Date: 2004-09-01
From: Speck Pond Shelter

To: Frye Notch Lean-to
Miles today: 10.4
Weather: scattered clouds

261 Miles to go!Today was more like Maine ought to be, though still a bit slow. I actually made 10 miles in under nine hours.It was only 50 degrees this morning and I'd start by going to nearly 4000 feet. So I kept on my long pants, Capeline top and balaclava and cinched my hat down on top of it all. I hiked up Old Speck Mountain in dense fog with a strong wind, needing every bit of clothing I had on. And only found three stunted blueberries! I needn't have worried. Going down, the blue sky broke through the fog and I stopped to remove layers. Right there in front of me were BLUEBERRIES! Nice big sweet ones. Somehow the best alpine blueberries grow on the east side of the summits, sweeter and juicier than anywhere else. Yummmmmmm! The blueberries continued most of the way down to the road at Grafton Notch and the going was much better than before. I nibbled the whole way down.Then at the road was a blackberry and then a not too bad climb up to Baldpate Lean-to where I stopped at noon for lunch and to get water. The bushes looked suspiciously like berries and I scanned them until I found a few nice red raspberries.Then came a steep but not dangerous climb up West Baldpate. It was just as windy but finally there was a view! I whooped with excitement getting to the top. You could see for miles, with big fluffy clouds scattered through blue sky. Here and there were the dwarfed-down variety of alpine blueberry, with a hint of tomato flavor. Going down into the saddle leading to East Baldpate came the big juicy sweet ones. I LOVE alpine blueberries and the only way to get them is to go climb a mountain!Going up East Baldpate was a climb up the surface of an enormous bare granite dome, guided by a line of cairns and lashed by a ferocious wind. It was euphorically exciting, like being on the ceiling of the world. I felt awash with happiness at being there to experience it all, on such a perfect day way up where relatively few people ever venture.Going down were more berries and then several wooden ladders over the steep spots down to another granite dome, Little Baldpate. Here I was going into the wind and had to move slowly and carefully so as not to fall going down the curved surface of the dome. I heard a load roar that could only be a fighter jet heading low and fast through one of the passes in front of me but try as I might I was unable to spot it. At treeline fissures in the granite appeared, one three feet wide I had to step across. Then came a zone of sheets of granite that had spalled off and slid down the mountain, making the way more difficult. Here I found something new, ladders made of angle iron bolted together to get past the steepest spots. I liked the effort to make the way passable.Then down into the notch to Frye Notch Lean-to. It was the first Maine-pattern shelter I had actually stayed at. They have an awkward waist high log wall several feet in front of the sleeping platform. The idea seems a bit idiotic, as it forces one to clamper over the wall to get in or out. I found shelters like this in the Smokys and Connecticut but avoided them like the plague. But it was 330pm and with 4.5 more miles to the road to Andover I doubted I would make it before dark, so I decided to stop here. Tomorrow I will get to the road in the morning and hopefully get an early ride to Andover.There is yet another college freshman orientation group tenting above the shelter, this one from Colby. I chatted a bit before supper. It seems the idea is for the new freshmen to bond with a group so they have a set of ready-made friends when classes start so they won't feel so alone. 10pm: I am awakened by the bright moon shining into the shelter. I suppose the really appropriate thing to do would be to turn into a werewolf, go up the hill, and gobble up all the college freshmen. Isn't that how it works in the movies? Or more likely, since I am a thruhiker, turn into a werewolf and gobble up all of their food! Instead, I just lay there and watch it climb up through the trees, then go back to sleep. Not even a howl. How disappointing. Oh, well.