Date: 2007-09-10
From: Piazza Rock Shelter ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ 1955.8

To: Spaulding Mountain Shelter ÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ 1972.7
Miles today: 16.9

I kept joking last night and this morning that each passing rain storm was a ¢clearing shower¢ and that the high winds during the night were a ¢clearing breeze¢. It was still a misty rain fog mix when we finally left the shelter around 9:00 am but it did seem that the heavy rains had passed. We saw a moose not long after leaving camp. Shadow had spotted him from across a pond.The clouds floated in and out as we crossed Saddleback and gave us limited views. A lot of the trail was over open granite above the tree line so you had to be a little careful in the fog to pick out the trail. We ran into Flying Turtle and Backyard Boogie on top of Saddleback Junior. They were slack packing again today. The clouds cleared as I reached this summit so I took a break and a few pictures. As I looked back towards Saddleback you could see the clouds hanging on one side of the mountain while it was clear on the other.A group of us gathered for lunch at Popular Ridge Lean-to. I headed out first hoping to make it to the next shelter before dark. We had a steep descent ahead of us followed by a steep climb out of Orbeton Stream Valley.I crossed the stream with no problem then began the climb out of the valley. It was 6:00 pm when I crossed the first shoulder and the 2 forest roads. I looked at the profile and hoped to make the summit of Lone Mountain by 7:00 pm. It would be dark well before 8:00 pm tonight. As a plodded up Lone Mountain Marco Solo blew by me and told me Shadow had lost an expensive pair of sunglasses at lunch time. He had left the trio at the stream crossing and was not sure if Shadow was going back for the glasses. I have trouble climbing at someone else¢s pace so I hate to even have someone else in my line of sight since I subconsciously fall into their pace. So when Marco Solo passed me I stopped. I was out of energy anyway so I wolfed down a Snickers bar and a granola bar and began to climb again. I hit the summit exactly at 7:00 pm with 2.2 miles left to the shelter. Thirty minutes later I hit the Mount Abraham Trail junction with just 1 mile left to the shelter but it was getting pretty dark. I could ¢feel¢ the trail under foot and see the big rocks so I waited to switch on my head light. There was a fairly dense fog blowing in the air so the headlight had the effect of driving in the fog with your high beams on. At 7:40 pm I crunched over an old log in the trail and suddenly the surface became ¢crunchy¢. Damn, I had walked off the trail in the dark. I back tracked and turned on my head light checking trees for double blazes which indicate a turn. I finally found the mark right where I had stepped on the old log and found a recent reroute that took a sharp left. The log was blocking the old route. The new route was not well worn and went over dozens of slick wet planks through a boggy area. The trail surface was poor compared to the trail up until this point and I had to slow way down and use my headlight to pick my way through the woods.Suddenly there was a glow in the woods to my left that looked like some alien space craft. I realized it was the privy for the shelter and there was another hiker inside with their headlight on. Marco Solo, Philmont, and a woman section hiker were at the shelter when I arrived. Shadow, Numbtoe, and RI Red rolled in about an hour later. Shadow had given up the glasses for lost but they had stopped to cook dinner at the stream.