Date: 2006-07-19
From: Oquossoc, Me

To: Stratton, Me
Miles today: 16.7
Weather: clear sky

I woke up at 5am and didn't really feel like getting up yet, but I knew we were planning on getting an early start today, so I got packed up and walked across the street to the Stratton Diner and got there just when they opened at 6am.I had a good breakfast and even had the waitress fill up my coffee mug to take with me.I dropped Mrs Gorp (she's walking north today) off at the Stratton trailhead, then I took a short cut that Don told me about to the trailhead at Flagstaff Rd.Mrs Gorp started walking at 7:10am and I was walking by 7:40am.When Mrs Gorp asked me which way I wanted to walk today, I told her I'd like to go north. I really wanted to go south because going north was a long ascent with no breaks.I just had a feeling that she was going to take the way I wanted to walk today, so I ended up getting to walk south anyway when she said that I've had my way everyday with which way I wanted to walk.She's so easy. ;-)))Mailar was sitting here when we discussed it and he even said; "No, you don't want to go north...that's the hard way."She just knew that if I wanted to go north, there must be some reason. Ha!!! :-)))Anyway, I walked south today and had two long climbs, but at least they were broke up with a nice descent.I passed by the side trail to Little Bigelow Lean-to without stopping.I got to the summit of Little Bigelow Mountain and took a short break.There was some bear scat on the trail just before the summit and I would say it was in the extra large catagory. :-)))The views have been awesome this morning and the weather has eased up some. The humidity is noticeably less and there have been almost no bugs bothering me...yet.Flagstaff Lake is down in the valley and adds to the views through the fir trees. This is beautiful country!!I walked on and got down to Safford Notch, then started my second big climb up to Avery Peak.I saw a nobo by the name of Tom about half way up, then when I got to the peak, I ran into Mrs Gorp.I had been out of water for a while, so I asked her about the spring just before the summit on the south side of the mountain.She said it was nice and cold, so we walked down to it and sat there and ate lunch.I had packed in a roast beef hoagie and that along with lots of nice, cold water made a good lunch.I walked on after lunch and I caught up to a sobo named Allison just past Bigelow Col.Not long after that, I ran into a nobo by the name of Yatzee.When I got up to South Horn, I sat down and took about a 5 minute break and just enjoyed the breeze and the views.I walked by Horns Pond Lean-to without stopping, then started my long descent.The last 3 miles of the walk were getting buggy. The deer flies were coming out strong and I flatted a bunch of those buggers. :-)))I had to wear my headnet for the last part of today's walk.I got to the Stratton trailhead at 4:25pm and sat in the shade to wait on my ride.I had to move away from the brush because the mosquitos were coming out after me.I ended up sitting on the pavement for a little over an hour and I flattened a bunch more deer flies.Mrs Gorp showed up and said she had taken a wrong turn and it took a while for her to find her way out.We got back to Stratton and I got a shower before we went out to eat.I was going to ask Don to come along with us, but his Jeep was gone when I got ready to leave.We drove up to Mainely Yours to eat and Don's Jeep was there, so we went in and joined him.Susan, Don's partner came in and the four of us had dinner and talked about hiking and the trail.I got to talk to Shortcut for a while, but I was tired tonight and ended up falling asleep early.I'm getting way behind in answering emails again, but hopefully will be able to catch up Friday when I get this next section of trail done.I'm also hoping to upload a bunch of photos on Friday.Oh yeah, I'm not sure why, but the guestbook entries haven't been getting forwarded to my pocketmail, so I don't get to see those until I get to a computer.I will get caught up again!! :-)))