Date: 2004-08-15
From: past N Crocker Mtn

To: Jerome Brook
Miles today: 21.3

Now with under 200 miles to go and having told so many folks of my proposed finish date it was more critical to plan my days. To compound the issue, there was that short day coming out of Rangely in the hurricane remnants which threw everything off. Planning:At some time on most days, be it in camp in the evening or morning or sometimes at a lunch break, it wasn't uncommon to break out the current page of the Handbook and maybe the Handbook itself and do some calculating. Typically these calculations would include distances to hike the next few days to various camps. This had to be done before shopping for food to know how much to buy to get to the next town. These proposed distances would be penciled in beside the various camps. Now there were some other numbers to be paid attention to. Some of the climbs of late have been unexpectedly steep. In addition to my typical distance scribblings, my handbook is now getting cluttered with little rate of climb notations that read like: 900' @ 1.3mi, 500' @ .7mi, 200' @ .1mi.The craziest elevation change in the Handbook was 400' @ .1mi. This was on the approach to the trail to North Horn. That just had to be wrong. It would have to be a class 5 technical climb. It's not that any of this mattered that much except in trying to determine the distance that might be traveled on any given day. The fact is the steepness slows even the best hiker.By 7:25am there was nothing left to do but stuff my pack, don my boots and hit the trail. All was right in the world. The trail over the Bigelow Range was really cool. It twisted and turned past cliffs and boulders. It climbed up and down over countless bumps through boreal forests.A little before noon I stopped at the Horns Pond Lean-tos to top off my bottle of red Gatorade. The caretaker was working on some scree walls to keep traffic on the trail at a junction of campsite trails. We had a good chat about trail maintenance, the Steri-Pen, life on the trail and life as a caretaker. It was great talking with her. Stopping and helping would have been fun. But the trail called. We wished each other well and the climb continued.By noon South Horn at 3,805' was showing me the world from a new vantage point. The West Peak of Bigelow Mountain lay ahead 2.1 miles in plain view and boy was it pointy at 4,145'. A little over an hour later I was there. From the West Peak of Bigelow it was just a 0.7 mile stones throw to Avery Peak at 4,088'. This whole ridge is just wonderful. It is like a walk along Franconia Ridge back home in many ways but it had it's own uniqueness for sure. For one thing it is much less popular being so far removed form the masses of Boston and New York. Hopefully it will always stay this way.Holding HandsNotice in the photo at 1:50pm how I am standing holding my hands. This is a normal hiking mode for me. Most folks hike with hands swinging at their sides. For some reason my hands are often clasped in front of me. The left thumb usually hooks over the hipbelt buckle. The right hand grabs the left hand around the wrist. If it is hot, the left hand just grabs 2 fingers on the right hand or maybe just the right thumb. More than a few folks have asked why I hike that way. It's a good question. I can't say I'm sure. When it's cold it might be to keep warm but it happens when it's hot too. The rest of the time it might be a balance thing. After all, F=MA. With arms close to the body, they can move further to try to compensate for an imbalanced. Who knows, but I like it.After another nice lunch, it's time to move on down the mountain at about 2:30pm. It's four and a half miles along a crazy ridge to Little Bigelow Mountain and I'm there before 5pm.Little Bigelow Mtn had a great hunk of rock to perch on. The trail is about to plummet into the forest and leave these long views to the bare tops of the mountains. It's hard to get motivated to leave such a wondrous place, so I just sit for a bit. It looks like some rain showers are moving in from the south. They can be seen as curtains draped beneath the clouds. That gives me the needed kick in the pants. There are some nice mountain blueberries that cause one last brief distractions and then the plummet begins.Five minutes later it's time to set up a self portrait. Maybe it's corny but this should be 2,000 miles from Springer Mountain, where it all began back in Georgia, 106 days ago. The trail is steep here. Go figure. It's hard to rig the camera to something. I scribble the distances on a piece of paper from a little pad bought back in Bethel, Maine and hold it beside the silly grin on my face. The camera shutter clicks. Ah, posterity is preserved. Sure, it's just a number, but it's a big number. Not to mention it is only 174.1 miles to Katahdin. That's just incredible. That's not far at all. Woo hoo.Of course on the way a grouse posed for me along the trail. That was thoughtful of him. In fear of my approach he flew about 10 feet to a perch in a tree. Spruce Grouse are so convinced of their camouflage that they never fly far. Silly bird.The trail skirted along the shores of Flagstaff Lake at about 6:30pm. The views across the lake were magnificent.A couple of miles of easy walking past the lake the trail crossed Long Falls Dam Road. Someone had painted a big bold ¢2000 mi.¢ in the middle of the road between a blaze on either edge of the road of course. That felt really good too. Remember the actual length of the trail changes yearly if not daily with reroutes and such happening all the time.It was after 7pm by now and time to call it a day. Ten minutes from the road a flat spot a ways off the trail became home for the night. It was time for dinner, pudding, tent and bag. It had been 21.3 miles with lots of big mountains, gorgeous ridges, no rain and no sickness. The last day over 20 miles had been 17 days ago, July 30, just before the Whites. It felt good. Yes, it was a good day.