Date: 2006-09-28
From: Horns Pond Shleter

To: Safford Brook Trail
Miles today: 5.2

Thursday, Sept 28, 2006 Horns Pond Lean-To to Safford Brook Trail, 5.2 miles plus 2.2 miles of blue-blaze trail.Foggy, overcast.   Zig Zag¢s thermometer reads 42 degrees. Possibly colder during the night while the sky was still clear.Since the night of Sept 17/18, whenever they've been backpacking, Zig Zag has slept in 2 sleeping bags (one slipped inside the other) and a liner. Even though overnight temperatures have dropped into the 30's, Zig Zag hasn't gotten cold. Her bags are compact enough that it hasn't been a problem for her to carry 2.Amoeba is feeling sick. Her usually dependable gingerale tastes terrible, metallic. Could I possibly have bought diet-gingerale containing aspartame, she wonders. Whatever, she can¢t drink it.Purple Rose likes diet soda. If you want this gingerale, says Amoeba, it¢s yours. Otherwise, I'll dump it.Purple Rose tastes it and says, I'll take it. It tastes fine to me.The idea of drinking anything, even the water she¢s carrying, makes Amoeba feel worse.She doesn't drink anything more all day.Nice clean odorless twin privy, one of the best on the trail. Thanks MATC.Beautiful gray mist. Scrub spruce, 2 kinds, scrub Balsam fir, club moss (star), moss ¢pipes¢ like those in Colrain, Spanish moss on the way up West Peak. A shaky Balsam fir provides a shaky handhold. This is not the sturdiest tree in the fir-est, quips Zig Zag.10AM summit West Peak. Spongy moss, wood sorrel, bottlebrush ground pine. 15 minute break at tentsite in col. Amoeba packs up her camera in her pack. No more pictures for a while. Weather is too yukky.On right side of trail ascending Avery is a boxed spring and some more of that red moss.Can anyone ID that red moss?11:25 summit of Avery Peak. Past the small building.On the descent another signature Amoeba fall, (third such fall in 6 days), right foot slides forward in the mud, left knee bends sharply, sits back on her butt. Not hurt. She¢s got that fall well-practiced.Hello to Dan, from Waltham MA. He¢s a kayaker, who has taken time to hike up Avery today, from the north. He says bad weather forecast tomorrow, rain and T-storms in PMHello to a couple out to climb and descend Avery in time to get to their 13 year-old daughter¢s 4 PM soccer game.Hello to Dan again on his way down. Look up Maine Island Trail Association, www.mita.org. Some great information there. Membership may get you camping privileges on private islands that you can sea-kayak to.Hello again to the couple on their way down.A big hello to Purple Sherpa and Dixie where the trail weaves through a field of house-sized moss-covered boulders. They¢ve hiked 2.2 in on the Safford Brook Trail plus 0.3 on the AT, hiking out will give them 5.0!Boulders are monumental. What is Boulder thinking as he hikes among them?Hello to a SOBO (no trail name) listening to music as he hikes. I¢m hiking to Erwin, he says. That¢s where I got to the last time.2:20 at the Safford Brook Trail. Trail becomes wide and graded like an old railroad bed. Out at 3:35.They discuss plans. Purple Rose and Purple Sherpa will go to the Cabin. Amoeba and Zig Zag will try to find a pharmacy to get meds so they can extend their hike by 2 more days, filling in Zig Zag¢s 17.5 gap in VT. Tomorrow if the weather¢s good Amoeba, Zig Zag and Purple Rose will hike over Bemis from the now-closed Clearwater Brook Trail, (not the Bemis Stream Trail), out to Rte 17.The Rangeley pharmacist is ready to close up shop and won¢t cooperate. Amoeba and Zig Zag will try Rumford.In Frye, they decide it¢s too much to try to get meds in Rumford (doctor/pharmacy calls, etc) and therefore not possible to try to do the VT hike. But now, due to the time lost stopping in Rangeley, it¢s too late to make the Cabin in time for dinner. Besides, they've already told Honey and Bear they aren't coming for dinner. They¢ll go to Rumford not for meds, just for resupply, in case they hike Bemis tomorrow, and dinner, then to the Cabin.If it¢s heavy rain tomorrow, Amoeba doesn¢t want to hike Bemis. Zig Zag says she understands. She and Purple Rose can do it on their own. Amoeba can head for home.Groceries bought and dinner eaten, at 7:20PM they set out for the Cabin. Should be there before 8.At the Cabin, a big hello to Honey and Bear! "Photo" from the Garland Five (others being Wolfsong, Sweet Potato, Zing and I don¢t remember the Mom¢s name) and his uncle are there, hiking some of New England¢s 100 highest peaks.Purple Rose and Purple Sherpa say because of the weather they¢ve decided to zero tomorrow and hike Bemis on Saturday when the forecast is better.