Date: 2014-07-26
From: Rangeley, ME

To: Woods Rd. Stealth
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: broken clouds

I sat on the porch of the Hiker Hut in the morning drinking another cup of coffee getting ready to push on the trail and hike Saddleback. Steve went into town, but did have great deep conversation with Cathrine about a bunch of things. This place is easily top 5 on my list of hostels. It IS "off the grid" and that might frustrate a few hikers, but you do get into town if you have to, and this place is .3 off the trail. Very convenient. It's peaceful, quiet, and you will not get a better dinner. Check it out when hiking in or out of Rangeley, METoday was no joke. A very tough day scaling 3 big peaks in western Maine. Saddleback, The Horn, and Saddleback Jr, all put me to the test and all had great views. Not very often to they have perfect veiws on top of these 3 peaks. Like the Smokys in NC and Tennessee the way the mountains are situated often produce a haze in the horizon. I have heard that on one of those rare clear days you can see Mt. Washington to the west and Katahdin to the east. Tons of people were out today due to it being Saturday, and the weather being cool and windy. Even though it seemed like I hiked 20 miles I only managed 13.5 in a 10 hour span. I really can't complain however, I did stop a bunch of time and soaked in the views and 13+ is actually pretty good in these parts for me. Shelters and campsites were kinda hard to gauge today. I didn't want to stop in Poplar Shelter cause the day was still early, but if I kept going the next documented spot in the trail guide is several miles away. I was hoping that there would be a spot at Orbeton Stream, a ford creek at the bottom of the Saddlebacks. When I got there however the terrain was very steep and rocky with no flat spots of remnants of people camping in site. The creek however wasn't bad and didn't have to ford. I rocked hopped across without getting my shoes wet at all and headed back up the next climb to see if a spot was visible. The next shelter was over 5 miles away up hill and it was already 6:30. My legs were not in the mood for another scale up a hill. Only .1 up was a dirt road right next to a small waterfall that was not even a passable road for wheeled vehicles, so I was guessing it was used for snowmobiling in the winter. I decided to take a gander a walk a bit on this road to see if there was a spot. Wouldn't be long until I came across a NOBO hiker that I have leap-frogged a few times during the day that I have never met before. He found a fantastic spot with a rock fire pit that he set up camp in. Dang! He said I was welcome to join him in that spot, but there really wasn't much room to be honest. I walked about 50 yards further and low and behold another spot with a rock fire pit just for me. Why do I love to find these jewels of the forest? I'm just fascinated with camp spots that are used but very rarely. Especially by hikers on the AT. Snowmobiling, is a very popular past time in these neck of the woods, so I'm guessing these spots are used by them as well. I actually made a fire, cause I already ate my dinner back in the shelter a few miles back. So I had time to piddle around and do manly camp things. Didn't look like it was going to rain that night so I left my rain fly off to enjoy the stary night and the cool breeze. An overall great day in Maine!SOTD, The Humpty Dance, -Digital Underground (Stretch was singing this the other day and it was in my head)