Date: 2015-08-10
From: South Arm Road

To: ME 17 Height of Land Overlook
Miles today: 13.2

We woke around 0615. We got everything ready to leave The Cabin in Maine. Then it was breakfast. What a breakfast! There were homemade blueberry pancakes, sausage links, fresh blueberries, cantaloupe, homemade biscuits and strawberry jam, orange juice and coffee. Count was hungry as he ate 5 pancakes and 4 sausage links! He certainly has the hiker appetite. Bear and Honey gave us the leftover sausage and pancakes to take with us. They also gave us banana bread and brownies. We graciously accepted the offer. We said goodbye and drove to the trail head.   We gave the car key to Shepard as Fozzie, Trix and Shepard were shuffling cars and using ours to move forward. They had hiked till 2:00 am. They hiked what we were going to hike today. We cannot believe they hiked so late. We were grateful they could shuffle our car and it helped them also. We were on the trail at 7:58. Our first agenda of the day - climb Old Blue Mountain. We climbed 800 feet in .5 miles! That is crazy steep. There were stone steps, rebar steps and handholds. We thought climbing was hard. We cannot imagine the people who built the steps. We are grateful for their hard work. From here it was a steady climb of 1400 feet to summit Old Blue. We didn't have a view as the trees blocked the view. We came down from Old Blue. We dropped down 600 feet. We were rewarded with a bench to sit on for our morning break. We took our boots off.   Count took his boots off and noticed the seams were tearing. Only 250 miles on the boots!    After our break, it was a climb to Bemis Mountain. The trail turned rocky and rooty. Lavender was wondering why she decided to hike today. Of course, we pushed on. The climb was only 550 feet. Funny how prior to NH and Maine, we thought a 550 feet climb was alot. Now, that is small. Our perspective has changed. We had a view from Bemis Mountain. We went down 700 feet to a shelter or in Maine they are called a Lean-to for lunch. The climb was difficult down steep rocks. Our hiking poles were are saving grace. Thankfully, Count has two hiking poles again after breaking one coming off of Mount Washington. We ate our lunch and relaxed a bit. Then it was time to hike on.    We walked on ridgeline of nice granite rock slabs. We took our time over these as there were wild blueberries everywhere. Lavender had to pull Count away or we would still be there picking and eating blueberries!! We walked on the granite slabs for 1.5 miles. It was nice walking. The sun was shining, a breeze was blowing and it was a good hike. Then, the trail went down the mountain and turned rocky, rocky, rocky. We had to climb down rocks, clamor over rocks, walk around mud bogs and lots of tree roots. The forest was eerie as most of the trees were dead and covered with moss. It reminded us of what a haunted forest would look like. We passed a trail maintenance crew. They were digging dirt from around rocks. And, they were building rock steps. We marveled at their work. We chatted a bit with them and thanked them for their work. We continued down the rocky trail. We should have asked them how they decide where to put steps. Certainly, some of the trail we were on could also use steps. We continued downhill and finally made it to the bottom and made our way across a stream. Then it was time to climb again. We had a 700 foot climb over 1 mile up to the road where are car would hopefully be waiting. The trail was steep had rock climbs. Oh, the AT Maine trail is certainly trying. We made it to the top and were rewarded with trail magic. Nothing like a cold soda after a long hard climb.   There was a bench by the road. We sat on the bench, had a wonderful view, relaxed a bit and enjoyed our drinks. We didn't see the car. But, Count saw a car park up the road a bit.   We walked there and saw the car. Oh, life was good. We relaxed by the car. We walked around by the car park as there was a beautiful view of the Height of Land. A great place to camp for the night.    As we were taking in the beautiful view, a couple appeared at the view point. The man got down on his knee. He proposed to his girlfriend. It was very magical. Another man walked passed us with more drinks and ice. He was the trail angel that had provided the trail magic earlier for us. We talked with him a bit. He thru-hiked in 2012. And, it was his brother that had just proposed. Totally cool.