Date: 2007-09-16
From: Safford Brook Trail

To: Safford Brook Trail
Miles today: 0.0

Friday, September 14, 2007Overcast, in the 40¢s.I¢ve been thinking about trying to descend Old Blue on the bad ankle. In his book ¢Don¢t Die on the Mountain¢ what Dan Allen calls a ¢strategic¢ (as opposed to a ¢pedestrian¢) decision. I decide I shouldn¢t attempt it. I hate to admit this to myself, but I don't think the ankle is ready for that descent. I know the ankle can ascend Old Blue. However, I¢m unlikely to find the exit point onto now-closed Clearwater Brook Trail, ending up either lost, or having to hike out another 8.7 to Rte 17, which the ankle won¢t do, or having to descend Old Blue, which was the problem in the first place. I¢ll save that section for next year. Goodbye for now, friends Honey and Bear. Honey, maybe next spring we¢ll hike together in Virginia with your sister. I stop at the Rumford Library to upload photos and 2 journal entries. I drive across the river to work out at the Rumford Community Center. Then to Stratton.Hello Sue at the Stratton Motel!NOBO¢s HeMan and SheRa (trail names taken from some old cartoon characters) are here. I met them earlier this year at Bears Den. So are NOBO hiking partners Flying Turtle and Back Yard Boogie. I think Flying Turtle says he¢s run a marathon in every state except 3. (Sue tells him Maine has a ¢mostly downhill¢ marathon --which serves as a Boston qualifier-- right near here. It starts high up on Sugarloaf and passes thru the town of Stratton.) After finishing his NOBO thruhike, Flying Turtle will run a marathon in Hawaii. I think he says he¢ll be running the final 2 next spring. Flying Turtle also says he¢s biked about halfway across the US. Back Yard Boogie says he¢s aiming to be the earliest NOBO AT starter and the latest finisher but he thinks he¢s going to finish, after about 7 12 months of hiking and reveling, October 1, too early to be the latest finisher.About 5:30 Gray Feathers and Memere arrive, all smiles, looking fit and cheery and ready to hike. I pass along regards from Purple Rose, Zig Zag, Purple Sherpa, Queen Diva, Mrs Smoke (who, I learn on Sept 24 from Circuit Rider, has acquired a new trailname, ¢Spa Vahnish¢) and Sweet Sixteen. We laugh and joke, and, for old times sake, repair to the still-for-sale Stratton Diner for supper.Like last year, we take a room at the Stratton Motel.Because I¢m worried about the ankle, no key swaps this time. I don¢t have enough confidence yet to hike solo. To help plan out driving and car settings, we buy a 2007 edition of the DeLorme Maine Gazetteer. We highlight and annotate pages 29-31. At the outfitters, I buy some kiwi-green plastic flagging ribbon, just about the color of the Element. Do I pick the green color because it matches the Element? Well, of course!! :- ))). Main reason, though, is so much pink and orange and blue is out there already. The green is unique.Saturday, September 15, 2007Memere has made and brought along a loaf of Mrs Smoke¢s (Spa Vahnish¢s) famous oatmeal molasses bread. We eat it slathered in butter, with fresh-brewed coffee laced with real cream. That oatmeal molasses bread stays fresh long enough to feed Memere the next 8 days! Tired of dehydrated backpacking fare, Memere and Gray Feathers have decided to branch out into something different. While grocery shopping, they¢re invited to sample Kraft South Beach Diet Chicken Salad Kits. They like the taste. They¢re given coupons to buy 2 kits at a big discount. The kits consist of wheat pita chips, grilled chicken breast cuts with rib meat, Kraft light mayo, dried sweet cranberries, walnuts and sugar-free strawberry jello. 290 calories per kit. Packing up for their backpack today to Horns Pond Shelter, Memere and Gray Feathers include a kit apiece for tonight¢s dinner. Pondering the merits of South Beach Kits, I conclude 290 calories wouldn¢t be anywhere near enough to propel me over the Bigelows. But maybe it¢s enough for Memere and Gray Feathers. They don¢t eat as much as I do. Through steady rain, we set Gray Feathers¢ loaner (long story) white PT Cruiser at East Flagstaff Rd.As the three of us near the trailhead on Rte 27, come to find out Gray Feathers has also been pondering the 290-calorie question. She says, Amoeba, I have an idea. How about we go into Stratton and have lunch at a restaurant? Tonight in the shelter Memere and I can eat both our packed lunches and our South Beach Kits.Wow, that¢s a great idea, says Memere. It¢s so horrible to go to bed hungry. You can¢t fall asleep when you¢re hungry. We go into the White Wolf Restaurant. Memere and I each have coffee and strawberry shortcake (Memere eating her shortcake plus the whipped cream off mine). Gray Feathers has hot soup and a sandwich.We've made plans for the next 3 days and for contingencies. (1)        Tomorrow morning Sue will hang the green plastic flagging ribbon at the Carrying Place Rd (Main Logging Rd) trailhead right where she drops off Flying Turtle and Back Yard Boogie.