Date: 2010-09-18
From: Poplar Ridge Lean-to

To: Stealth Site at Carabassett River
Miles today: 13.1

Up and out of camp at 8:00. After a short climb, the trail leveled off for about 112 miles and was a pleasure to walk at a normal hiking speed. Followed the Orbeton Stream with its many cascades and after rock hopping across it, stopped for a snack. Gorgeous sunny day in the upper sixties. Then started a 1,000' climb. Tried to keep up with Cody and Stickwalker but kept getting out of breath so settled down to my own comfortable pace.Summited Lone Mountain and started a relatively level 2-mile ridgewalk. At the intersection with the Mt. Abraham Trail, I met 5 ladies of a group of 12 who get together at least once a year to hike and bag 4,000 footers. They call themselves the Summit Sisters and were thrilled to meet a thru-hiker. We chatted for about a half hour. They gave me an apple and chocolate covered pomegranate seeds. Continued on and stopped for lunch at the Spaulding Mountain Lean-to. Tag-teamed Cody and Stickwalker; they were leaving just as I arrived. They are going to camp tonight by the Carabassett River. I plan to go a mile further to the Crocker Cirque Campsite. Having a plan is a good thing but one never knows exactly what the trail is going to throw at you, so it's nice to have alternatives. I replenished my water and started the stiff 800' climb up Spaulding Mountain after which I had another nice 212 mile ridgewalk along which there was a beautiful view and I came across a bronze plaque commemorating completion of the final link of the Appalachian Trail at this point in Maine in 1939.I came to the end of the ridgewalk and¢gotta love it¢Maine decided to slap me around again. I thought I knew what "steep" was but peering over the edge at the end of the ridgewalk, I realized the trail went straight down the mountain losing 1,500' in less than a mile. Not sure of an adequate superlative, just that it was going to be an extreme descent. So, abouldering I went, picking my way down¢very aware I was alone and just simply not taking any chances of a fall. There were numerous rock slides, some of them looking fairly recent, that the trail went across. More bouldering¢more rock walls. Many times I felt I was hugging the side of the mountain because a step off the very narrow trail would have me careening down the side. It started to cool off as the sun got low in the sky and the wind picked up. I still had a long way down and now was a little concerned that I wouldn't even make it down the mountain tonight so I started looking for a level spot to set up camp. Nada¢nothing¢only steep mountain and rocks. So I put on my headlamp and continued on down.Finally! Finally I reached the river which I heard before I saw because of the noise of rushing water. As I was walking towards it, I hoped that Cody and Stickwalker were camped on my side as I really didn't want to ford it at night. As I reached the riverbank, I spotted their headlamps¢of course, across the river. But I also saw where someone had put a 6-inch wide plank across two boulders in the river so with just a little bit of rock hopping I could get to the plank, walk across its 12-foot length and then rock hop to the other bank without getting my feet wet. Easy, right? Not so easy at night, not so easy with the plank about 4 feet above all this rushing water where a fall would have been a very bad thing. Again, I just took my time and finally made it across.It was about 8:30. No way was I going to hike another mile to the Cirque Campsite so I went over to Cody and Stickwalker's stealth site where they had left enough room for me to set up my tent. They were really happy to see me as they were a little concerned when I hadn't yet come off the mountain by sunset. We had dinner together and I finally crawled into my sleeping bag.Perhaps I'm over-sensitive about the potential for injury since Cahoda broke her wrist. Perhaps I'm feeling a little more vulnerable because I'm hiking alone again. I shuddered realizing it had been a very dangerous day. At the same time, I cracked a bit of a prideful grin because I DID IT. As hard as it tried to beat me, the final score today was Croft 1¢Maine 0.