Date: 2017-08-06
From: Rangely

To: Cranberry stream campsite
Miles today: 34.0
Weather: light rain

I had signed up for the early shuttle, which left at 630, which meant that I was up bright and early despite having slept inside (which usually ends up in sleeping at least a little later). I repacked all my gear and had a quick breakfast consisting of 2 breakfast essentials/hot coco drinks and a bowl of leftover spaghetti (I told you someone would eat it)...We crammed 8 hikers and all our gear into the suburban and hit the road, heading back to the trail. The sky was gray and the temperature cool, but the forecast had predicted that it would clear, so overall it should be a pretty good day for a hike.We got to the trailhead and I and a couple others grabbed our gear and went our respective directions. A number of the hikers were slackpacking back here tonight and so would be dropped off at another trailhead 16mi up the trail and I would pass them partway through my day today, so they hung around for the last leg of their shuttle. I crossed the road and headed into the woods.As I did I came across another info sign stating that I was entering the 9th section of the AT in maine (its kinda cool how they're counting down to Katahdin) and that I would be crossing Saddleback, Sugarloaf, and the Carters in the next 32mi and to expect 9600ft of elevation gain over those miles. To put that in perspective, that's 1/3 of an everest. Gulp. Because these signs are unique to maine I haven't really been tracking how much elevation I've been doing, but that seems like alot. Here goes nothing!The trail crossed a number of streams and was generally pretty wet as I passed a couple of alpine ponds. I passed Piazza Rock/cave/pond/shelter, which looks like a cool place to explore for a day when I have more time. The trail rose steadily but not too strenuously at first and I hopped over the roots and rocks to avoid the muddy and wet trail. As I hiked the sun seemed to threaten to break through, the world around me getting bright for a few moments before fading back to the ambient gray lighting of a cloudy day. I was hoping that the clouds would break before I hit the summit of Saddleback, which is supposed to have some pretty great views, but we'd see.Eventually the trail took a steep turn uphill and the hike became a lot more like a climb up the moist and slippery rocks. As I usually do I stowed one of my poles on my side so that I had one hand free to grasp rocks and pull myself up and kept the pole in the other to aid in steadying myself on the rocks. As I rose the trees started to get shorter and I could hear the wind above me in the tops of the trees. I would say that the wind whistled or howled through the trees above me, but those would well describe its strength but mischaracterize its sound, which was more of a varying strength whoosh.Nevertheless, I continued climbing, donning my windbreaker to better protect myself when I finally got above treeline. I passed a sign which prohibited camping for the next 3mi while above treeline and then I was up. The clouds flew past me, briefly opening to reveal a world far below enjoying a sunny day, but up here the sun couldn't reach me through the thick layer of clouds which veiled the summit (or which the mountain was creating...).Coming up above treeline was a different world. The mountain side was uneven with large shelves of rock protruding from the side and every time I'd top one I'd find the wind even stronger than it had been below. A couple times some small trees had found purchase in a small area of the mountain and I stopped in those thickets to regroup and warm my hands. The morning had been chilly down at lower elevation and it gave the wind a strong bite. As I progressed towards the summit it drained all exposed skin of warmth and I had to keep moving to try to keep warm.I finally reached the summit, a single, lone sign standing on a gentle dome of rock, paused for a quick picture, and then continued on before I lost too much warmth. Even the windbreaker wasn't fully protecting me anymore and I could feel a chill start to set in and had to keep moving to generate the warmth to combat it. I kept snacking as often as possible, whenever I found a slightly sheltered area, trying to make sure that my body had the calories it needed to generate heat and keep moving.I continued down into the saddle which was sheltered from the wind a bit more than the summit had been, but at least at the summit the intense wind had scoured all the water off the rocks whereas down here they were all moist and slippery, making the going slow. I passed the Berry Picker's trail, which a sign explained was a trail that locals had been using to access the blueberries and cranberries which grew on the mountain, and was disappointed that I couldn't go explore it, but that would have to wait for another trip as I couldn't afford to spend more time above treeline with the weather the way it was.Soon the trail headed back up onto exposed rock faces as I made my way onto The Horn and the wind returned stronger than ever. One gust took my hat off and I barely managed to spear it with my trekking pole before it flew off. After that I gave up on wearing it and attached it to my hipbelt since it wasn't really helping anyways. During the gusts I ended up having to use my trekking poles to brace myself against the wind which threatened to knock me over a couple of times. This was definitely not the 25-40mph winds that I saw predicted... this was more in the 60-70mph range.I crested the horn and again didn't linger. The trail dropped