Date: 2008-09-10
From: Safford Brook Trail, ME

To: Maine 27
Miles today: 10.3

Well¢¦up at 6:45 a.m. but not wanting to get up, I was so tired for some reason. It was a cool brisk morning, but at least the sun was up. We headed out around 7:30 a.m. and were driving via Sue¢s shortcut to get over to East Flagstaff Rd., which would take us to the Safford Brook Trail. We found it without a hitch and I was hiking by 8:45 a.m.The Safford Brook Trail is a pretty nice 2.2 mile trail up to the notch between Big Bigelow and Little Bigelow Mtns, so the elevation climb is not that significant. Actually, the whole first mile is literally flat, so I was up to the AT within 1 hr. I headed sobo now, to hike back to Maine 27, so this would take me over Avery Peak, West Peak, South Horn and then down to the road.The trail had giant house-sized boulders, green moss as always, pine and spruce trees and it was 1.9 miles up to Avery Peak.   It was rocky in some places and steep in others, but I can¢t really categorize today¢s hike (overall) as the most difficult hike in the world. I did have just ¢one of those days¢ though¢¦you know, like the kind of day when you get up and all the little annoying things go wrong for no obvious reason.As I climbed, I noticed the wind was wicked strong. It was one of the hardest days of body temp regulation I¢ve ever had out here. Yes, the sun was out, but it was very cool and the wind, well¢¦once I got almost to Avery Peak, I was having to brace myself again and it was freezing cold up there. I put my long sleeved shirt and rain jacket on for wind protection and headed to the top of Avery Peak.Wow¢¦that¢s all I can say about the view up there. I so wish I could have stayed longer but any skin exposed to that frigid wind was numb in minutes. I think the windchill was probably in the high 20¢s. I could see forever though, and did not realize just how big Flagstaff Lake was. Man, this thing is HUGE. I found out later that it¢s a man-made lake and when it was first built, they flooded some towns to build the lake and it was the largest man-made lake for a long time. I could see forever in 360 degrees, Sugarloaf Mtn. and all of its ski runs, Little Bigelow, which I¢d be going over tomorrow and basically what felt like half the Earth. It was quite amazing.I¢ve been told you can see Mt. Katahdin from here, but I had no idea which mountain it would have been.   There¢s a small building on the very top of Avery peak, I think maybe for fire watches, but I¢m not sure. The steps leading to the door are missing, so if you want to crawl into this thing, you¢d have to be pretty tall I think. I sat on a side of it trying to allow it to block the wind, but it didn¢t block it completely. I really wanted to eat lunch up there, but there was just no way¢¦too cold.The trail then leads down and then right back up to West Peak with the same spectacular view and wind. Finally, I started down for about 1 mile and got some protection from the trees, but it was still very chilly. I stopped at a little campsite and ran into Ghost and Dr. Dick. I sat there and talked to them a bit, and got really cold, so I had to put my gloves on this time. All day it was on/off/on/off with rain jacket, gloves, and long sleeved shirt. Pretty annoying really, but I absolutely did not want to get sweat soaked.It was another 1 mile of little ups and downs to get to South Horn. On the way, I met 2 great people, Ellen and Mike. They are what¢s called 115¢ers. There¢s 115 peaks in the northeast that rise at or above 4,000 feet, and these 2 folks have climbed all of them over the past 6 years. It¢s another subculture of hiking and pretty interesting. Much like how people try to push the envelope with setting speed records, etc. on the AT, people who ¢bag¢ these peaks (a term used in their community) have crazy challenges like trying to bag them all in 6 months, or trying to bag them all twice in the same year, etc. Brings it right home that humans in general always have to try to set some higher standard, always have to create elite categories or outdo one another. I suppose that quality is what got us into space and what allowed us to make some pretty amazing advances, but sometimes I think it can get out of hand too. Anyway, it was cool talking with Mike and Ellen, and they let me pass them.I started seeing all the hikers that were staying at the Stratton Motel, as they came nobo. I saw Racoon again and ran into Buttercup and Duck, which I was glad because I hadn¢t gotten their picture. They¢re moving to an island off the coast of Virginia, but we¢re all planning on getting together and doing some trailmagic next year!I got to the top of South Horn, it also had a great view and was cold, and then it was a steep descent to the Horns Pond Lean-to. The original lean-to, constructed by the Civil Conservation Corps, is still standing for day-use only, not overnight, but there¢s a new lean-to and tent pads too. Mike and Ellen were there and I decided to stop for a late lunch at 2:45 p.m. They admitted they¢re now talking about this concept of hiking the whole AT, since I explained that was what I was doing when I saw them earlier. Well, I turned into one enthusiastic preacha¢¦and yes, I gave the hammock sermon too.They headed on and down the Horns Pond Trail (I think that¢s the name) and I branched off and stayed on the AT. It was 1 more mile of short up and then across, but it was steep and bouldery in places. Finally, I reached the beginning of the 4 mile descent all the way down to Maine 27. I was actually quite tired already, and was pretty glad I¢d decided to split the Bigelow¢s instead of doing the whole 16 mile range like I originally planned.On the way down this 4 miles, you start noticing the trail has different characteristics in different elevations. This includes the types of trees but also the type of trail, from steep and rocky, covered in pine needles, rocky, rooty, muddy, and eventually flatter. I suppose this is to be expected considering these mountains were all formed at the same time around here huh?So by this time, I¢m getting fatigued. I can always tell when I start easily tripping or rolling my ankles. I stopped (again) to take my rain jacket off, and then discovered the bite valve of my drinking tube was missing. Damn¢¦this is Camelbak¢s fatal design flaw in my opinion. I¢m using Nalgene canteens, but way back