(2)        I may follow Sue tomorrow. If I do, I¢ll place the green flagging ribbon at the trailhead myself. I¢ll place it at other critical points and I¢ll take digital pictures and odometer measurements along the way. Can you tell how hard we¢re trying not to get lost? Purple Sherpa, we NEED you!(3)        Memere and Gray Feathers will leave Horns Pond Shelter tomorrow morning about 7AM. Between noon and 1PM, we¢ll all meet at the juncture of the AT and Safford Brook Trail. From there we¢ll hike 6.4 over Little Bigelow to Gray Feathers¢ car at East Flagstaff Rd.(4)        Something may happen to delay one or both of us. If I¢m not at the juncture, they¢ll wait for me until 2PM. If I¢m still not there, they¢ll hike out to their car at East Flagstaff Rd (5 hours of daylight should be enough time to hike 6.4 miles) and come look for me. If they¢re not at the juncture, I¢ll wait for them until 3PM. If they¢re still not there, I¢ll hike the 2.2 back out to Safford Brook trailhead and sleep overnight in the Element, and wait for them there.One of the things we forget to take is Memere¢s walkie-talkie set, which can be used to communicate by voice when you¢re within 5 miles of each other. (I have a cell phone, but Memere and Gray Feathers don¢t. Besides, even if we both had cell phones, reception here is the exception, not the rule).Another thing I forget is to look at the journal of last year¢s hike September 28, 2006 from Horns Pond Shelter to the Stafford Brook Trail with Purple Rose and Zig Zag. That would give us a more realistic idea of how long Memere and Gray Feathers¢ hike tomorrow is going to take. If I¢d have read that journal, I would have had an inkling how over-optimistic our noon-to-1PM estimate is. Lunch at the White Wolf has banished fears of going hungry, for the time being at least. I take Gray Feathers and Memere to the Rte 27 trailhead. Rain has mostly stopped. Goodbye til tomorrow, you guys, when I¢ll meet you between noon and 1PM at the juncture of the AT and Safford Brook Trail.After tomorrow¢s hike, we won¢t need to worry again about the logistics of meeting up. All 3 of us will be hiking together to at least Shirley Blanchard Rd, and maybe to Monson.I return to the Stratton Motel. Hello again to HeMan and SheRa. They have great things to say about Bears Den, and how much they liked staying there, how clean and welcoming Queen Diva keeps it. Arriving at a place that¢s so sparkling clean to begin with, says HeMan, makes guests conscious of the dirt they¢re introducing and encourages them to clean up after themselves.NOBO¢s Water and Bucket, who I met on the NY AT back on July 16, are here too.   So is NOBO Safari26. I think I want to get an AT tattoo, he says. Maybe a temporary one in henna, to be sure, before I get a permanent one.A young Cornell student is here too. He¢s in Maine hiking a few sections. When he gets back to school he may hike a bit on the FLT, perhaps in Robt H Treman State Park.Sue offers to put me up in the White Room at the Roadhouse, a gable-end second-floor room with queen-size brass bed. It used to be her private quarters, but now she lets it out. Sue tells me Boo Boo and her husband Bob will be staying at the Roadhouse tonight, arriving in about an hour. Boo Boo! She stayed at the Super 8 in Erwin back in mid-April the same time Memere, Gray Feathers and I were there. I saw her again at Kincora. Has she forgiven me for telling her she was wearing enough warm clothes the day I dropped her, Otter and Diamond off at Iron Mountain and she almost froze to death hiking the 19 miles back to Chestoa?Holed up in my room, I'm reading March 2006 Backpacker magazine, ¢The Hand of God, Thoughts and Images Reflecting the Spirit of the Universe¢ and ¢Don¢t Die on the Mountain¢ when BooBoo and Bob come in.Congratulations, BooBoo!!!! She summitted on a perfect day last Thursday, Sept 13. She¢s going to pick up a 7-mile missing piece over Crocker tomorrow, and that will complete the entire AT.I¢ve forgiven you, she says.She tells a thruhiker joke:3 hikers are eating at a restaurant. Each one finds a fly in his soup.The day hiker sends the soup back.The