precipitously after the horn but was thankfully better sheltered from the wind and I was able to take my time descending the steep and wet rocks and back down into the forest. I came to a campsite and, though it was only 930am, had some lunch to try to replenish some of my energy as I was pretty exhausted after just those couple miles. Next up I had Saddleback Junior which was thankfully below the clouds and not subject to as much wind. There were plenty of blueberries at the top, but I only stopped to eat a few on my way over and passed a couple of the slackers from the Farmhouse Inn who I warned about the winds at the top as I passed. I took another lunch break at Poplar Ridge Lean-to where i ran into a hiking group from the AT conference (which is being held in Maine this week) and one of them gave me TRAIL MAGIC in the form of their extra lunch food which was a homemade granola bar and an apple.While looking at AWOL I noticed that the distance between Rangely and Stratton was only 32mi, not the 40 that I had thought it was. Since my uncle is going to pick me up from the trail tomorrow for a night at his house, that was going to make for a short day tomorrow once I completed the 19mi I had planned for today. Unfortunately, with the spacing of the roads I didn't really see a way around that unless I did 34mi today and another 16 tomorrow to get to the next road, which wasn't really feasible. Oh well.I got moving again and headed downhill until I reached a river. Maine doesn't really believe in bridges over any river large enough that you can't step over it, and so fording rivers is one of the unique aspects of the AT in maine as compared to other states. The recent rains had swelled this river, covering the rocks that I'd normally be able to use to cross the river with 6in of water, so I had no choice. I didn't want to get my hiking shoes wet, as this was the first time in 3 days that they had actually been dry, so off they came and on went my camp sandals. After using the stepping stones to cross I reversed the process and in no time was back to hiking.The trail for the next couples miles sloped gradually uphill, pretty much my favorite type of terrain (next to flat, anyways, but everyone knows that that doesn't actually exist), and I cruised. The climb up Lone Mt became steeper but then leveled off again all the way to Spaulding Ridge Lean-to. I got to the shelter, my intended destination for the night, a little before 3pm, which was a little early to stop for the day. I had done 19mi, but as I had determined earlier, my option was really to do another 14 or to stop here for the night. Eh... I could probably do another 14mi in 6 or so hours, which would only mean about an hour of night hiking...Fiiine. I packed up and headed out, trying to move fast to maximize my use of the remaining daylight but also starting to feel the fatigue start to set in. I walked over the last mile of AT to have been completed in 1937 just past Sugarloaf and then started heading steeply downhill towards my crossing of the Carabasset River. If it weren't for this river cutting this mountain range in half the trail would've had a lot less elevation gain today, but alas it had, and so I headed down.Someone had kindly provided a plank which spanned the widest part of the river and the rest was passable via rock hopping. In my infinite smoothness I dropped a trekking pole in the river while returning a wave from a girl who was lounging along its bank in the fading sun. Thankfully it didn't wash down stream. I headed straight back uphill on the other side of the river, re-climbing back up to my former elevation to summit another three mountains. While I initially questioned the necessity of climbing back up here, there were a couple of spectacular views of the Carabasset Valley with the sun starting to set that I stopped for a moment to admire.By this point my legs were dead and I had to summon strength to help them climb the last peak of my day, thankful that the rest of my hike would be downhill. By this time I had popped in some podcasts and was listening to those to pass the time as I headed downhill towards the road. The downhill stretched on for what seemed like forever as the sun sank and began coloring the sky.Just as I had resigned myself to finishing my hike for the day in the dark I found it. The 2000 mile mark! If I had to describe my feeling at the moment I would have to go with overwhelming tiredness with a hint of pride. Not only had I hiked 2000mi over the past 4 months, I had reached this milestone on what would be one of my longest days on trail. Go me!I will say that I was a little bit disappointed with the marker, just a couple of small sticks on the ground to spell out 2000, but I continued on. And found the 2000 mile marker! Again! This time made out of birch limbs and a much more satisfying size. I took a couple more pictures with this sign, checked my GPS and confirmed that this one was actually in the correct place, and then continued on after switching out my hat for my headlamp. It wasn't long until I came to the road and crossed it and found another 2000mi mark! I finished the last 2mi to camp in full dark with my headlamp, arriving just after 9pm and completing my 34mi day, my longest day on trail so far which included 9600ft of elevation gain (~1/3 of an Everest), which is  some of the roughest terrain I've seen. Today was a good day.I setup my tent next to a couple of others and had a quick dinner, enjoying the cider I had packed out of the hostel as I ate before drifting off to sleep under the full moon peaking through the canopy above.