Date: 2018-09-09
From: Baldplate Lean-To

To: Surplus Pond Campsite
Miles today: 9.9

This morning was cold at the shelter. It felt like it got close to freezing. I'm surprised it's already getting this cold and it's only September 9th. Bear Claw got up and wasn't having it. She restarted the fire from last night and had it going in a matter of minutes. I made my breakfast near the fire. Bear Claw talked about getting into Rangely, ME on Tuesday. It seemed we had some difficult climbs in the way before we got there. I packed up my stuff but didn't get out of camp until 10 am.From the shelter it was a steep climb up Baleplate mountain. Luckily volunteers built rock steps all the way up which made it easier than the normal boulder climbing that I had come used to. At the top you could see the other baldpate mountain that I would be climbing. It was completely clear of trees and was a large bare rock. It only took about 30 minutes to climb up the other one. Frolic, Hills, and Baby Bird were hanging out at the top. We could see for miles in the distance. Work Horse climbed up and pointed where his new house would be. Hills was foraging through short shrubs on the top. I didn't realize what he was doing for awhile until he mentioned he was picking blueberries! They were Alpine berries that tasted amazing. After snacking for a bit I headed down the mountain. The descent was pretty easy compared to the climb and I made my way to the next shelter to eat a quick lunch.  I hiked down a gradual descent to East B road there were two shuttles were already waiting for slack packers. It didn't look like the road got much traffic into town either. A few slack packers came down to the road and I got a ride from the one shuttle driver for $6. Andover, ME was a tiny town. It had two general stores and a few hostels. I went to the one store to resupply a little bit and ordered a large burger. The burger really hit the spot. I met a guy from Miami named Nick. He planned on just doing the Maine section in 24 days but didn't have any previous hiking experience. He tried doing larger mile days at the beginning of Maine and ended up hurting his knee. It wasn't realistic to do big mile days out here with this kind of terrain. I ate my burger then headed out. I got the same shuttle driver back to the trailhead. He charged me $8 to go back since I was the only one. The driver told me a story about a backpacking trip he did with his son. He carried about 50 pounds in weight but packed out steak and hotdogs. At the shelter he started cooking up food and a few thru hikers woke up and smelled the delicious food. He ended up feeding some hikers as well as a group of woman that showed up. I wish I was there. I was dropped back on the trail at 6 pm. I hiked for 2 miles then ran into Frolic and Baby Bird next to a lake. They had started a fire and it was so welcoming in this cold that I decided to stay. I setup my tent and hung out next to the fire. Frolic talked about old video games that I used to play as a kid and teenager. I only ate a few snacks since I had the burger earlier. It got dark and we could see the stars through the trees. We all didn't want to leave the fire since it was so cold. It finally rolled past hiker midnight and I was ready for bed.  Tonight I'm warm with all my layers on.