Date: 2018-08-23
From: Poplar Ridge Lean-to

To: Rangeley 
Miles today: 10.7

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, headquartered in Harpers Ferry, WV, ¢leads the effort to protect, maintain and celebrate the A.T.¢ On it¢s website you can read about what the trail is like in each of the 14 states that it passes through. Here¢s what it has to say about Maine:¢Maine is the A.T.'s most challenging, rugged and remote state, and it has the wildest feel of any area of the Trail.¢Darn. I wish we had read this BEFORE we started the trail this year. We might have planned things a bit differently.Last night, shortly after we fell asleep, Butterfly had a massive cramp in her left calf. It took a while to abate, and this morning, her calf muscle was very tight and swollen, and she was walking very gingerly around camp. It was tight like this for a day before we zeroed in Stratton, but seemed fine for the last couple days.  I looked on Guthooks and didn¢t see any points between Poplar Ridge Lean-to and Maine RT 4 where we could get off trail to attend to Butterfly¢s calf, and she did not like the idea of hiking back down what we had come up yesterday afternoon to get to the gravel road that crossed shortly before the river ford. Furthermore, it wasn¢t clear from Guthook¢s which way to turn on the gravel road, nor how far we would have to travel on it to reach civilization. Butterfly thought that perhaps it would improve if she walked on it a bit. We had enough food to spend one more night on the trail before reaching the trailhead for the town of Rangeley, so we could take our time. If progress was too slow because of the terrain and Butterfly¢s calf condition, we could spend the night in the Maine woods again.It was colder this morning than at any point thus far in our journey. Our thermometer registered 49 degrees. After packing up our dry tent and all of our gear, I changed back into my wet clothes so as to keep one set of clothes dry.  Butterfly opted for her rain pants and a dry top. We both put on our wet, muddy hiking shoes. It¢s morning like this that really cause me to question my sanity. I packed as much of Butterfly¢s stuff as she would let me so as to minimize her weight, and off we went.The sun was out and the wind blowing strongly. Our first task was to climb Saddleback Junior - a 700 foot rise. About halfway up, Butterfly¢s calf was not much better, but we had a brilliant thought: use the ankle support sleeve that 44 had given Butterfly back in Caratunk as a compression sock on her calf. This helped a lot and about a mile later Butterfly reported that her calf was 50 % better. Thanks again 44.Today¢s hike was a series of summits - Saddleback Junior, The Horn, Saddleback - and saddles between them. The 3 mile stretch from the North side of The Horn to the south side of Saddleback is above the tree line. As we neared the bald summit of Saddleback Junior, the wind velocity really picked up. My guess is that it was 50 to 60 miles an hour with gusts above that. This added another element to today¢s hike. Butterfly hiked up and over the summit of Saddleback Junior without stopping. When I caught up to her she said, ¢I¢m not comfortable with this.¢ Neither was I, but I preferred it to yesterday¢s rain. As another element to the list of Maine¢s challenges: roots, rocks, mud, river fords, remoteness, near verticle ascents and descents, high winds.  We went back down below tree level, and about 2/3rds of the way up The Horn, on its protected leeward side, we stopped for lunch. The first northbound hiker of the day passed us at that point and asked about the wind on Saddleback Junior. When I told him 50 to 60 MPH, he replied, ¢They¢re even stronger on The Horn.¢ Well isn¢t that just great!  After lunch, on the final ascent of The Horn, we met a pair of NoBos who stopped to chat. They were Song Bird and Galaxy, and they are doing a flip-flop hike of the AT for their honeymoon! Galaxy said that the wind on the top of The Horn had moved him 5 feet. Fortunately, Butterfly did not hear that comment. That must have been a bit of an exaggeration since Song Bird was smaller than Butterfly, and she didn¢t report taking flight. But when we got to the top (4041 feet), the winds were a bit stronger and we didn¢t feel comfortable enough to stop for photos.  We did stop on top of Saddleback (4116 feet), and today¢s photo of Butterfly tells the story. On the approach to Saddleback¢s summit, a sensitive, elderly NoBo said to me, in reference to slender Laura, ¢She shouldn¢t be up here. She¢s going to get blown away.¢ Again, Butterfly didn¢t hear that comment - fortunately - as the winds, though unnerving, were not life threatening.  The descent from Saddleback was pretty verticle but not as slow as some recent descents because the trail follows several sloping granite ridges, and this particular granite provides very good traction, even on steep slopes. We made fairly good time compared to our time on descents of similar grade, but unless we were somehow able to pick up the pace, I calculated that we¢d be getting to Maine RT 4 right around sunset. Butterfly said that her calf was feeling significantly better, but she was not at full stride.Right at the point where the trail grade became more reasonable (i.e. 500 feet per mile) a couple elderly gentlemen who were slack packing caught up to us. As they passed us, they explained that they were slack packing and that their ride would pick them up at RT 4 at 6:30 to shuttle them into Rangeley, 11 miles away. They said the shuttle driver was also the owner of the Fieldstone Hostel and Cottages, and they highly recommended the place. They also told us about another hostel, The Hiker Hut, only three tenths of a mile from the trailhead, so we were feeling pretty good about being able to get out of the woods tonight.  As it turned out, the more gentle slope of the trail enabled Laura to pick up her pace significantly despite the strained calf muscle. We got to the trailhead just a few minutes after the two gents, and all four of us were shuttled by Stacy into Rangeley and The Fieldstone Cottages. Our cottage is wonderful, and Butterfly is so happy. While she showered, I ran up to the IGA for bread, Camembert cheese and ale. As I walked up the hill to the store, I watched a beautiful sunset over Rangeley Lake and the mountains to the west.  As I came back to the hostel, I met a young man who just finished the PCT a couple weeks ago and is now SoBo through hiking the AT. His name is Adam (does not yet have an AT trail name) and he started at Katahdin on August 17. He said he was doing 35 to 40 mile days on the PCT but is struggling to do 25 to 30 mile days here in Maine. Ouch!After bread and cheese, Butterfly and I went across the street to the Rangeley Saddleback Inn for dinner - excellent! We met Adam there and had a good time talking about gear, hiking stories, etc. Adam¢s base weight (everything he carries except food and water) is 6.5 pounds!  Today was an epic day from the cold wet beginning to the sunny, near hurricane force winds and incredible views in the middle to the beautiful sunset, fantastic dinner and cozy cottage ending. I thank God for all of it. Life is good.Tomorrow we will take a zero and see about Butterfly¢s calf.