Date: 2015-09-15
From: road to Stratton

To: Safdord Notch Campsite
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: clear sky

Ah- finally a day without rain. Katwalk and packed up and got ready to hike out. Shane was shutting us to the trailhead along with a few others. I was dropped off where I came out of the woods to that terrific trail Magic the other day, but the parking area was now quiet and empty. I said good bye to Katealk- I'll see her in a few days. She is starting with shorter days to get her legs back a little so this plan allows her to do that. I am looking forward to catching up and hiking with her!I always start my day with plans to hike big miles. And I always believe I will. But I rarely hike BIG miles. Today was not destined to be a big mile day.The hike started out back in the woods. I like being in the woods. It went down. Not up as it usually does, out of the parking area. It was very lush and beautiful, the woods were jungle thick. I hiked slow today. My knees were really sore right out of the gate. That is not something I have struggled with a lot, but every now and then they rebel. Today was a day like that. Eventually the trail started going up- up for a long climb to Bigelow South Horn. I put in Thackeray's Vanity Fair on my audible for the climb. The trail for the first part of the climb was well graded. It got steeper as I went along, rocks placed by trail maintainers to help with the climb. At some point, I got on a blue blaze trail to Cranberry Lake. I was lost in my book and also thinking about how the movie version took one of the most terrible sociopathic women in literary history (Rebecca Sharp Crawley) and turned her into a woman of conscience, if maybe a bit of a social climber and flirt. Someone please make the movie the right way! Anyway, I realized the trail was wrong when I lost it altogether. Then all I could find when I backtracked were blue blazes. I was very annoyed with myself and back tracked until I found the white blazes. And up I went. The climb was long and pretty steep in places. I did some climbing using my hands up big rock scrambles. Finally I got to the shelter, which had no floor. Just benched around the perimeter and a big rock in the middle which would prevent anyone from sleeping in it. As it turns out, there were two newer shelters on the site, both very nice. There were also beautiful tent sites and incredibly clean privys and an onsite caretaker who was very nice and obviously loved making this shelter and campsite nice for hikers.High Mileage hiked in while I was eating lunch. He is the guy that got the lucky trail magic room and meals for us back in NH. We caught up a little, then I hiked out. I had a very steep and long rocky climb up to the South Horn. The vies were incredible and young couple pointed out out Mt.Katahdin, a ghostly light blue mountain way off in the distance. Wow. High Mileage caught and passed me at this summit. I went down a while, back in the woods, then eventually started up Bigelow West Peak. This was a much steeper climb and very rocky. So far I was only making 1 mile per hour. I thought I was at the top because the trail leveled then went down. Then it went above treeline, up a rocky ridge. The wind was blowing hard enough to knock me off balnce a few times. It was intense, it was fun, and it was also a little scary! When I finally reached the summit sigh, I though this peak was Avery but he sigh said West Peak. Durn. I could see Avery , next peak over. All around the views were fantastic. Lakes and 360 mountain views. I am so happy with my decision to wait for the weather to clear. I finally had to leave the peak because the winds were chilling me. I headed down some steep rocks and then back in the woods for a bit. I passed a really nice campsite and then headed up Avery. It was steep again and rocky. At the summit of Avery, the views again were incredible. A plaque on a rock marked the summit, with a dedication to Avery himself. The winds were still very strong so I headed down. The descent to the campsite was about 1800 slow rocky feet over 2 miles. I had a couple of sit downs, which are slow falls that don't hurt, and I had to throw my poles down a few times so I could climb down unhindered. I finally reached the side trail to the campsite. I was very happy to eat a spaghetti Katwalk and hop in my tent. The winds howled and yowled all night long but I stayed very cozy.