Date: 2013-08-18
From: Stratton,ME(route 27) , mile 1997.9

To: Horns Pond Lean -to
Miles today: 5.1
Weather: light rain

Start ME 27, Stratton, ME, mile1997.7Stop Horns Pond Lean-to, mile 2002.8Sleep tentCell noneHiked 5.1 miles Northbound183.1 miles remainingHiked 59.5 miles 2013 ATOld Goat's notes:Today is another short mile, big climb day. We were dropped off at the trailhead and we started hiking at 8:20am. The first 2 miles were easy and then the fun began. The last 3 miles was where all the elevation was gained. We went from 1450ft to 3379ft and back down to 3183ft. The trail condition was fine, it was the constant up that got us. We knew today would be another short day before we started, this is where we planned to stop. We had thought that if this climb were to be easier than expected we might try doing a few more, as I said before it wasn't easy so we stuck to our plan. Although we are at a lean-to site we are going to sleep in our tent. We are in a site built up and flattened for tents. These sites are made to limit the impact on the environment. The maintainers want us to stay on the trails and either sleep in the lean-tos or set up on these pre-built tent sites. This way we are not trampling the vegetation and leaving the area bald. There are actually 3 lean-tos here, one is a Historic original lean-to they only allow daytime use of. (Stopping for lunch or a break or as a haven out of rain temporarily.) The other two are for overnight camping. This must be a popular place at times to have so much capacity. There is also a caretaker here at the site, a special tent is set up for that person. All the sites and lean-tos have buckets or cans to put our food in at night. They must have a critter problem here. I doubt there is a bear problem because these buckets and cans would be no match for a bear. I forgot to mention that we stopped for lunch at an overlook with a great view of the pond. We knew we would be stopping soon after so we laid around soaking in the warmth of the sun before heading out to finish our day. We arrived at the site about 2:00pm. We are expecting a few good weather days and we want to clear the mountains before rain comes again. It would be fine with me if it doesn't rain until we are done but I'm sure there is a slim chance of that. Check 6's notes:Yesterday I wrote about how happy I am to have only 5 mountains left , but today I made another discovery...the first Bigelow Mountain has multiple peaks, so it's like climbing one huge and two smaller mountains, but all considered one mountain. That's just mean. The others seem to have single mountain tops. Where we set up our tent is a nice private tent site. I like those...I sleep best when there aren't other people nearby because I don't worry about our noises, or our getting up to pee once or twice a night (with the tent zipper) waking others up. At the Motel yesterday we met "Molar Man" (a retired dentist) and his wife, "Sweet Tooth." He is thru-hiking and she is picking him up every day and taking him to whatever motel she has found for the night! She spends the days doing whatever she wants (she mentioned massages!). She's having a lot of fun meeting hikers at trailheads and doing trail magic. Today on the trail we met "Double Nickel." He said that's his trail name because he's 55 years old. He has a 6 month leave of absence to thru-hike. He works for Bechtel Construction...his boss' father donated the money for the BSA Jamboree site (Bechtel Summit, I think it's called)! The Bechtels like having happy employees, so they were happy to approve his 6 month leave of absence to thru-hike. I love that!My attitude is still great, even with how hard the mountains are. I'm looking forward to easier hiking! But I truly am enjoying being out here again. By the way, Old Goat writes a lot about how many feet we ascend and descend. To me those are just numbers. If you want to really see what it looks like that we're hiking, look up a side profile of the AT elevations in Maine and see what that looks like! It's shocking to look at!!Sent from my iPhone