Date: 2005-08-28
From: Poplar Ridge Leanto

To: Sugarloaf Summit house
Miles today: 10.9

With today's skies likely to bring rain, I was in a hurry as were others in the campsite. Pacman was the first to leave- he's intending to hike all the way to Stratton. I was gone by 6:37 and found the going fairly easy, even the descent into Orbreton Stream although there certainly were some difficult spots. Maybe I'm getting used to these descents. The ascent up Spalding didn't become steep until the latter part but I was strong enough to make it to Spalding Leanto in less than 5 hours to cover the 8 miles.And sure enough within 5 minutes, it began to rain. Occsionally heavy rain along with blowing fog made for a gloomy atmosphere. Where to go? The next site doesn't feature a shelter so that's out. I cooked a hot meal at Spalding and mulled the options. The last few days, the others were talking about the summit house on Sugarloaf. Car 54 and Where Are You? have been there before and said that it was nice, leaky roof notwithstanding. And I don't really want to end the day at this leanto at such an early hour.Radio, Krazy, Katie, and Angry Andy were the next arrivals followed not too long afterwards by Car 54 & Where Are You?. Also 2 SOBOers who had camped at Crockett Cirque stopped by. Radio and Krazy Katie were the first to leave. About 1, the rain had let up enough that I decided to move on and try the summit house. The SOBOers told us the hike there wasn't too bad. Of course, the side trail inself was a 700' ascent in 1/2 mile but at least that's short. I was off by 1:20. The 2.9 miles to the side trail featured the steep ascent to Spalding but much easy walking in between so I covered it in less than 2 hours. Then the "pleasurable" jaunt up Sugarloaf. Very little rain had fallen from the sky since I had left the shelter but the foggy atmosphere was tantanount to rain. As I neared the summit (passed halfway up by Angry Andy), the winds increased exponentially and the fog thickened. At the top, visibility was only a few feet, the howling winds blew off my pack cover which I fortunately caught (I've been having bad luck with packcovers - see my April 30 journal), and we couldn't see the buildings.Andy and I huddled in the lee provided by a small building and looked things over then set out again. He spotted the white propane tank which pointed us to the summit building. What a relief to find the door and troop inside.The setup: one large round room with a raised area in the middle. Krazy Katie and Radio along with 4 other hikers were there looking warm and dry, playing cards while a radio blared. The place had electricity (but no lights?), a microwave, a non-working phone, and lots of picnic tables. After wandering around, I picked a spot on the lower portion and felt much better after I had replaced all my wet clothes with dry ones from my pack. For the first time, I wore my fleece.Vapor and Yard Sale appeared about an hour later and settled by me; everyone else was in the upper portion. To be delighted surprise, my cell phone worked so I called Laurine and then Scarf. Couldn't reach Harrier who's also in Maine on vacation near the coast.I'm feeling pretty good but it sure seems unlikely I'll have the time to make it to Katahdin. I told Laurine such and checked my schedule. Well, I can spare about a week being late but that's all. We'll see. In any case, Laurine is sending me some things to Monson so I'll have them if I continue.Vapor and I talked again alot, this time about our respective hikes. Told him about my winter adventures in Virginia. He described his ordeal hiking from Standing Bear to Max Patch in the snow, losing the trail in the fog and winds on Max Patch (sounds familiar), and sleeping in the snow past Max Patch that night. But fortunately, that experience didn't scare him off - here he is less than 200 miles from completing his thruhike.And finally as a public service to me and my fellow hikers, I calculated a conservative number of feet gained in ascents since starting in Gorham: 22,293. That does not include the smaller ups and down (for example, between the 3 peaks of Saddleback) and with tomorrow's ascent of the Crockers, it's safe to put the number at 25,000. That's mucho stairs!