Date: 2016-08-10
From: Gulf Hagas Trail Area-Stealth Site

To: Mountain View Pond
Miles today: 16.0
Weather: few clouds

Day 10516 miles in 10.5 hours Gulf Hagas Trail West (2107.3) to Mountain View Pond (2123.3)Weather: Misty, cloudy, blustery to clearing sunDinner: One Pot Taco DinnerHikers: Checks and Monkey King, misc. SOBOs and section hikersThe ninety-percent chance of overnight rain really delivered. It poured and poured. And splashed and splashed¢up under the tarp and onto the bug screen and into my tent. Things were a little damp this morning outside and in.The climb away from our brook side campsite followed the brook for a while before veering upward to the first of four of today's mountains. With the exception of 3650-foot Whitecap Mountain, the topography didn't look as challenging as yesterday's elevation changes. Plus today was much cooler. Even wintry. But I'm getting ahead of myself.The rain ended before dawn and first breakfast was able to be eaten outside while we packed up. Because of all of the morning climbs, I stuck with my wool t-shirt uniform even though it was misting¢or more likely¢we were hiking up into a cloud. Made good time and stopped for second breakfast at the shelter just under four miles up the trail. It was cool once we stopped hiking, the trees were still dripping and and it was still misting. Climbed the next three mountains¢still in the t-shirt. As we approached Whitecap, the clouds became thicker and the SOBOs mentioned how windy it was at the summit. I noticed they were all wearing their rain coats or puffy jackets. That should have been a clue. Also, the summit was above tree line. Spirit was waiting for me in the mists and we took a few photos before she headed on and I took the opportunity to make some calls since I had reception. I put on my own rain jacket and texted a few messages before my fingers got to cold. Then I headed around the mountain. And was nailed by a blast of arctic wind. The trail at is point, above tree line, was not unlike parts of the Whites¢rocky. It was not only hard to gain footing, but now the wind even preventing footing from easily happening. And the treelike below seemed to take forever to reach¢but not as long as it did coming down from Mt. Madison. Also unlike Mt. Madison, there was a long stone stairway installed by the Maine Trail Maintenance Crew. It had to be at least a quarter mile long and hundreds of steps. Hence while the descent was long, it was fairly civilized. One of the calls I made from Whitecap was to make a booking at the White House Landing bunk, 30 miles distant, for tomorrow night. We've been hearing how flat and easy it will be to finish off the 100 Mile Wilderness, which¢side note¢is not all that remote. Besides the trail magic, we've crossed a few roads. My thought is that the wilderness designation is due to the lack of towns more than anything else. But I digress. We needed to make as many miles today as we could because it could be a long day tomorrow to reach our reservation, if not. Once we hit the flat line, we discovered it was rooty and rocky¢and that makes for sore feet and diminished time. At least for me. And worries about how ¢easy¢ the trail really will be. The trail wound through a maze of moss-covered boulders, which was exquisite, but the ground was the aforementioned roots and rocks and I was tiring of this. Met up with Spirit again at the river we were supposed to ford, but the low water¢even after last night¢s rain¢allowed us to rock hop across. We pushed on with the goal of another 1.6 miles to a pond. Again Spirit was there first and had scouted out the area. Score! Another awesome stealth site, this one is as good as the East Carry Pond beach site¢minus the beach and any other people. The setting sun dried out all our damp gear and soaked tents. I went for my daily swim and continue to get used to swimming in weeds, not many, but still¢I¢m so happy to be in the water at the end of the day, I'm not caring.