section hiker plucks out the fly, tosses it aside, and keeps eating the soup.The thruhiker lifts up the fly and orders it to spit out that soup.Downstairs in the big kitchen, with the rough cherry cabinets I love (see photo), and the wide tree-trunk tabletops that Boo Boo hopes to duplicate when she gets back home to Ohio, we celebrate with a bottle of champagne that Bob has brought. Boo Boo shares trail stories, and great photos of her Katahdin summit which are still on the memory card in her camera. Also a neat photo of her, Sunny and Lil Red.I ask her about Stubble. Boo Boo says Stubble had to leave the trail in Monson, so close to his finish, with a bigtime staph infection in his knee. Oh, Stubble, Memere and Gray Feathers and I are all sorry to hear this. Last April, we all had a blast in Erwin going out to dinner with you and Diane, Mary Ann and Carmela, Dorothy and Toto. We've lost your contact info. If you're reading this, email us.Soon 12 lively ATV¢ers join us. They are highly highly impressed by BooBoo.They ask her all about her trail experiences. She tells about weather challenges, meeting a bear on the trail and being angeled near Bland VA, treated to dinner, overnight and breakfast by a private family who live in a castle. The ATV¢ers are in roaringly high spirits, trading insults, one of them (Chris?) laughing so hard he doubles over, falling off his chair.Good fun, good times, good night.Sunday, September 16, 2007In and out the Safford Brook Trail, 4.4 miles, none countI¢m awake at 3, 3:30, 4, and get up at 5. Temp this AM is 35 degrees. High clouds that look like they¢ll blow off. A blue and gray day, clouds lit from underneath by the sun low on the horizon. Forecast: Warming into the 60¢s today, tomorrow the 70¢s.Leave the Roadhouse at 5:20. At 6 at the Stratton Motel, I meet Flying Turtle and Back Yard Boogie. Sue is shuttling them to the Carrying Place Road (Main Logging Road) trailhead (about an hour¢s drive).We start from Stratton at 6:15, I¢m following a black Landcruiser.2 stops, one at an ATM and one for supplies. Just past a dirt road on the right, where we¢ll be setting the car, is the trailhead. Going in this direction, (west to east), you¢d drive right by it. I drape 30-inch strands of green ribbon on both sides of the road. Even though this is ¢leaving a trace¢, it¢s only a temporary trace. We¢ll remove our ribbons before we leave the area for good.Note: somebody removes it for us. Guess it was objectionable :-(((I¢ve got plenty of time to scout out the other end of this road to see if we can get out that way, which would be the shortest route to the closest bridge over the Kennebec, from Ridge Rd into Moscow.Driving either north or south on Bowtown Rd, Sue says many people miss the T turnoff to Carrying Place Rd. I get out and green flag it in 3 places.I drive north on Bowtown Rd to Harrison¢s Pierce Pond Camps. Harrison¢s is an award-winning camp, originally built in the 1930¢s by the Sterling family.I meet the man who's owned it for the last 22 years, Tim Harrison. He shows me one of the cabins. Rustic and homey inside. No electricity, other than when Tim¢s running the main generator after 5PM, when there¢s one light in the bathroom. 2 double beds, oil lamps, flush toilet, small wood stove for heat. Table, cards, chairs, porch, firewood and kindling, matches. Harrison¢s is not open this year for regular guests, no lunches or dinners, but Tim is serving hikers. Being hikers, we can stay in the cabin overnight and have an egg, breakfast meat and pancake breakfast in the morning for $25 apiece, or have just the breakfast $8.50 apiece.I tell Tim I need to check with my 2 friends. We may stay with him or breakfast with him at some point. Thanks for showing me around, Tim, and introducing me to Rusty and Tudie.From Harrison's I drive towards the Safford Brook trailhead. I have no way to know this but no more than 2 minutes after I start down the driveway, Tim is captivated by, standing right by the pond, the largest bull moose he's ever seen. I wish I could have called you back to see it with me, he'll tell me later.I don¢t want to backpack a heavy load over the next 8.6 miles. I leave tent, emergency blanket, etc., behind. Also, reluctantly, "After Dark", the Haruki Murakami book I¢m reading.   