Date: 2023-08-07
From: ME Route 27 2010

To: East Flagstaff Road 2026.6
Miles today: 16.6

Hiking Day 135, ending elevation 1160 feetWe woke up at 5:30 a.m. and I looked out the window at rows of white clouds laced in a lighted rose color along their bottom edges and I remembered the old adage: ¢red sky in the morning, shepherd¢s warning,¢ a forewarning of another approaching storm?Today, we hiked southbound from East Flagstaff Road to ME 27 where we ended yesterday. We decided to go this direction because it was more than an hour drive to get to East Flagstaff Road, a drive we didn¢t want to make at the end of a long day. It turned out to be a good decision because instead of ending our day hiking two mountains, we started with them. These, the Bigelows, are supposed to be the last ¢difficult¢ mountains before Katahdin. We¢ve heard that line before so we remain skeptical, but if true, we would be very happy.At first it was a gradual climb up to Little Bigelow Peak, but became more steep as we ascended to Avery Peak, where we had lunch while looking out in all directions at the rolling tree-covered mountains spattered with large bodies of water¢they looked larger than lakes and they appeared to be full of islands. It was not a clear day, the sky was hazy with smoke from fires in Canada and we had a high cloud cover. We weren¢t sure if the haze was from the Canadian fires or a harbinger of the coming storm, but it affected what we could see and how we saw it.Then it was on to Bigelow West Peak, a 4145 foot peak with a sharp conical top that we walked up and over, then on to South Horn and finally a long and sometimes steep and difficult descent back to the road. All day, the sky grew gloomier and finally started spitting rain at us as as we reached ME 27. Tomorrow, it is forecast to rain most of the day, so we, and gazillion other hikers have elected to take (yet another) zero day to stay dry.At ME 27, we missed the shuttle and two nice men, father and son from Georgia and New York respectively, shared a beer with us and let us sit in their van while we awaited Jen, from the Maine Roadhouse Hostel, to come and pick us up. Both were called, Kris; the dad a retired engineer has section hiked the PCT all the way from Georgia, and his son, Kris, a mathematics professor at a university, comes with him to make sure he is OK. They were very nice, good-humored and interesting people. It¢s always a good day when you meet kind people.Eventually, Jen showed up in the school bus to pick us up, its only occupants. As she drove down the road, she suddenly exclaimed, ¢Do you want to see a moose?¢ to which she received two enthusiastic yesses. She then performed an amazing u-turn with the bus and took us to where a bunch of people were looking at a lone moose cow standing in a meadow. She was wet and her fur looked almost black in the rain. This was the first, and probably only moose we have seen/will see on the AT. We were very pleased! Afterwards, Jen returned us to the hostel, now filled with hikers fleeing the rain. Acorn and Uncle Sam showed up too, we haven¢t seen them since Bethel, maybe a week ago. Also Oatie, Garfield and Cash Money and ¢¦.the list goes on! Full tummies, showered and clean clothes, for several days in a row! Tomorrow, we sleep in. I could get used to this!