Date: 2014-07-27
From: Stratton, Maine

To: Little Bigelow Lean-to
Miles today: 15.3
Weather: scattered clouds

Wow, this is it. On to Monson. Last stop before Katahdin. Only four days and one mountain. Two days of rain though. It's weird not even having a watch to know what time it is. Well, off to breakfast then hitch back to the trail.Breakfast was two eggs, two sausage, cheese, home fries, bread, and a donut. With a half gallon of coffee, of course. Grabbed my bag and started walking towards the gas station thinking my prospects for a hitch were better, They were! Three cars in and I snagged one. Very nice lady named Regina from New Jersey who has a summer place here. She was going to the trail anyway. Had a good chat then she pulled out a map and we went over all the things Debbie and I could do after the hike. Sounds great to me! So I'm off. And in a very short time I crossed something signed I had totally forgotten about - 2000 miles! 2000 miles! I'm a 2000 miler! Wow. What that really means is there's only 185.3 miles left. Still in disbelief.But I have a mountain to climb. The Bigelow Range is ahead and I can't wait to get it over with frankly. I want the nice long flat areas I see on the map. There are a few bumps here and there and one shorter mountain after Monson, but this is it really. I know already that I'm getting wet and there's no sense worrying so bring it on rain. Passing a lot of southbounders now. It's fun to see them so fresh-faced and clean frankly. They haven't even gone 200 miles yet. Glad I'm not in their shoes! One mentioned how technical the climb would be ahead, I've also learned not to trust them. Comparably, they haven't seen much yet so I hope they're not shocked when they get to the Whites! Right after I summited Bigelow, the taller of the two peaks, the rain started. Pretty gentle at first but enough to get everything slippery and as we're up high - cold. I put on my rain coat. Maine is a whole new beast. Normally I'd avoid the coat, but it's just cold enough. It got very foggy and windy and I was happy to start working my way down. Still about seven miles to go to the shelter and I have to cross a mini-peak. The weather is pretty miserable. This second peak, apparently I was on the foggy side of the mountain - as when I got to the top (after a LOT of complaining) I was greeted by the most amazing view I've seen on the trail. I'm almost glad I didn't have my camera as it's a memory all for me that'll be burned in my brain. Sure would like to share it though. I was looking across a wide valley to distant mountains. The clouds were literally feet above my head. I felt like if I reached my hand up and jumped, I'd touch them. There were spots of sun coming through and wisps of clouds down below that would creep up the side of the mountain then the breeze would catch them and throw them over the top at high speed. The taller peaks would hold onto the clouds and they'd get sheared away between ravines and crags and make the summit look like it was smoking. I had to just stop and watch. Every time I took a step to move on, I'd stop again trying to fix it in my head. Now here's what sucks. This area is very bouldery. Attempting to go from one boulder to another I slipped. That slip you see in cartoons when someone steps on a banana peel. Both feet right out from under me and I fell on my butt, not on the first boulder, but the second that was a few feet lower. So I fell about five feet, then rolled off into some blueberries. The positive is that my thermarest takes a lot of the force when I fall (which I do every couple of days). But this was a big fall. The negative is my water bottle jammed up into my kidney and it's hard to take a deep breath. No bloody pee yet, but I bet I bruised it. I complained all the way downhill. It's too wet, too rooty, too rocky, too long. Anything to complain. Even worse, I just knew I'd bent another pole and sure enough...I did! So my tally is four and I'm not in the market for new ones, so will just have to live with two bent poles. This bend isn't too bad. Just enough to keep it from sliding back up into the upper pole. The other one though, the one I bent yesterday is so bad it looks like a gaffie stick from the Sand People. I had actually gotten used to it. So much so, that I sometimes forget, then get angry when I notice it (Paul: reminds me of Sister Mary Patricia "Oh My Goodness!"). I will adapt. The mountains are almost over, so hopefully I won't need to rely on them too much.After a lot more complaining, I finally made it to camp. It's lovely. Lots of southbounders. I'm taking three Advil and can't lay on my left side. Is it over yet?