(Daily Mi: 14.5) Easy walk to Abol this morning. Pretty flat and very cherry trail bed near the end. Nice to pop out onto the road. Nice folks at the campground. Very thru hiker friendly although the campground itself is really geared for car camping and trailers -- more than a few Airstreams w/ little picket fences out front.

We are there early enough that we could pretty easily have made it to Katahdin Stream, but the weather is kind of grim and Crusader, Chile and I are all pretty well locked into summiting in two days and so we buy malt beverages, hot dogs and pizza and pitch at one of the commercial spaces at Abol.

John passes Abol a couple of hours behind us. He actually looks a little whipped, but is too afraid of Crusader to stop and heads on into the park.

Bucky camps nearby but is generally irascible and ignores us in favor of a successful effort to cadge hot grilled sausage off one of the long term neighbors.