Date: 2004-08-14
From: Poplar Ridge Lean-to

To: past N Crocker Mtn
Miles today: 19.4

The 3 older guys got out ahead of me but 7:40am wasn't a bad start time. It was still mighty wet and gray but it wasn't raining. Just 10 minutes up the trail was the summit of Poplar Ridge with a great view. No, really, there were blue clouds coming in and the gray ones were breaking up. What a relief. There were bright white clouds against the blue sky way up high. There were big puffy clouds out in the distance. There were gray wispy clouds coming out of the valleys below. It was all quite a sight.A couple of miles later, the trail, still quite wet, took a steep dive down to Orbeton Stream. My legs and feet were on autopilot, just bouncing off rocks and routes faster than my conscious mind could ever navigate. My ability to bound down a trail has always amazed me and been so exhilarating. Well it caught up to me this morning.There was a tree growing in the middle of the steep trail. There was a huge drop over a root to the left of the tree. My autopilot chose the right, an 8 foot stretch of sloping rock with its corner up like the ridge of a sloping roof. The rock of course was wet and covered with likens. The right and left sides were too steep to walk on leaving the sloping ridge as the best option. It may have been best but not good enough. My foot slipped off the ridge and sent me in a spinning fall to the left. My landing left me face down on my belly in the mud at the bottom of the drop form the tree root. My nose was an inch from the mud being save by my arms now in the down part of the push-up position. From my feet to my chest I was lying in the mud. There were a few good scrapes and shin bangs. My watch had been ripped off its band. Other than that, my physical self was fine. Now, that's not to say my ego hadn't taken a blow. My psyche was a bit shaken too. That could have been the end of every thing or at least the hike. Wow.After a moment to gather my thoughts, it was time to get up and shake the mud off. I searched for and found my watch and one of the two little pins that hold it to the band. The other was lost in the mud. I was able to hook the watch back on the band with the one pin. It didn't take much walking to realize this wasn't going to work. The thing kept flopping around on my wrist and that was just too annoying. It's one of those Velcro watch bands so I just hooked it to one of the loops on the left shoulder strap of my pack and all was fine. Not much further was Orbeton Stream. This was a pretty big stream and there was no bridge. There was lots of water and it was moving at a good clip. It was probably at least 50 feet to the other side. The bottom could be seen through the water and was all rocks and stones.The 3 guys from the shelter last night had just completed the crossing and were drying off. My boots were still soaked from yesterday and of course I was covered with plenty of mud. Changing to Crocks was silly. Just wear the boots and get them clean. It was a tricky crossing with such a strong current. The guys on the other side couldn't help giving me some pointers on where they had found success. The current had me teetering on the brink of disaster once or twice but in the end I stayed upright and mostly dry.On the other side I took the time to clean up a bit, put on dry socks and wash and ring out the wet ones. The 4th guy from the shelter showed up and we coached him across too. It all took a while but the water was actually refreshing and it was still before 10am.Before long the other guys were behind me. By 11:30am, 6 miles had slipped by and here was the summit of Lone Mountain at 3,280' with a perfect view of the rocky summit cone of Mount Abraham. This above tree line peak looked like it belonged in the White Mountains. It was a nice sight.Soon the trail brought me to Spaulding Mountain Lean-to. It was about noon and this was a great spot for lunch part 1. The last entry in the shelter journal was by Waterloo & Machine. Cool. They had stopped here this morning to dry out. That meant they had tented last night. More power to them. That must have been some night.Then, on a rock beside the trail, there was a brass plaque. It commemorated the completion of the Appalachian Trail back on August 14, 1937. Hey wow! I just realized while writing this that it was exactly 67 years ago today, August 14. That's cool. Much thanks to the good folks of the Civilian Conservation Corps. That must have been quite a time.The weather was getting better all day. Once again the trail plummeted. This time it was 1200 feet in 0.8 miles. There were no falls this time. The fine weather was drying the rocks. At the bottom loomed a ford of the Carabassett River. There are stories of chest deep fords in Maine. With all the rain there was a fair amount of concern on my part today. As luck would have it, someone had placed a 4 by 6 board across a couple of boulders in the river. It was a bit unstable but it worked. Yahoo.To say that the climb up South Crocker Mountain was steep would be an understatement. The trail climbed 1,400 feet in 1.1 miles. That kind of climb here came as a real surprise. The rewards were well worth it though. This was a small summit with tremendous views that included Sugarloaf Mountain, Mount Abraham and an amazing ridge ahead. Of course with out map there was no way to know if the trail would go there. Unknown to me at the time, this was the Bigelow Range and it was gorgeous.There were more stunning views from North Crocker Mountain. There was also a nice hunk of rock to sit on and have some lunch part 2. Both Crocker peaks were above 4,000 feet. It felt good to be up at this elevation again. It was 5:30pm and time to move on down the trail. Actually it was a descent to about 2,500 feet and a 3 mile hike to find a pristine camp site about a hundred yards from a stream crossing and a hundred feet from the trail. Sure it was a bit sloping, but chances were good no one had ever camped here before and no one ever would. It was perfect.The sun set through the trees at about 8pm. The stars came out as I finished dinner off with some yummy chocolate pudding. All that and 19.4 miles of tough hiking was followed by a great night of sleep in my cozy tent away from all disturbance. Ah yes, "Maine - the way life should be."