albee
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Short story: From Wednesday through Saturday of last week (8/30-9/2) I set out to hike the section of AT in Maine from Route 4 all the way north to Avery Peak in the Bigelows, and I'm happy to report that the trip went pretty much exactly as planned.
Long Story: I was born in 1974... ummm, that stuff is too boring, so fast forward to 2006. I left my car at the AT trailhead on Route 4 outside of Rangely at 4PM on Wednesday. These would be my last few weekdays without work for the unforseeable future, so I wanted to take advantage of my freedom and get a good long backpacking trip in. I started out planning to head for Poplar Ridge Shelter, 8.8 miles in on the first evening. Unfortunately, as I looked at my map and surmised there would only be one trail on the north side of the road, I managed to miss the AT entirely and followed a property boundary/herdpath with yellow and blue blazes for about 3/4 of a mile before I had a reality check and told myself that the AT always has white blazes and I'm a dumb@ss. Headed back to the start, bushwhacked along a stream for a bit, and emerged on the well trodden thoroughfare that is the AT. (Note: it is hard to miss the correct trail, but I managed to do it somehow!)
Since this little "side trip" ate up 50 minutes that I would have spent cruising the first 2 miles of trail, I was forced to seek an alternate camping spot for the night. I considered finding a spot in the col between Saddleback and The Horn, but wisely decided that the fire road crossing at 3.7 miles would be the best place to camp. When I reached the spot at 6:45, I set up camp quickly, had dinner, and retired early. I had seen another tent about 50 yards away, so I figured I'd have somebody to walk with the next day.
Thursday morning came and I was awoken by a pair of thru-hikers ("Wedgie and Free") filtering water near my campsite, but the other tent was gone at 7:15 AM, so I had someone ahead of me to try and catch. I ate, packed up, and hit the trail at 8:20 with the goal of catching the 3 people in front of me. I finally caught my fellow camper at 11:30 just before stopping at Poplar Ridge for lunch. He was another AT thru-hiker from Canada named "Montreal". He turned out to be quite good company and a happy walking companion as we passed the next 6 miles together. He taught me some French, and I kept him amused with stories. I had passed Saddleback, the Horn, and Saddleback Junior with their equally impressive views fairly quickly and painlessly, although a trend of chilly, cloudy mornings would begin. Fall is quickly approaching in Maine, that's for sure!
A couple miles before the Mount Abraham side trail, I left Montreal behind so I could get over and bag this 4000'er and make it to Spaulding Shelter at a reasonable hour. I ditched my pack at the trail junction and ran most of the 1.7 miles over to the summit of Abraham, passing 5 hikers including one I presume was TDawg. 31 minutes to the summit, climbed the remains of the fire tower, took a bunch of pictures, relaxed in the warm afternoon sunlight for a bit, and jogged back to the junction in 26 mins. Twas a good trail for running, well, below treeline at least.
Back at Spaulding Shelter by 5:30 PM and the tentsites were filling up quickly. Montreal and I thought we would have the shelter all to ourselves when Wedgie, Free, and 3 other thru-hikers (Dirt, Leprechaun, and Texas) and another section hiker trickled in. We had a full shelter and plenty of stories to share that night.
In the morning, most of the thru-hikers were up and on the trail early with the prospects of dinner, drinks, showers and real beds in Stratton waiting for them. I was on the trail at 7:30 AM and there were already 4 people ahead of me. Spaulding was a wake-up call. Poked around up there and found a couple nice little views. Summited Sugarloaf after a nice ridge-walk and met Amicus on the summit. He had just finished his 67, and I told him that I would soon have 65 done myself by the end of the weekend. I went into the warming hut there for my breakfast and was surprised to see a college orientation group of hikers, most of whom were still asleep at 9:30 AM, and their messy "campsite". Took off soon thereafter and headed for the Crockers.
After descending the steep jumble of rocks that is the AT west of Sugarloaf, I crossed a branch of the Carrabassett River and headed up to South Crocker. Had lunch there on the summit while talking to two more thru-hikers (Grey Fox and The Tortoise) and set off on my bushwhack to Redington. This 'whack was made easier by enough of a herdpath for the trained eye to follow, some conveniently placed orange survey tape (not from me obviously, mind you), and a pair of somebody's boxer shorts left on the herdpath at one point. (How did somebody lose those there?!) Made it over and back in an hour 38 mins flat, including time spent signing the log at the cannister. After making my way back to South Crocker, I cruised over Crocker and all the way down to Maine 27.
After crossing the highway, I decided to let the thru-hikers have their fun in Stratton and camp 2 miles up the trail at the Cranberry Stream campsite in the Bigelow Preserve. This is an idyllic spot if anyone is looking for a nice place to camp with your family. Had the whole place to myself. 6:10PM and I was beat!
Got up the next day and left my whole campsite intact so that I could dayhike the Bigelows. Followed the AT over to Cranberry Pond, up past all the neat caves along the AT, past Horns Pond, over both of the Horns (only South Horn is on the NEHH list and AT) and over West and Avery Peaks, my 64th and 65th NE 4K footers. Had a nice chat with the trail caretaker on West peak, and ran into Wedgie and Free one last time on Avery Peak. Said my goodbyes and left the AT for the Fire Warden's Trail back towards my campsite. Made it back to camp in reasonable time, packed up and headed back to route 27 to hitch-hike back to my car. Luckily for me, it took me 2 rides and only about 20 minutes of total waiting to hitch the 35 miles back to my car!
All in all, I spent 71.5 hours on the trail, hiked 40 miles of AT, around 57 miles total, bagged 10 4000 footers and a NEHH, met a bunch of cool people, got a good workout, only drew blood once (in the very first 5 minutes of the first day!) and didn't get a single blister on my feet or drop of rain on my head. Pretty sweet if you ask me. Cheers all, thanks for reading!
