Date: 2015-09-05
From: Crocker Cirque Campsite

To: Horn Pond Lean-to
Miles today: 12.4
Weather: clear sky

Today was one of those rare days where we had a plan (not the unusual part) and actually executed it. How about that!This morning was probably the coldest since early April and it was not fun to get out of the sleeping bag. But we had a full day planned and I wanted to be on the trail by 7, so I manage to extract myself around 6.The sun was shining right at the Cirque, so there was some picture taking as well. When I got to the stream to get water for the morning, I noticed my filter was leaking. It had worked at the camp site half an hour earlier but I must have lost the O-ring at some point. I went back to look for it but didn't find it. I don't have very good luck with filters!We had to climb both Crocker peaks before going on a long descent to the road that leads to Stratton. The climb was steep but not too bad and we did get a nice view from both peaks. On North Crocker we also saw a ton of moose poop (which looks like rabbit poop on steroids, by the way) but sadly still no moose.We were tired of the descent, which was fine and not too gnarly, before we were done, in fact before we got to the '2000 miles, congrats' sign that signaled one mile to go. When we finally did get there, I was quite impressed with how elaborate this one was. I know Yoda did some Yodafication to it when she passed yesterday. As I got to the road, a pickup pulled in to drop off Easy Strider. I asked the driver if he was going back to town and he was! Score! Cruise Control was right behind me, so we got to town super easy.Our first order of business was food and we had read that the plaza hotel had pizza so that's where we headed. It was still very early for lunch so there was almost nobody there, but we took ourselves outside to the deck anyway. It was a gorgeous day today and really we couldn't subject anyone to our smell!After garlic bread with cheese, calzones and sundaes, we crossed the road to the motel to see if we could do laundry and take a shower. Shower yes, laundry no, but there was a laundromat right down the street.Back across next to the plaza hotel was the local supermarket, so we were also well positioned for resupply. Gotta love small towns!We hung out outside the motel, which has a hiker bunk room and is set up for that kind of thing. The owners of the Farmhouse Inn in Rangeley just bought it a couple of weeks ago and I bet it's going to be pretty nice.After we finished all our town chores, we only had to stick our thumbs out for about ten minutes when a nice Canadian picked us up and took us back to the trail head. Thanks Russell!The plan called for hiking 5 more miles to the nearest lean-to, and of course it was all up. Actually, the first couple of miles were surprisingly level but of course that just meant the last three were very steep! There were a couple of viewpoints towards the end that showed what we're climbing tomorrow, yikes! The Horn Pond Lean-to site is quite big, which is a good thing because it's crowded. Labor Day weekend will do that. We got here late but got the scoop on the noisy groups, available sites, shelter situation and water status from Rachel, the very informative care taker here. I am tenting next to the less noisy group of college students, but I did ask them a while back to please keep it down. I asked very nicely and they are much quieter now.Cruise Control is in one of the shelters with Billy (who lent me a filter he's not using, how nice is that!) and Sota Sam.Tomorrow's profile, while including several climbs, does not look too bad on paper. The mountain in front of us though? Pretty intimidating! However the weather has been great lately and we've been told you can see Katahdin from Bigelow on a clear day, so that should make it all worth it.Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?