Date: 2007-09-12
From: Stratton, ME ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ 1986.2

To: East Flagstaff Road ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ 2002.9
Miles today: 16.7

Shadow, Numbtoe, and RI Red need to meet family at Baxter on September 23rd which is about the time I had wanted to finish. The problem is the days are getting shorter and the mountains and terrain have taken a toll on our mileage. Shadow has suggested that we do a one day light pack across the entire Bigelow Range. Sue from the Stratton Inn will shuttle us and when split 4 ways the price is affordable. Sue has other people to shuttle in this morning and some errands to run so she cannot drive us to the trail head until around 9:00 am. We figure we could be coming off the mountain in the dark even though it says the decent of Little Bigelow is ¢gentle¢ in the book. We do some quick estimates and figure on 9.5 hours. We got dropped off closer to 10:00 am than 9:00 so we plan our pick up for around 7:15 to 7:30 pm.The morning weather does not look good. There have been rain clouds hanging on the mountains and high winds. It was a cold night but things are beginning to clear. The winds are still strong however. The climb is steep, steady, and long. This is the last of the ¢big¢ mountains until we get into the wilderness. We took a lunch break at Horns Pond Lean-to which is a beautiful spot situated in a col about a 12 mile before South Peak. We got in one of the shelters out of the wind but you needed to be in the sun to stay warm. We probably dallied too long but some days it is just hard to keep moving.The winds were strong on South Peak but West Peak and Avery Peak were the real challenges. Above tree line, with wind gusts around 60-mph, it was hard to stand much less walk. The peaks were steep little knobs with steep drop offs that the wind pushed you towards. You actually had to swing your leg into the wind when you walked so your foot would land in front of you and clutch the rocks so you did not fall over.We took a break in Bigelow Col at the Avery Memorial Campsite and had the pleasure to be visited by a group of Robber Jays. I was eating nuts and Shadow said; ¢I bet they would take a nut right out of your hand.¢ So I held up my hand with a pistachio and sure enough a jay swooped in and landed on my hand. He managed to pick up the nut before he even landed and I never felt it.The descent down Avery Peak is steep and rough and it took us a lot longer than we expected. There are huge boulders, I mean really HUGE, like houses that the trail passes through by the trail to Stafford Notch Campsite. This area is really beautiful and it reminds me of the type of ¢enchanted forest¢ you would see in a Tolkien movie.We did a quick calculation on our time and it will be close, very close. We have no cell signal so we cannot call Sue. We keep pushing up the long gradual climb towards the summit of Little Bigelow Mountain. We keep hitting ¢false¢ peaks but no little sign naming the peak which is so common in Maine. We did pass a ¢2,000 Mile¢ sign made of rocks along the trail. Who knows if this is the real 2,000 mile point this year? No one even agrees on the length of the trail. In the book it says it is 2,174 miles but the ATC offices all swear it is 2,175 miles due to re-routes that opened after the books went to print. Unless of course you hiked through Erwin, TN AFTER trail days then the trail is only 2,174.5 miles because the Hard Core projected actually shortened the trail by a 12 mile.We finally find the real summit of Little Bigelow and realize we are going to be late. We still do not have cell services so Shadow heads out to meet Sue and warn her we are running late. The trail down is anything but gentle. We are strung out down the mountain and darkness is coming fast. The trail keeps breaking onto open ledges then back into dark forest and the blazes are getting hard to see. You need your head lamp in the woods and it is useless on the open ledges.When I pass Little Bigelow Lean-to I begin to hear Numbtoe and RI Red behind me. About a 34 of a mile later the trail opens up to an old forest road and we form up into a group and start to make time.It is 8:20 when we finally get to the road and meet Sue. Shadow had beaten us in by almost 30 minutes by clearing some of the harder parts before it got dark. We should have really planned for 10.5 to 11 hours for this trek but it is done.We need to rush back to town to eat before everything closes. Tonight it is food first then hot showers.