Date: 2007-10-07
To: The Bigelows
Miles today: 0.0

Well, this past weekend I hiked the Bigelow range right here in good old Maine. Originally, my friends Joel and Nate were going to hike it, but then Nate realized he could not go, so I was invited. Now, on a little side note. Nate and I had a argument about this. he argued that playing in two soccer games, playing frisbee, training for the states in cross country, and volunteering at the Maine Marathon, was cooler than hiking the Bigelow range. let the record reflect that nothing is cooler than hiking, NOTHING. Now that we have clarified that issue, onto my little adventure. We(Joel and myself), started out at 7:15 on the Appalachian Trail VIA route 17. The first couple of miles were nice, not all that difficult. The climb up to Horns Pond was steep with a lot of rocks, certainly made this young man sweat(?) his sorry ass up the mountain. Horns Pond was nice, met a nice ridge runner who was well informed except for that fact that he lied to us about water. He said the water source at the pond was dry but that there was a alternate water source .3 miles down the trail, well, he was wrong, and we were angry. We thought we were going to climb both the South and North Horn. Well, as the trail up the South Horn was walking all over us, we decided we were not walking 10 feet off the trail to touch another summit, we were flustered, sweating endlessly, tire, hungry and thirsty, typical day on the good old AT. Summit of South Horn was nice, met a couple of section hikers out for the weekend, they have been at it for 11 years and anticipate to complete the entire trail by the following July. One of them said something to me that has stuck with me. As we were looking out towards West Peak, it looked like a long way. He said "looks like 30, feels like 5, its actually 2." I was close to adopting the trail name 30-5-2, but I am not sure if I want numbers for a trail name, I will get back to all you loyal readers sometime in the future. Meanwhile we continued our push to West Peak. It was steep, rocky, and steep. What a summit! Well worth the effort, did not have a perfect day, but we still ha nice views! We had out summit photo taken, once I find my camera cord, I will put those photos on this site. We then continued on to Avery Peak, nice peak as well, old fire shack up there, not open to the public, bordered up with wood. On our way back, we ran into someone. This man's name in Steven Rowe, and currently this man is the Attorney General of the great State of Maine. We talked for a little while. I confirmed he is running for Governor in 2010, he has my vote. It really is odd who you see out hiking, great guy too, very respectful, puts Alberto Gonzales to shame, but Gonzales did that to himself, Rowe just put the nail in the coffin. Meanwhile, before we went to Avery Peak, we decided to leave our packs at the Avery Memorial campsite because we were going to come back and head down the fire wardens trail. Well, the Attorney General informed us some varmint were getting into a pack left behind. When we returned to the campsite, this stupid red squirrel was getting into another hikers back, he too left his pack behind before heading to the peak. I have no mercy for these stupid little things. I started battle with the thing the moment I returned to the campsite. It was persistent, but Joel and myself fought that thing off until the hiker returned. Again, I have no mercy for these things, and I was aggressive in my pursuit against the thing. I have referred the case to the Attorney General for further investigation. Now, the descent down the fire warden's trail, the great person who created this fine piece of work. Very steep to start, lots of staircases, which was nice. Then it started to level out, but it just kept on going, and going, and going, and going. nothing to look at, nothing to keep me occupied. Those were the long 3.7 miles I have ever hiked. It never ended, miserable, we were tired. I was ready to call the National Guard and demand my tax dollars be put to work and have a helicopter come get us.So, that was out adventure through the Bigelows, had a great time, look forward to returning there next summer during my thru hike.Until then, Kirby30-5-2????