off the grid -White House Landing

Our first three days in the 100 mile wilderness have been rainy, muddy, buggy and downright gruelling at times. This hike is much harder than I imagined that it would be. There is little opportunity to establish a rhythm to the hiking, and too much stepping over roots, rocks and thick black muddy bogs to consider it normal hiking. The swarms of mosquitoes that home in whenever you pause for anything are annoying. Fortunately we have Lemon Eucalyptus bug spray. This stuff, unlike deet , which just masks your scent from the bugs, this actually repels them. If there are multiple people around you can see instantly the effect it has on the bugs. It's become a race to see who can get the spray on first when a particularly voracious bug cloud drifts upon us.

The upside however is that the scenery is wonderful, and in the occasional moments when it's not pouring with rain the vistas are immense and beautiful. One such moment was the summit of Nesuntabunt mountain. We had arrived at the top in the late evening and had a last light glimpse og Mt Katahdin in the distance. It was enough of a thrill to see it at last that we decided to risk a night on the top of the mountain. It was an awesome night for it: cool, dry and clear. It was so quiet up there we could hear the slight breeze coming up the back side of the mountain and voices from the fishing camp below drifting over the lake. Later in the night we heard loons and coyotes calling. A perfect lullaby. Wakeup call was very early, 3:30am to be precise. It was defintely worth it for the view of the sun coming up, lighting up Mt Katahdin and the lake below us.

We arrived yesterday afternoon here at White House Landing. It's an old Maine logging camp, and it's amazing. Not only is the location on Pemadumcock lake beautiful, but the camp is entirely off grid. No phone lines, no grid electric service or city water. The power is supplied by windmill and batteries, and a well spring provides clear fresh water. The owners provided a bunkroom, hot showers, and meals to hikers. They also have primitive laundry facilities, a tub, washboard and mangle, and they let us use their canoe to take a paddle out on the lake for the afternoon. The main food fare is a 1lb cheeseburger with all the trimmings. Yes, I actually ate a burger, the first time in who knows how long, and it contained a whole pound of meat! It was delicious, as was the home made brownie I ate as an appetiser. Today we've also enjoyed an all you can eat pancake breakfast and a home made pizza for lunch. We were the only guests here last night, but today more hikers have been trickling in since breakfast and now there is quitre a large group of SOBOs here.


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