Date: 2009-09-30
From: Horns Pond Lean-To

To: Long Falls Dam Rd. (2000 miles)
Miles today: 14.0

In the morning we awoke after another very frigid night. Everyone came over to our shelter and started asking questions about our crazy ascent in the dark of the what was supposed to be the last big climb until Katahdin. Beechucker has an addiction to coffee so we decided to split my hot chocolate with his coffee, thereby making a mocha. It was incredibly tasty and warmed up our bodies almost immediately. I took my jolly ol  time leaving the shelter and was the very last one to leave. But, something inside me kicked on and I just hiked like a madman all morning. I caught up to Odin and Beechucks and took a short break with them in-between the first two mountains. We watched Beechucker attempt to eat his pringles, managing to get some of them stuck in his outrageously large beard. En route, I listened to great Scottish music from Braveheart up Bigelow Mountain and felt the adrenaline just pumping as I jumped from one rock to the next. It was a cloudy, whispy-like day, with intermittent rainfall. It cleared up for the Avery Memorial Campsite at 3,850 ft, providing incredible views of the firey fall-coloured landscape down below. The image of the whispy clouds and the orange, red, gold, and yellow tree colors down below is something that I will never in my life forget. In attempt to get some more miles under our belts, I told Jungli to keep hiking as far as she could and hopefully I would be able to catch up. Descending down the northern faces of each mountain was difficult and each one of us was slipping and falling down the slopes. I caught up to Chef and we hiked together to the shelter, where we saw Buttchinz and Big Camera. They told me that Jungli had just left, as she somehow thought that I had bypassed her. We tried calling after her to see if she would turn around and come back, but it was no hope. I was exhausted from the challenging day and I was freezing due to the rain and wind. Chef started making a huge fire, which looked very inviting. But, I wanted to ensure her safety and that she was not worried about me, so I left the shelter into the darkness and hiked on. The next two hours of hiking were some of the darkest on the trail. It is not great when you are climbing tough terrain, the weather is miserable, and you cannot see where you are going. On top of that, at one point, I heard what sounded like the movement of a moose just to the side of the trail. I peered out into the darkness, but saw nothing. The mud was treacherous and each step yielded a new type of squishy sound. Then, out of nowhere, I saw a light far into the distance and started shouting. Jungli shouted back and I just followed my way towards the light. She had set up camp directly to the side of Long Falls Dam Rd, which happened to have a large 2,000 mile-marker sign spray-painted on to the road. It was some eight miles past the 2,000 miles, but we shared in the excitement, nevertheless. As we were getting ready to camp, I looked up and saw this MASSIVE creature come down off the embankment, heading straight towards us. It stopped directly on the road, lifting its body up with the two hind legs. I whispered to Jungli,  BEAR!!  Then, we made some noises and the bear slowly trodded down the road. It stopped, turned around once more, and I shone my headlamp into the distance, in which the glassy eyes of the bear reflected back. After this, we decided to hang our food as a precaution and then get some sleep. It was another freezing night...