Date: 2007-11-11
From: Carl A. Newhall Lean-To, Maine

To: N.side of the E. Branch Pleasant River, Maine
Miles today: 10.7
Weather: clear sky

I woke up around 2am. That is the problem with my new circadian rythym and with the length of the days right now. It gets dark around 4:15pm and gets light around 6:00 am; that's alot of darkness. As I lay in my bag, I thought about the difficult day ahead. I knew that there would be alot of wind, low temps, and snow/ice for about 11 miles; up and over the last real ridge on the AT. My first obstacle was to get out of my sleeping bag. It was supposed to be in the low 20's in the valley; so, I figured it was in the low teens here. My water bottles were frozen solid and my Polar Pure water treatment was frozen. I went down to the stream that was the water source for the shelter. It was flowing well with alot of ice formations. I banged my water bottles against some rocks to get their lids off and then banged them some more to get the ice out to get some water in them. I could not treat the water; so, for the first time on the trip, I drank untreated water where I thought it was a little risky. I figured that if I got sick, it would take 7 days to hit me. That is Giardia's incubation time. I would be off the trail then and I could deal with it then. My immediate concern was staying hydrated enough to get over the next mountain ridge. I went back to the shelter and drank alot of coffee and ate a big hot breakfeast. I then did the long process of getting dressed. I do a little at a time. I could get dressed real quick; but, I actually needed to kill some time to get to daylight. I did not want to traverse cliffs on ice, in the dark. Just as the sun was coming up, I headed out towards Gulf Hagas Mtn. It was about a mile and a 1000 feet. I tried to not go too fast to get sweaty; but, it is hard to do. It did help that I had over 2 weeks of; so, i was a little out of shape. As I climbed the snow became deeper and the wind was around 30mph. I got to the summit of Gulf Hagas Mtn and said a little prayer. If my next 3 moutains were like this, this was going to be a very difficult, technical hike. There was so much ice that the pine needles "clanged" together like crystal wind chimes. The trail was snow covered with ice. In several places, actually, every 30 yards; a tree was across the trail. There had been the remnants of a hurricane(Neal?) that came through last week and with all the ice; there were alot of climbing through, around, under, or over "blow downs". In 3 places the trail was completely blocked and I could not tell where the trail went. I fought of the feelings of panic and told myself that I could always back track, if I had to. Luckily, the Snow Hares and big cats had followed the trail thought the blow downs; so, I just followed them. I know experienced winter mountaineers and people up north think that I am a "whimp"; but, down south, this is serious stuff. I went down to the gap that had The Sydney Tappan Campsite. It was a wind tunnel. The down here was icey and I had to make steps with my boots in order to get down. I thought, OK 2 miles down! This is going to be a long hike. Just keep going, Terry. To stop is death. I then climbed up to West Peak and was happy to see that because this Mountain was about 500 feet higher, there was less ice and more snow; so, it was easier going. That is for the ice; but, there was so many blow downs that it felt like I was at football practice. The snow on the trees were the consistency of snow balls; that as a kid, we would put in the freezer to keep them as memories of our snowfalls. I had my Baklava and rain jacket hood, so tight around my head, that it effected my vision; so, I would bust my head here and there, right into a fallen tree. It was like "the bull in the ring" or "the gauntlet" in practice. In between West Peak and Hay Mtn; I had to get something to eat and drink. I stopped and licked some ice in my water bottles. I ate a frozen bagel and a Spam Single "popsycle". I took a vitamin and an 800 mg ibuprofen. I still had about 6.5 miles to go and I was very tired. My cotten gloves were soaked(thanks Campmor) and I could not feel my feet. I got going and just keep saying, "go, go, go". I got to The White Brook Trail and noticed that two other people had come down from White Cap in the last day or two. The climb was not too bad; but, I lost the AT above treeline and walked around for 30 minutes until I found some cairns on the North West side. I did take some pictures; so, folks would believe me. I then virtually snow skied down for a quarter mile; then I had to slide on my butt, using my poles as ice axes to keep from going too fast. The is a french word for this, something like, Garoute? Anyway, on this descent I found a couple of springs that I lapped up like a dog and kept going. I finally got down to The Logan Brook Lean-To. I ate a quick meal of a gorp that I made with Wasabi peanuts; honey coverd macadamia nuts; peanut butter filled pretzels; and walnuts. I then busted out 40 pushups to stay warm and then got going. When I got to W Branch Ponds Rd the snow on the ground began to disappear. It was a beautiful hike that was fairly level. There was all kinds of green moss along the the rocks that were left and right of the trail. I also noticed alot of smaller trees that had fallen below the evergreens. I was going to camp by one of these spots and make a giant fire. I got to the East Branch Lean-To and left real quick. The wind was blowing right in. I then walked down to The East Branch of The Pleasant River and went right off of the trail and found a big rock and made a raging fire that lasted all night. I dried everything out and the wind died down at dusk. As I got to sleep, I thought about the conditions up on Kathadin and thought how dangerous it would be up there.