Date: 2014-07-30
From: carrabassett river

To: little bigelow lean2
Miles today: 23.7

Again today would be a lot of climbing. First it was the crockers, both over 4000' high and rough climbing. The pace for these was just a mile per hour with poor trail. I would make up time on the way down to ME 27, the road to stratton. It was a 5 mile downhill! I almost feel bad for the sobos but not too bad. I skipped going into stratton even though birdman told me of some huge burger that was the best thing ever. I was being drawn by the 2000mile sign. Only two miles after the road cross and just after cranberry stream campsite i saw it. The sign i had been looking for. Its a big deal, at least to me. There was a hiker sitting on a long and i said woohoo (with a fist pump). He wasnt excited, said his leg hurt, he was all down in the mouth. I didnt let him rain on my parade, i was excited. I took a few selfies. Then i met a few guys from the hike inn in georgia. It was peregrin, tortilla tosser, and hike inn dude. All nice guys, peregrin wrote a book about the AT after he thru hiked in 1973. I had a good talk with them but then it was time to get up the bigelows. On the way up to the south horn, a 2500' climb, i passed thru a field of huge boulders. It was like mahoosuc notch but spread out so you could walk thru them, kinda magical place. I really am a big fan of the huge rocks covered in ferns and moss. Up at the top of the horn i met a group of camp kids and had a good chat with a couple of them. We exchanged questions and they even told me a bit about the trail coming up for me. Cool kids. I could see over to bigelow mt and avery peak, looked like a long way away. The views were great from the horn but the kids said they were even better from over there, i had to find out for myself. Well, here goes. From the bigelow mt was what i would call the best views i have seen yet. Its true. In one direction was mountains and in the other direction was a huge lake, 20,000 acres of lake. Gorgeous, stunning. I hung out there for about a half hour. I couldnt leave, i sat to look around. Finally after meeting a sobo named hydro i slipped over to avery peak. The peak is named for mr. Avery who is a co founder of the AT but gets not much credit. I sat on this peak too. It was perfect. I will definitely come back here someday to sit myself down again. I had one mire miuntain to get over before camp. It was only little bigelow but it drive me crazy. On yhe guide it looked very tame and a piece o cake. Well yhe dam trail went up and down and up and down. People! Dont you know im tired? Lets get up this mt the across the ridge then down to the campsite. Nope, more up and down. I had to get my head straight, focus. Finally i made it up to the ridge and met Rocky the flying squirrel. He is doing a strange thru hike. He started in the south with two cars, always slackpacks to his car and drives to the next road, hitches to the other car, blah blah blah, confusing. He only hikes north though. Then when he got to virginia he switched, went to katahdin and is doing the same thing southbound, but still only walking north. That sounded like way more work than i could stand but hay, hes doing it his way. We talked for too lang, i just wanted to get to my destination. Finally i did. I set up my tent and went looking for water. I knew that behind the shelter was a river that had 'tubs' in it. It was a series of waterfalls that had pools for swimming in. It was real neat and i waded into one of these pools to wash off and then get water. The water was freezing cold and didnt take long to make my feet painful. Then as i exited the pool with my crocs on i slipped. My wet croc slipped off and my foot came down hard on a rock. The initial feeling was that i just ripped off the bottom of my foot. I couldnt look. I cried on the inside and finally looked at the situation, no blood, just pain. I rinsed it off, put on my shoe and hobbled back to my home. I ate and crawled into bed. It was a wake up that it only takes one bad step to end a hike. With day 2 of the marathon done i laid down knowing i had oassed two big milestones. The 2000 mile point and the last of the 4000' peaks until katahdin! Wow, big day, the hardest work was behind me, what a relief.