But in case we can¢t make it out to East Flagstaff Rd tonight I do bring sleeping bag and thermarest. I can cowboy camp, or sleep in the Little Bigelow Lean-To.Start 10:10AM. I¢m starting a little early but if Memere and Gray Feathers leave Horns Pond Lean-Tos at 7, with only 5.2 miles to hike and hiking 1.25 mph, it¢s possible they could be at our meeting place by 11:30. With 6.4 left to do, and darkness falling about 7PM, starting right at 11:30 (instead of them waiting for me to get there at noon) gives us just that much more margin to get all the way out before dark.I¢ve got the brace in my backpack. I¢ve decided that on easy Safford Brook Trail it¢s better to hike braceless, which will strengthen ankle and improve balance with very little risk of reinjury. Once I reach the AT, I¢ll put on and wear the brace.10:35 MATC viewpoint. Pass on this.11:30 I¢m at our meeting-up point. I wasn¢t cold walking in, but, sitting here, very quickly I get shivery.My sleeping bag is a Nunatak Raku, which is like a big down jacket, with arms and a drawstring at the base so I can hike it up around my hips and walk around wearing it. I put it on and immediately warm right up. This bag is one of my favorite pieces of gear. I've got a few hundred snuggly nights in it so far.I meet a day-hiker who says it takes 1.5 hours to hike down to here from the East Peak. He didn¢t see Gray Feathers and Memere. They¢re behind him somewhere.Forget 11:30. Based on this, Memere and Gray Feathers will probably show up nearer to 1PM.Little sleep last night. Wearing my sleeping bag makes me drowsy. I¢ll just lie down on the thermarest and catch a nap.I awake about 1PM. No sign yet of GF and M.I amuse myself looking at tiny mosses, large boulders and a fallen log that has a miniature forest growing out of it, seedlings stretching skyward, roots penetrating the decayed wood, baby maples, firs, spruces, beech. Also growing on that fallen log are oxalis, moss, ferns. Tomorrow¢s forest, right on that log.There¢s hobblebush here, with big fat buds on the branch tips. Green-leaved, some mottled with burgundy. A nice-looking native plant that needs a few more natural enemies. Its only failing, it takes over, choking out other natives.2:30, still no sign of Memere and Gray Feathers. They would have been hiking 7 12 hours to cover 5.2 miles. Something must be wrong. Why didn¢t I remember to take the walkie-talkie?I have my cell with me. Right here there¢s a signal. I call Sue at the Stratton Motel. Has she heard anything from or about my buddies? No. There are several NOBO thruhikers hiking north from 27, she says. When they meet up with you, you¢ll be able to get info from them. Let me know everyone is safe.About 3PM, NOBO¢s Yogi and Jungle Jim pass. Have you seen my friends? Yes, up at the top. They¢re fine.I consider hiking up to meet them, but I can¢t see a benefit in that, and I¢d have to descend steeply on the ankle, something I¢m trying to avoid this first AT hike.I call Tim Harrison and tell him we probably won¢t make it there tonight. He says he¢ll be up til 11PM tonight (listening to Red Sox and Patriots games). We can stay at his place tonight as long as we arrive by 11. Just show up. About 3:20PM hello to NOBO Pike. Memere and Gray Feathers were on top when I passed them, he says. It¢ll be a long slow descent, he says. It took me almost 2 hours.OK, all of them would have been on top about 1:30. It might easily be another hour before GF and M get here. Although our contingency plan was for me to hike out if they weren¢t here by 3PM, all the way up to 5PM there's still plenty of daylight to hike out to the car. I¢ll wait. No way we¢ll tack on the 6.4 today. They¢ll probably be exhausted. If I wait here and meet up with them any time before 5PM, I can suggest we all hike out the Safford Brook Trail and go to Harrison¢s tonight, hike tomorrow closer to Harrison¢s, and come back here later to pick up the 6.4 over Little Bigelow.Hello to NOBO¢s Water and Bucket. They think Memere and Gray Feathers might be another half hour away.Hello to Safari26, HeMan and SheRa.4:30PM, hello to Memere and Gray Feathers!!! They got a little bit of a later start (8AM) and found the going really tough. We weigh our options and decide to hike out Stratton Brook trail and stay tonight at Harrison¢s. I call Sue to let her know everyone¢s safe and Tim to let him know we¢re coming.Harrison¢s is farther away than I remember, it¢s about 25 miles on mostly dirt roads. When get there after dark, Tim's there to welcome us. He¢s laid a fire in the woodstove in our cabin. In the lodge, we cook ourselves a hot meal of real tomato soup, ham, cabbage, dehydrated dishes, served with Mrs Smoke¢s famous bread. Do up the dishes, chat with Tim about this and that, including the Patriots, the Red Sox, a hiker from New Zealand named Spoonman, and go to bed.