Date: 2009-09-08
From: Saddleback Mountain

To: Maine Rt. 4
Miles today: 5.7

Access:North--Saddleback Mountain Ski Area--It took about an hour to travel from Kingfield (our hotel) to Saddleback via Rt 4.South--Maine Rt 4. We left the 2nd car at the AT parking lot (room for 20 cars) on Rt 4 before we reached Saddleback...very easy to find.The Hike:It was a beautiful sunny day everywhere except up on the mountain we were about to hike, Saddleback Mt. We looked up and the entire top was enveloped in a cloud. We hiked 1.7 mi from the parking lot at Saddleback Ski Area up the Gray Ghost ski trail following yellow topped stakes. It was extremely steep and Burly Girl couldn't believe that they list this as a blue (intermediate) ski run. Along the way we passed a massive machine stripping and tearing down trees in order to widen the slope. The operator turned off his machine as we passed as the chips were flying 100' from his machine. He told us that they were widening the slope so that they could qualify as an FIS race course and be on the ski circuit. We continued up to the top of the high speed quad and collapsed outside the ski patrol shack at a picnic table for a banana snack. The mountain was socked in with mist and the wind was howling. We moved on up a yellow-blazed trail behind the quad and eventually reached the peak...1 hr/15 min. The wind gusts had to be 50 mph. We took some photos, a video (of the clouded-in summit), and scurried down off the top going south on the AT. Once out of the cloud, we had beautiful views to the north, west and south. We could see the town of Rangely, Rangely Lake, and the Bemis Range which we will hike next week. We walked about a mile over open exposed rock above treeline. It is great to hike when you have views! This area reminded us of the Whites in NH. We took another break and sat on a huge rock before we entered the trees just to take in the views. We saw a number of lakes and ponds that we would be passing on the trail later today. This was another one of those 'wonderful days in paradise'! We have had a number of them this week--temperatures in the 60s/70s, sunny, low humidity, and very few bugs. The walk through the woods was steep at times, then level. After the initial drop we ran into Tagless and Tagalong, two NOBO thru hikers we had met many months ago in TN (Dennis Cove Road). We have been following their trialjournals and were sad to hear that they had to drop off shortly after we met them as Tagless had to have hernia surgery. He recovered, they got back on the trail and here they were in Maine...congratulations! They were traveling with Mountain Man and several others. We will look for your Katahdin entries in 2 weeks...happy trails!We continued to descend and after passing Ethel Pond (one of those we had seen from above) we had a lunch of leftover tortellini on some rocks in the quiet forest. About a mile later we stopped at Piazza Lean To, a beautiful new shelter complete with skylights. Bugsy rested with his feet up and Burly Girl read the shelter journal. It's fun to see names of those you've met over the season and what dates they arrived here. This shelter has a caretaker, Lexi, and we spoke to her for a while. The last 1.8 miles were easy and we exited the woods onto Rt 4 and the hiker lot.This past week we revised our opinions of Maine. Some of our past entries were a tad 'whiney' reflecting the endless mud bogs (wet boots and clothes) and hoardes of mosquitoes. It has not rained much for the past 2 weeks and most (not all) of the mud has dried up making the hiking much easier. The old saying 'what a difference a day makes' is so true. In this instance, 'what a difference a month makes' would be more appropriate. When the sun is out and the woods are bugless, your whole perspective changes! Throw in some mountaintop 'see-forever' views and you have the recipe for a great week! The northbound thru hikers that we are meeting now have such a different perspective of Maine than the southbound thru hikers that went through in early July and had to ford rivers waist high that are now rock-hops. We are glad we are still here now to see this beautiful side of Maine.So all said and done, we did 47 miles these past 6 days and have 44.5 miles to go in Maine---4 more hikes! But that will be next week.