in Franklin, TN I needed a new bite valve and could only find a camelbak one, and modified my setup to fit it. Well, I¢ve since lost 3 tips, so it¢s annoying. It means there¢s no flow regulation so when I bent over to lean on a rock for a steep step, my water goes pouring out of the tube. Argh¢¦I¢m trying to blow it off and so I was hiking along and had one of those bizarre ¢power of thoughts¢ moments. I was thinking about how many hikers complain about the large roots in the Maine¢¦going across the trail. I was thinking about how I didn¢t mind them because they act as foot holds, especially on downhills, and then I thought to myself, ¢yes, you can get tripped up on them as they can be slippery if you¢re not careful,¢ and I shit you not¢¦at THAT moment, I slip on a large root and go flying forward only to land knees and palms first in that thick mucky boggy stinky wet mud. Oh man¢¦.GROSS!!! My pants, hands, ends of my long sleeved shirt¢¦all of it was totally covered in that thick stuff. Ok, so nothing hurt, which is good, I mean the mud was zero impact right? So I get up and am using my bandana to try to wipe off and then I notice my safety whistle/compass falling on the ground, then my little knife, then my hand sanitizer, and I¢m like, ¢Man, did I leave my left hipbelt pocket unzipped?¢ Nope, the sewing job I¢d done back in Salisbury, CT on that pocket finally gave way, and all the contents of that pocket were now falling out all over the muddy ground. Geez¢¦.just another annoying thing to deal with. I sort of just hoped I¢d get to the road soon and get this day over with by this point.So I hiked on after putting all my gear for that pocket in the back mesh pocket of my pack in a ziplock. Within minutes, I heard the distant hoot of my favorite owl. It put a smile on my face and it soothed my own ruffled feathers. I decided to slow down a little to be more careful and not do something stupid and injur myself. I hiked around Beaver Pond, which was so perfect for a moose sighting, but no moose. I really couldn¢t believe it. If I were a moose, I¢d claim this pond as mine for sure¢¦for feeding.I¢d told Karen I¢d be at the road between 4-5 p.m., but now it looked like it would be closer to 5:30-6 p.m. I got down to Cranberry Stream, and now the trail flattened out and the temps warmed up too. I was glad for that. It was very nice trail for a mile and the final mile had a few minor bumps getting back up to Maine 27. I got to the parking lot around 5:30 p.m., and Karen was there waiting. She¢d been out off-roading in Skeeter all day, scoping out the next places she¢s be picking me up. She said she almost got run over by several logging trucks, who tend to drive like crazy people down these narrow logging roads. At the trailhead on the south side of Maine 27 (where I came out the other day) there was a note, so I went over and read it. I died laughing. Mala (owner of T-Dawg¢¦whose doggie stuff sack A.M. and I found back in the Mahoosuc Range), had left a note saying T-Dawn lost his blue doggie bowl¢¦.AGAIN! LOL We went back to the Stratton Motel and I saw Mala, so I went up and introduced myself. He remembered my face, I¢m 99% sure he gave Persistent and I a ride last year, but I can¢t remember where. He showed us T-Dawg¢s pack, and it had a huge hole along the seam, so the bowl fell out. Mala is such a nice man, and I got to verify, he¢s got 10,000 AT miles under his belt and about 2,000 miles on other trails. Incredible huh?So Sue pulled up and Karen and I invited her out for dinner at the White Wolf Caf©, and she was game..cool! I got cleaned up and we all went over for a great dinner. This place has really good food and Karen got Fiddleheads, which I¢d never eaten. They are a sort of rare fern that they deep fry the tips of and man are these things tasty. Reminded me of fried okra. So Sue, Karen and I had a wonderful meal, and great conversation and then later¢¦Mike and Ellen showed up! The evening ended with them moving over to our booth and we all sat around telling stories and laughing. We closed the place down (ok..it closes at 8 p.m., but that¢s still late for hikers!).Sue is coming to VA at the end of October, so we gave her our contact info and told her to visit us. It would be great to have her over, so I do hope she takes us up on it.   She¢s such an interesting and intelligent woman, with a great dry sense of humor, which I appreciate. She told the most hilarious story about when she first started doing shuttles and was talking to Bob, the owner of Gull Pond in Rangeley. When he gave her directions to get to the Perham Stream Rd., part of his directions were, ¢when you get to the road where the white rabbit sticks its head out, turn right; and then when you get to the old campfire, turn again.¢ Of course any intelligent person would be skeptical that he was being serious, but he insisted he was. So Sue makes her first trip out there and to her disbelief, she got to an intersection and a little white rabbit popped its head up on the right side of the road!! She said it did this consistently! Isn¢t that hilarious!!?Oh, when Karen was out exploring the countryside, she was near Caratunk and who did she pick up AGAIN hitching, but Turoc and Optimus. So funny to keep running into the same hikers like that. Man those guys are moving. She gave them a ride again. They said they¢d be in Monson the next day. That¢s freakin 37 miles in one day people! How do they do this?So anyway, it was a fun evening and it was great to get to know Sue better. I think by the time most hikers get here, they are in survival mode, and are in such a depleted state that it¢s a sort of selfish existence, so running a hostel can be a pretty underappreciated role, but I think it¢s even worse here when nobo¢s are so out of it and get here. Sue is quite a lady running things the way she does and being so understanding of it all. She¢s hiked the whole trail by the way, except for Katahdin, because they don¢t allow dogs in Baxter State Park and she takes Knucklehead everywhere. They also don¢t allow dogs into the GSMNP, but like I said, she takes Knucklehead everywhere (I LIKE this rebellious woman! LOL).Tomorrow is a shorter day, over Little Bigelow, the last substantial mountain in Maine, other than the 2 climbs in the wilderness and Katahdin of course. I¢m excited for some easier terrain. Exhausted now¢¦need sleep.~Certain