Long Story: I was born in 1974... ummm, that stuff is too boring, so fast forward to 2006. I left my car at the AT trailhead on Route 4 outside of Rangely at 4PM on Wednesday. These would be my last few weekdays without work for the unforseeable future, so I wanted to take advantage of my freedom and get a good long backpacking trip in. I started out planning to head for Poplar Ridge Shelter, 8.8 miles in on the first evening. Unfortunately, as I looked at my map and surmised there would only be one trail on the north side of the road, I managed to miss the AT entirely and followed a property boundary/herdpath with yellow and blue blazes for about 3/4 of a mile before I had a reality check and told myself that the AT always has white blazes and I'm a dumb@ss. Headed back to the start, bushwhacked along a stream for a bit, and emerged on the well trodden thoroughfare that is the AT. (Note: it is hard to miss the correct trail, but I managed to do it somehow!)
Since this little "side trip" ate up 50 minutes that I would have spent cruising the first 2 miles of trail, I was forced to seek an alternate camping spot for the night. I considered finding a spot in the col between Saddleback and The Horn, but wisely decided that the fire road crossing at 3.7 miles would be the best place to camp. When I reached the spot at 6:45, I set up camp quickly, had dinner, and retired early. I had seen another tent about 50 yards away, so I figured I'd have somebody to walk with the next day.
Thursday morning came and I was awoken by a pair of thru-hikers ("Wedgie and Free") filtering water near my campsite, but the other tent was gone at 7:15 AM, so I had someone ahead of me to try and catch. I ate, packed up, and hit the trail at 8:20 with the goal of catching the 3 people in front of me. I finally caught my fellow camper at 11:30 just before stopping at Poplar Ridge for lunch. He was another AT thru-hiker from Canada named "Montreal". He turned out to be quite good company and a happy walking companion as we passed the next 6 miles together. He taught me some French, and I kept him amused with stories. I had passed Saddleback, the Horn, and Saddleback Junior with their equally impressive views fairly quickly and painlessly, although a trend of chilly, cloudy mornings would begin. Fall is quickly approaching in Maine, that's for sure!
A couple miles before the Mount Abraham side trail, I left Montreal behind so I could get over and bag this 4000'er and make it to Spaulding Shelter at a reasonable hour. I ditched my pack at the trail junction and ran most of the 1.7 miles over to the summit of Abraham, passing 5 hikers including one I presume was TDawg. 31 minutes to the summit, climbed the remains of the fire tower, took a bunch of pictures, relaxed in the warm afternoon sunlight for a bit, and jogged back to the junction in 26 mins. Twas a good trail for running, well, below treeline at least.
Back at Spaulding Shelter by 5:30 PM and the tentsites were filling up quickly. Montreal and I thought we would have the shelter all to ourselves when Wedgie, Free, and 3 other thru-hikers (Dirt, Leprechaun, and Texas) and another section hiker trickled in. We had a full shelter and plenty of stories to share that night.
In the morning, most of the thru-hikers were up and on the trail early with the prospects of dinner, drinks, showers and real beds in Stratton waiting for them. I was on the trail at 7:30 AM and there were already 4 people ahead of me. Spaulding was a wake-up call. Poked around up there and found a couple nice little views. Summited Sugarloaf after a nice ridge-walk and met Amicus on the summit. He had just finished his 67, and I told him that I would soon have 65 done myself by the end of the weekend. I went into the warming hut there for my breakfast and was surprised to see a college orientation group of hikers, most of whom were still asleep at 9:30 AM, and their messy "campsite". Took off soon thereafter and headed for the Crockers.
After descending the steep jumble of rocks that is the AT west of Sugarloaf, I crossed a branch of the Carrabassett River and headed up to South Crocker. Had lunch there on the summit while talking to two more thru-hikers (Grey Fox and The Tortoise) and set off on my bushwhack to Redington. This 'whack was made easier by enough of a herdpath for the trained eye to follow, some conveniently placed orange survey tape (not from me obviously, mind you), and a pair of somebody's boxer shorts left on the herdpath at one point. (How did somebody lose those there?!) Made it over and back in an hour 38 mins flat, including time spent signing the log at the cannister. After making my way back to South Crocker, I cruised over Crocker and all the way down to Maine 27.
After crossing the highway, I decided to let the thru-hikers have their fun in Stratton and camp 2 miles up the trail at the Cranberry Stream campsite in the Bigelow Preserve. This is an idyllic spot if anyone is looking for a nice place to camp with your family. Had the whole place to myself. 6:10PM and I was beat!
Got up the next day and left my whole campsite intact so that I could dayhike the Bigelows. Followed the AT over to Cranberry Pond, up past all the neat caves along the AT, past Horns Pond, over both of the Horns (only South Horn is on the NEHH list and AT) and over West and Avery Peaks, my 64th and 65th NE 4K footers. Had a nice chat with the trail caretaker on West peak, and ran into Wedgie and Free one last time on Avery Peak. Said my goodbyes and left the AT for the Fire Warden's Trail back towards my campsite. Made it back to camp in reasonable time, packed up and headed back to route 27 to hitch-hike back to my car. Luckily for me, it took me 2 rides and only about 20 minutes of total waiting to hitch the 35 miles back to my car!
All in all, I spent 71.5 hours on the trail, hiked 40 miles of AT, around 57 miles total, bagged 10 4000 footers and a NEHH, met a bunch of cool people, got a good workout, only drew blood once (in the very first 5 minutes of the first day!) and didn't get a single blister on my feet or drop of rain on my head. Pretty sweet if you ask me. Cheers all, thanks for reading!
