the XC skis. It was
better going, since there were a lot of downhills and the trail was
packed by the rangers. We each proceeded at our own pace. We took a
scenic-detour at Rum Pond. This pond affords other complete views of
the mountain. Although it does have some really steep sections of
skiing. The day was made a litter more pleasant with Hot Tea provided
by mama Robert. It is so nice to carry one of those on trips...
We reached the parking lot at 5:30pm. And proceeded with the
expected: To pull Bill's truck out of the snow, luckily we had
shovels. A dig here, dig there allowed us to move the truck a bit but
not too much. Robert had the smart idea of fetching some dirt and
putting it on top of the snow, I must add that this works wonderfully.
(I think this is what Scott's usage of carrying kitty-litter in the
car is). After 45 minutes of pushing and shoving we got the car out.
Being safe people (and the presence of Hector 'safety' Briceno) we decided we would not head all the way to Boston that night. Having seen an Olive Garden in Bangor (Bangor mall exit, 51?), the dinning place was agreed upon (I had been dreaming of salad and pasta all of the hike back). We had a small discussion of the largest plate with the waiter. There was the "Colors of Rome" with ravioli, chicken parmesan and cannelloni al forno and then there was the "Tour of Italy" with lightly breaded chicken parmesan, hearty homemade lasagna classico and creamy fettuccine alfredo. I went with the later and was completely satisfied. We slept in the Motor Inn across the street; To pass time, we rented a movie called "Midnight Tease", I was somewhat perplexed by the hotel attendant commenting that it was a very bloody movie (that was not the comment I was expecting). The movie revealed Bill's cunning brain to break down and discover the plot very quickly (could it be that he had seen it before?). Bill also discovered the ineffectiveness of soap as a substitute for shampoo.
The next day, we were greeted by a snow storm (great another long drive back to Boston, I still have not figured out who of the other three is the one who brings such storms...). A breakfast stop at Denny's provided some time to wait out the storm. We had large breakfasts: The Lumberjack, three pancakes, three eggs, sausages, ham, and hash brown. I finished all of mine (I will not say about the others). We also discovered Mike's resemblance to Meg Ryan (did you see "When Harry met Sally"). He wanted his egg turn slowly over the grill, not too fast, the hash browns in little small half-inch pieces, sausages lightly brown (of course I am exaggerating a bit, but you get the picture). He also incriminated himself in the butter disappearance crime, by accidentally revealing the fact that he does not like butter that much. Had we only known this before!!!.
The storm had ceased a bit, and we proceeded back to Boston. We got
back at 4:45pm, to notice that no one was working the desk (and that
we would have to). In the next two hours, we unpacked the sleds
sorted out gear, had pizza, and played cards (we never played cards in
the mountain, it is a myth that people do...).
I must say I really enjoyed the trip and the company, Katahdin is really a photogenic and beautiful mountain, enhanced by the fact that you have to work to get to it.
I would like to thank our sponsors, Luke Sosnowski and Matt Reagan for procuring the TalkAbout (tm) radios; Rob Jagnow for participating in Pemigewasset preparatory hike and in the planning process at Elvios; Toys'r'us for provided the first version of the Turbo-boggans; Walmart for providing the second generation sleds, the Pelica-boggans; Star Market for providing the vapor barrier socks. The park ranger and reservation attendant for the help and advice; Kraft for providing the 12 sticks of butter (which we only used 7 or so); And the MIT Outing club for giving us support and gear.
