Date: 2017-08-07
From: Cranberry stream campsite

To: East Flagstaff Rd
Miles today: 14.9

As usual, night hikes entitle me to sleeping in, so I rolled over when it started getting light outside, silenced my first alarm at 530, and begrudgingly sat up when my 6am alarm sounded. I made breakfast in bed, enjoying two apple turnovers and a breakfast drink from the comfort and warmth of my quilt and tent.I had arranged to meet my uncle at a road crossing 16mi distant at 4pm, however I was crossing the Bigelows today, a total of 6000ft of elevation gain over rocky summits, which would surely impact my pace. As such, I decided that I should probably get moving as early as possible and was packed and moving at 7am. The other campers around me were just starting to emerge from their tents as I pulled out of the site. I caught a few words of what they said as they got up and they were speaking a mixture of french and english, presumably canadians down for a camping trip.As I left camp I passed yet another 2000mi marker, this one more than 3mi off of the actual 2000mi mark for this year, and so likely older than the others I had seen. The trail began climbing almost immediately and wound its way up the side of the mountain, ducking in between a flanking ridge and the mountain and following the small valley which had formed between them up. The route involved a bit of climbing as the topsoil became thinner the higher I climbed. Every so often I came across a small dark hole in the ground which was lined with rock. It seems that the entire surface that I was walking on was actually a thin dirt layer held together by roots and covering a giant boulder field. In some places the boulders protruded and I climbed over them, and in others the thin facade was broken by these small caves, from some of which eminated the sound of water flowing in the rocky subterrainian. I came to the my first view of the day and admired the scene spread out before me, a small alpine pond nestled into a bowl carved out of the mountain in front and below me, just beyond it a high peak, to my right the ski runs of sugarloaf and all the mountains I had climbed yesterday, and to my left flagstaff lake covering an immense area. I climbed down and walked around the lake, coming to the lean-to. On my way in to check it out I met two thru hikers who introduced themselves as "Lady" (which I thought was a wierd trail name at first) and "The Tramp" (ooooh.... now it makes sense). They were NOBOs turned flip floppers when they realized they weren't going to make it to Katahdin in time for the winter and we traded some info on the trail ahead. This lean-to was actually two lean-tos, presumably to handle the increased traffic through this popular site, and I passed a caretaker's tent as I headed up the mountain (note that, while this site has a caretaker like some of the AMC sites, MATC doesn't charge a fee to stay here, which is nice). The ascent was steep but short and soon I was standing on the southern peak taking in the view and looking ahead to the western peak and little bigelow ahead of me. As I hiked over these peaks I passed a couple of additional french youth groups... apparently this is a popular destination. I had a lunch on Avery Peak (named for one of the men primarily responsible for the creation of the AT) again taking some time to admire the scenery. For the past couple years I've done some XC-skiing in the area and I could pick out the small airport that we started at and some of the landmarks that we passed on our way between the huts that we had slept in. The descent down from the Bigelows was also steep and not a ton of fun as I knew that I'd have to regain some of the altitude for Little Bigelow but the climb up Little Bigelow was actually pretty gradual and not too bad. I passed another group of day hikers from the AT conference and once again took in the sights from a viewpoint at the end of the range, looking back at all the peaks I had climbed today. I had about 4mi to cover and about 2hr to do it in, which should've been no problem, however my superpower seems to be finding berries whenever I have somewhere to be and today was no exception. I tried to limit myself to only grabbing berries while on the move but that proved ineffective in a number of cases where I found a bush just too full to pass up. Finally I had no choice and pressed on, cruising down the mountain and following the winding path worn into the lichen from rocky island to island. I came to Little Bigelow Lean-to and, noticing that I had a bit of extra time, threw myself into one of "the tubs", rocky basins that the stream flowed through, to try to get rid of some of the hiker smell before I got in a confined space with my uncle. The trail down to the road was wonderful, dirt and gently sloping, and in no time I was down at the road where my uncle and a car awaited.I'm not going to describe the full visit here, but I got to use their outdoor shower (which actually had hot water), had a great steak dinner with my uncle and aunt, and had blueberry ice cream with blueberry cake for dessert. All and all, a great day. I feel inclined to point out that combining yesterday's and todays 9600ft and 6000ft of elevation gain brings my two day total to well over half an everest in the past 50mi of trail. On the upside, I don't have to climb any mountains tomorrow and get to hike past a couple of ponds... sounds like a nice break from the mountains.