Date: 2008-07-09
From: horn's pond lean-to

To: pierce pond lean-to
Miles today: 27.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Got up early as usual and hit the trail hard since we were trying to push it because we have to time the ferry just right.Started up The Horn first thing. The top was rocky and above the trees. Looked way down to where we spent the night. Always neat to see your progress.Down a bit then up to the real peak of Bigelow.A rocky thousand footer but we dashed up it. TB and I got to the top. Lately Stovie has settled into the rear position, and I hadn't remembered seeing him for a while. We waited on the summit for Stovie. We meet up at landmarks if we are separated. Stovie didn't show. We waited fifteen minutes and began to worry. I had seen him at least a mile back, and there was no way he shouldn't have been up there by then. We decided he may have gotten injured so we went back down the mountain. We went down a mile to the start of the climb. No sign of Stovie. We pretty much didn't know what to do at thins point, and had no idea what happened to Stovie. We pretty much had no other choice other than continuing on and climbing the mountain once again. The next couple hours were filled with speculation, but we eventually stopped because there was no point to it.Hit another peak on Bigelow and headed down. This is the last big hill before the flats to Katahdin at the end of the trail.Long downhill and came to a notch where we took a break. It was pretty hot and muggy out, and we probably should have gotten water, but it was a couple tenths off and we didn't want to walk it.Headed up Little Bigelow. Constant ups and downs which gradually raised our elevation. Slow going. We were getting tired because of the heat and humidity.After an eternity we made it to the summit and headed down. The down was long too because we were out of water.Got to a shelter and decided to have lunch while we waited for our water to get ready. As we started to eat, Stovie rolled up. He had lost his phone and went back to look for it. Oh well, at least he's alright.It was around 1pm when we left the shelter. 17 miles to go. Doable if we hit it hard. Luckily it was almost literally flat for the rest of the day. Just a couple drawn out 500 footers. Couldn't tell we were going up.Shortly after we hit the trail, we sensed a change, and we knew it was going to rain. Heard some thunder shortly thereafter. Then it did start to rain. Oh well, we had a pretty good run of it for a while.The trail pretty much stays low until the end now, with just a few climbs. It seemingly meanders between lakes and goes along them for a while. Pretty scenic, but also really buggy. The rain helped with the bugs, but they were vigorous here and were out again minutes after the rain stopped.When the rain stopped, we hit a shelter. Just in time like always. The shelter was pretty full, and we decided we could make the next one anyways, which was where we were initially aiming for.Another ten miles. Shortly after we left the shelter, the rain resumed with a vengeance. Thunder, lightning, and buckets of rain. Rain was relatively warm though so we didn't really mind it so much since it also keeps the bugs down.Went quickly since we had already passed the wet shoes threshold. We were like five year olds storming through the puddles.We kept at this for a few hours and arrived at our final destination at quarter past seven. I made reservations for our breakfast tomorrow and grabbed some water. Ate and did all our chores before dark. We were all tired so we only chatted with the SOBOs for a little while before going to bed.Fun fact: apparently my beard looks Amish, at least according to a SOBO we bumped into.