Date: 2008-08-08
From: Long Pond Stream Lean-To

To: Chairback Gap Lean-To
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: moderate rain

I really wanted to sleep in for an extra hour, but didn¢t. On the trail around 8:30am. There is supposed to be light rain for part of the day and then it gets dry. As a matter of fact the next four days are supposed to be rain free. Maybe the rocks and bouldars will have a chance to dry out. Maybe the streams will even have the chance to recede. Back to some serious climbing today. A rocky trail with steep climbs. Still, the climbs are not as difficult as I had expected. The morning starts with a 2000 foot climb up Barren Mountain. The rest of the day was mainly a series of ups and downs, one after another, going over Fourth Mountain, Third Mountain, and Columbus Mountain in all. On the way up Barren Mountain there is a very short side trail to the Barren Slide. Many, many years ago a big section of the mountaintop had separated and fallen away, leaving a trail of jumbled, jagged large scree spread out down the mountainside. That is now known as the Barren Slide. Shortly after the slide I came to the Baren Ledges. These were dome shaped mountain-top cliff edges that fall away into to the valley below. There is an excellent view to the right of Long Pond Stream far below.The trail between the Ledges and Barron Mountain is pretty easy. It helped that the rain had at least temporarily stopped. But the actual climb up Barren Mountain involved about a 600 foot climb and required being really careful going over the slick rocks. The views on top were wonderful. I could see White Cap Mountain in the distance up ahead. Whitecap is the highest mountain I¢ll climb before getting to Katahdin. I¢m also hoping that I will have good cell phone reception on top of White Cap. On top of Barren Mountain is Cloud Pond Lean-To. Actually, the Lean-To is almost a half mile off the trail. I decided to pass up on visiting the shelter. Although I was running short on water, there was plenty in the stream between Barren and Fourth Mountains. Along with the water from the stream, there was a really nice bog with ferns, moss and other bog plants, none of which I could identify. The exposed rocks were starting to dry on top of the remaining mountains. As a matter of fact the sun actually came out in the mid-afternoon. But the rocks and roots in the woods were still wet and slick. It wasn¢t much longer before I arrived at my stop for the night ¢ Chairback Gap Lean-To. Already there were three section hikers going southbound and the caretaker of the Lean-To. The caretaker told us about the rock that makes up the mountains in this area. It is a dark form of slate. Very slippery when wet (as I found out). The slate is very fine-grained slate and was used to make the memorial marker for the John F. Kennedy grave site at Arlington National Cemetery.Even though the main peaks today were all under 3,000 feet, this section of trail involved quite a bit of gain and loss in elevation. The largest gain was around 2,000 feet from Long Pond Stream to the peak of Barren Mountain.Only having to cover 11 miles of trail today made it relatively easy. Now I have a nice night ahead and hopefully no rain for the next few days. Tomorrow brings Chairback Mountain and Gulf-Hagas.Bog Sign on Fourth Mountain