Date: 2015-08-08
From: Katahdin Ironworks Rd. 

To: Logan Brook Rd. 
Miles today: 14.9

We continued our northward trek today at Katahdin Ironworks Rd., known to local Mainers as KI Rd. After a quick, early breakfast at Pete's Place, we hopped in the shuttle with Dawn, our driver. It took her about an hour to get us out to our starting point on the AT, so we didn't get started until after 7 am. We had to ford a river about a half-mile into the hike, so we came prepared - we wore our Crocs (our wading shoes). The river was wide, with a slick rocky bottom, but it wasn't a major obstacle. This was our only ford today, so when we reached the other side, we pulled on our hiking boots. The next 6 miles was a slow steady climb along a noisy, cascading mountain stream, then the trail turned sharply upward as we headed up Gulf Hagas Mountain. The river we forded is at about 700 ft. and the top of Gulf Hagas is about 2,700 ft. So we had a healthy climb and I think we made it to the top about 3 hours after we started. One feature of today's trail section is that there are a number of sections where the local trail club (Maine AT Club) has built stone steps up the hillside. Some are only 6 or 8 steps, but in some cases there are 30 or more steps. We've seen teams of volunteers installing these steps and it's incredibly labor-intensive. We'd like to think they put the steps in to help hikers, but I think the real motivation is erosion control. The route we took today is very popular among local hikers, and we saw a lot of hikers, literally dozens, on the trail. Gulf Hagas was the first mountain, then came West Mtn and Hay Mtn. The latter 2 were both around 3,200 ft., but the climbs were much shorter since we stayed up on a sort of ridge. After Hay Mtn., we descended to 3,000 ft., then climbed about 650 ft to the top of Whitecap Mtn. Whitecap is not above tree line, but there is a large, open rocky area at the summit where a number of hikers had stopped to rest and enjoy the extraordinary view. The temp was cool and there was a slight wind, but the sun was out and there were lots of puffy clouds. We didn't stay too long, it was about 1:00 and our shuttle was coming at 3:00, over 3 miles and 2,000 ft below. We hustled down and fortunately the terrain wasn't too tough (more stone steps), and we made it on time. On the shuttle ride back to Shaw's in Monson, we saw 2 moose, one was sort of obscure in a bog, but the other was in mowed grass only about 20 ft off the road, so we got a good look. Now we've seen 4 moose on this hike. At the end of the day we were tired and glad to be back. The hike went well and now we're about halfway through the 100-mile wilderness. I forgot to mention that we met Ranger this morning at the trailhead and he hiked with us. At the end of the hike, he traded his slack-pack for his backpack (the shuttle driver brought it back out) and he's camping out again tonight. Tomorrow morning we'll bring his slack-pack again and repeat the process. We're watching the weather carefully, it's not looking good for next week. We decided that if we get a good day between now and next Thursday, we may climb Mt. Katahdin first, then come back to finish the other approach hikes. We don't care what order the hikes are in.