Date: 2004-07-21
From: Abandoned Summit House, Top of Sugarloaf Mountain

To: Tenting at Piazza Rock Lean-to, Maine
Miles today: 19.8

19.8 miles todayTenting at Piazza Rock Lean-to, MaineI woke up at 6am and couldn't see 20' outside. I am in and out of clouds that are blowing by at about 30 mph and it's in the low 50s...not bad for July. I sat at the picnic table I slept on last night and made coffee and had breakfast.Tarzan was here when I woke up this morning. He came in after I went to sleep last night. We had met before on the trail and figured out it was Easter time in Erwin, Tn. I met Mouth at the same time.I made coffee and ate breakfast. I needed my coffee this morning because something was rattling in the wind last night and kept me up for a while. I hiked the 1/2 mile back down the mountain to the trail and started hiking the A.T. at 7:30am. I got to the top of Spaulding Mountain about 8:30am and kept on hiking another .8 miles to Spauding Mtn Lean-to and took a half an hour break and ate a snack. It's a beautiful day. I hiked on up to Lone Mountain and on my way down, I ran into 2 nobos. The girl was Wolf Wind and the guy was Scorpian. They both left around the 10th of March, but just met each other a couple days ago. I hiked down a steep trail and got to Orbeton Stream. I decided to eat lunch there. I took off my shoes and socks and sat down in the middle of the stream and ate and got clean at the same time. I feel very efficiant now that I can do two things at once. There were some butterflies on a rock and I got to within 6" of one and took it's picture. After I was done with lunch I made the steep climb up to Poplar Ridge at 3120'. I just cant get over what a beautiful day it is. That may have something to do with my location. I really love hiking in Maine and the rough terrain here. I hiked another half mile to Poplar Ridge Lean-to and took another break. I caught up to most of my sobos friends...Giddy Up, Commando, Cobweb, Caveman and Lunchbox. Commando said he got to see a bear this morning and Caveman got to see a linx chasing a rabbit. Caveman had his topo map out and I see that I still have 3 good climbs left today. They are the climbs up Saddleback Junior, The Horn and Saddleback. We hung around talking about 15 minutes before I hiked on. I got to the top of Saddleback Junior at 3655' after a pretty steep climb up. There are views everywhere today and there haven't been any mosquitos to tend with...it doesn't get any better than that. At 4:15, I got up to the top of The Horn after decending Saddleback Junior. This was another steep climb and I'm in an alpine area now and can see the trail leading over to Saddleback. It only took about 50 minutes to get to the top of Saddleback. I got my stuff out and ate dinner up there. The wind was blowing about a steady 10 mph, the sun was shining and I could see for miles in a 360 degree view. I watched Caveman coming up the trail for quite a while before he got here. There was a helicopter that was coming right at me and as it got closer, I got out my camera and stood up to take a picture. When the pilot saw me he turned it a little so he didn't go right over my head. He would have gone directly over me and only about 50' high over the top of this mountain. I spent about an hour up there. Originally, I was planning on tenting up there, but I didn't know it was alpine. I hiked on thinking I would find a suitable stealth spot before long. Just before 7pm, I found a real nice spring and drank about a litre of good cold water and filled up my bottle so I would have coffee in the morning. I kept walking, but the terrain is so rough that I haven't found any suitable stealth tent sites yet. I have been thinking that Maine and NH would be good states to carry a hammock to sleep in. It would really increase your options of where you could sleep. I saw one good spot to tent by a pond, but there was two guys there and I don't like to set up close to anyone when I stealth. I knew Cobweb had talked about staying by this pond, so I figured I would leave the spot open for him. I ended up hiking to Piazza Rock Lean-to and setting up my tent on a hard tent platform...yuck. I didn't want to come this far today because Mailar is picking me up at the Rangley road crossing at noon and I'm less than 2 miles from there. Looks like a good time to sleep in tomorrow morning. There were some nobos here. Circuit Rider, but not the Circuit Rider that I know. That seemed strange when he said he was Circuit Rider, I almost said; no you're not. There is two that I don't remember their names... Sour something and a girl. There is Huckleberry Finn who said he started his nobo hike the same day I finished my sobo hike on Feb 23rd. I didn't remember him, but he remembered that Hippie Longstockings was with me. He was hiking with a guy by the name of Stumps...I didn't like that name. It was the closest I've ever come across to my name. He was ok though because he gave me a root beer. I guess I'll let him live. Today was a fantastic day out here on the trail, one of my favorite of the hike. There were tough climbs, beautiful views, nice weather {the first day it hasn't rained on me in Maine}, no mosquitos and rough Maine terrain,and trail magic from Stumps. Life is good!! Another great day on the A.T.